UL Seeks Approval to Name Baseball Park for Tony Robichaux

(LAFAYETTE, LA) - Ragin' Cajuns baseball fans, get ready to see a familiar name on the ballpark for good. The University of Louisiana is asking the UL System Board of Supervisors to officially name its baseball complex Tony Robichaux Park, honoring the man who built the program into what it is today.

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According to a press release from UL, the board takes up the proposal Thursday, along with a second naming request tied to the same push: naming the stadium club after the Russo family, longtime supporters of Cajuns Athletics.

A Gift That Honors Two Legacies

Chris J. Russo is behind both moves. He's pledged $1.225 million toward naming the Russo Stadium Club for his family, plus another $500,000 to kick off the Friends of Tony Robichaux Fund. That fund is set to launch a $5 million campaign to support the baseball program going forward.

For Russo, this is personal. He says the gifts tie together his father's love of Cajuns baseball with the impact Coach Robichaux had on the program and the community.

Naming the stadium club for the Russo family honors those memories,

Russo said, adding that creating Tony Robichaux Park is about honoring "a coach whose impact reached far beyond baseball."

University President Dr. Ramesh Kolluru echoed that sentiment, saying Robichaux taught his players that the game was never just about wins. It was about discipline, accountability, faith and service, and Kolluru says the park will carry that forward.

The Winningest Coach in Louisiana History

If you followed Cajuns baseball at all over the last few decades, you know what Robichaux meant to this program. He won 1,177 games across 33 years coaching at McNeese State and Louisiana, and he's still the only coach in NCAA history to become the career wins leader at two Division I programs in the same state.

His 25 seasons in Lafayette, from 1995 to 2019, produced 914 wins, 12 NCAA Regional appearances, four Super Regionals and a trip to the 2000 College World Series, where the Cajuns finished tied for third in the country. That 2014 team still stands out, an .853 winning percentage, a 58-10 record and the program's first ever No. 1 national ranking.

Robichaux's Cajuns won seven Sun Belt regular-season titles and four conference tournament championships under his watch. He coached 29 All-Americans and five Academic All-Americans, and 67 of his players went on to be drafted into Major League Baseball.

More Than a Coach

Interim athletics director Trey Frazier called it a tremendous honor to put Robichaux's name on the stadium he helped envision, saying his legacy is that of a servant leader who used baseball to prepare his players for life beyond it.

Robichaux's widow, Colleen, said it's hard to put into words what the honor means to her family. She talked about how her husband believed baseball was simply the vehicle, and that the real mission was developing young men, teaching them how to work, compete, persevere and live with character.

Current head coach Matt Deggs said seeing Robichaux's name on the stadium will feel like home, and that it's an even bigger moment for the Robichaux family than it is for the program itself.

A Crowley native, Robichaux passed away on July 3, 2019, at age 57. He's since been inducted into the McNeese Athletics Hall of Fame, the UL Athletics Hall of Fame, the American Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

If the board approves the name Thursday, it'll make official what Cajuns fans have already known for years. That ballpark belongs to Tony Robichaux.