Ed Daniels, Glenn Guilbeau chosen for LSHOF enshrinement as sports journalists

Nationally acclaimed and impactful statewide, New Orleans sportscaster Ed Daniels and Glenn Guilbeau of Baton Rouge have been selected for the 2025 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.

The duo will be inducted June 28 in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, LSWA president John Marcase and Hall of Fame chairman Doug Ireland announced Thursday. Daniels will be enshrined posthumously. He passed away in August.

Both Daniels and Guilbeau have been recognized repeatedly as Louisiana's best in their professions by the National Sports Media Association. Daniels was named the state's best sportscaster in 1997, 2014 and 2018, while Guilbeau won the NSMA's award for sportswriting in Louisiana in 2007 and 2014.

Daniels made wide-ranging impact primarily in the greater New Orleans metro area, and also beyond, for his coverage of sports from the professional level down to high school competition. Guilbeau has long been noted for his insightful reporting and colorful commentary focused mostly on college sports, and specifically the Southeastern Conference and LSU.

The DSA honor, to be made official next summer in Natchitoches, means Daniels and Guilbeau will be among an elite 11-person Class of 2025 being inducted in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. They were selected from a 26-person pool of outstanding nominees for the state's top sports journalism honor.

The Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism recipients are chosen by the 35-member Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame selection committee based on nominees' professional accomplishments in local, state, regional and even national circles, with leadership in the LSWA as a beneficial factor and three decades of work in the profession as a requirement.

Distinguished Service Award winners are enshrined in the Hall of Fame along with the 491 current athletes, sports journalists, coaches and administrators chosen since 1959. Just 75 leading figures in the state's sports media have been honored with the Distinguished Service Award since its inception 42 years ago in 1982.

"For four decades, Ed Daniels and Glenn Guilbeau have chronicled the highs and lows of sports in Louisiana as well as anyone – one in broadcasting and one in print journalism," said LSWA president Marcase.

"Ed's impact was felt from the high school fields and gyms all the way to the highest levels of professional sports. Even though he left us way too soon, Ed's legacy will endure throughout the New Orleans metro area and beyond.

"Glenn has been a mainstay on the LSU and SEC sports scene, providing coverage of the Tigers that is second-to-none. His awards on a state, regional and national level attest that he is one of the best beat reporters and writers in the country. (Just don't ask him where his wallet or phone is located ...)," said Marcase, a former Alexandria Town Talk colleague of Guilbeau's.

"Both are held in the highest esteem by their colleagues and are extremely deserving of the Distinguished Service in Sports Journalism Award," said Marcase.

Daniels and Guilbeau will be among the 2025 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Class to be spotlighted in the annual Induction Ceremony on Saturday evening, June 28, at the Natchitoches Events Center. The Induction Ceremony culminates the 2025 Induction Celebration beginning Thursday afternoon, June 26, with a press conference followed by a public kickoff reception in the Hall of Fame museum at 800 Front Street in Natchitoches.

The Class of 2025 is headlined by a star-studded group of eight inductees from the LSHOF "competitors ballot," headlined by West Monroe, LSU and NFL star Andrew Whitworth, pro basketball All-Stars Danny Granger and Vickie Johnson, and coaching greats Danny Broussard, Joe Scheuerman and Dale Weiner.

The LSHOF Class of 2025 also includes LSU gymnastics great and NCAA champion April Burkholder, and George "Bobby" Soileau, an NCAA boxing champion at LSU who won a state crown as a football coach at his alma mater, Sacred Heart High School in Ville Platte.

Longtime SEC and LSU administrator and publicist Herb Vincent is the 2025 recipient of the Hall's Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award and will also be enshrined in the LSHOF.

The 2025 Induction Class will be celebrated June 26-28 in Natchitoches, Opportunities to purchase admission for the four ticketed events are available at the LaSportsHall.com website through the link.

The new inductees will be showcased in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Museum, operated by the Louisiana State Museum system in a partnership with the Louisiana Sports Writers Association. The striking $23 million, two-story, 27,500-square foot structure faces Cane River Lake in the National Historic Landmark District of Natchitoches and has garnered worldwide architectural acclaim and rave reviews for its contents since its grand opening during the 2013 Hall of Fame induction weekend.

A television sportscaster in his hometown of New Orleans for 40 years, Daniels was sports director at WGNO from 1992 until his untimely passing in August.

The creator of "Friday Night Football," a first-of-its-kind high school football show in New Orleans which he co-hosted with J.T. Curtis, a 2010 LSHOF inductee, for 32 years on WGNO, Daniels expanded his highlight shows in recent years to cover all other high school sports. He was also co-tournament director for the Allstate Sugar Bowl National Prep Classic basketball tournament each December, and the WGNO Baseball Classic.

Daniels was a member of the Archbishop Rummel and De La Salle Athletics halls of fame. He was a voter for the Heisman Trophy and the Wooden Award.

A 1979 Loyola graduate, he became sports director at KPLC in Lake Charles in 1980, then two years later returned to New Orleans. Daniels was voted a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Press Club of New Orleans in 2014.

Guilbeau has won national sports writing awards from the Football Writers of America, the Associated Press Sports Editors and the LSWA during his ongoing career.

The 62-year-old metro New Orleans native and longtime Baton Rouge resident is one of the state's, and the South's, most recognized writers. He is now editor of Tiger Rag.

Until he departed Gannett Louisiana to become a feature columnist and reporter for Outkick.com at the outset of the 2021 football season, Guilbeau had been on the LSU beat since 1998 with multiple outlets in Louisiana. Prior to that he covered both Auburn and Alabama.

The last year, 2020-21, was spectacular by any sportswriters' standard. He won a national first place for his game story on LSU's upset at Florida from the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA). He was also named Beat Writer of Year by Louisiana Sports Writers Association in June 2021; and placed in three Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) categories – Beat Writer, Explanatory, Game Coverage – that spring.

Guilbeau was also the FWAA first-place winner for columns in 2017 and was also the top overall winner in 2016 FWAA placing first for his game story, second in columns, and receiving honorable mention for features. He has collected a pile of LSWA honors along with several FWAA and ASPE awards.

He delivered newspapers and pizzas (not at the same time), brewed strong coffee, plated beignets and cut biscuits before making his way into journalism. He established a foothold at the Town Talk on Bob Tompkins' staff in the late 1980s and quickly emerged as one of the best beat writers and reporters in the Southeastern Conference. He wrote for the Baton Rouge Advocate for several years before joining Gannett Louisiana in 2004.

The 2025 Induction Celebration will kick off Thursday, June 26, with a press conference and reception. The three-day festivities include two receptions, a youth sports clinic, a bowling party, and a Friday night riverbank concert in Natchitoches. Tickets for the Saturday night, June 28 Induction Ceremony, along with congratulatory advertising and sponsorship opportunities, are available through the LaSportsHall.com website.

Anyone can receive quarterly e-mails about the 2025 Induction Celebration and other Hall of Fame news by signing up on the LaSportsHall.com website.

The Induction Celebration weekend will be hosted by the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Foundation, the support organization for the Hall of Fame. The LSHOF Foundation was established as a 501 c 3 non-profit entity in 1975 and is governed by a statewide board of directors.

For information on sponsorship opportunities, contact Foundation President/CEO Ronnie Rantz at 225-802-6040 or or Foundation Director of Business Development and Public Relations Greg Burke at 318-663-5459 or Standard and customized sponsorships are available.