NATCHITOCHES – Induction dinner tickets and golf entries are available online at the www.lasportshall.com website for the 2011 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration upcoming June 23-25, with two Southeastern figures and three New Orleans Saints stars -- Morten Andersen, Vaughan Johnson and Buford Jordan -- headlining this year's 12 honorees.

Longtime SLU sports information director Larry Hymel and Southeastern graduate Elmo Adolph are receiving major awards – Hymel getting the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism, and Adolph is being presented the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award.

The Saints greats are among eight Hall of Fame inductees.

Tickets and golf entries, along with congratulatory advertising for the commemorative program, can be ordered with secure credit card transactions through the website or by calling the Hall of Fame office at 318-238-4255.

The Induction Dinner and Ceremonies presented by Chesapeake Energy on Saturday evening, June 25, at the Natchitoches Events Center are the culmination of the 2011 Induction Celebration beginning Thursday evening, June 23, with the La Capitol/Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Kickoff Reception.

The Hall of Fame Pro-Am Celebrity Golf Scramble sponsored by Encana is Friday, June 24, at Oak Wing Golf Course in Alexandria.

Joining Andersen, Johnson and Jordan in the 2011 induction class are Todd Walker, the LSU All-American and 12-year major league baseball infielder, and Xavier-New Orleans and NBA standout Donald “Slick” Watts, among the eight 2011 inductees who will enter the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

Also being enshrined are high school football coaching great Don Shows, Louisiana-Lafayette softball All-America pitcher Kyla Hall Holas and innovative LSU athletic director Thomas P. “Skipper” Heard completing the Hall's 2011 induction class. Heard will be honored posthumously.

New Orleans native Elmo Adolph, a world-renowned boxing official, and Billy Montgomery, who as a highly-regarded state legislator championed sports causes including construction of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame museum, are the 2011 recipients of the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award.

Also honored will be two recipients of the Louisiana Sports Writers Association's Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism, New Orleans sportswriter Ron Brocato and longtime Southeastern Louisiana University sports information director Larry Hymel.

Tickets for the Induction Dinner and Ceremonies are $40. Golf entries are $150 per player or $750 for a five-man team. A wide variety of congratulatory advertising options are as low as $25 for a one-line message.

The first full time sports information director for Southeastern, Hymel served in that capacity for 28 years, the first 14 years working without full-time assistants. He was honored by the College Sports Information Directors with a Lifetime Membership upon retirement and cited by the organization for 25-year service to the association.

Hymel was named to Southeastern's Athletic Hall of Fame for Distinguished Service in the 1994-95 year. The LSWA bestowed its coveted Mac Russo Award to him in 1994, recognizing his valuable and varied contributions to the organization.

He received All-American awards from the National Association of Intercollegiate athletics five times for his football game programs, including in 1974 when it was ranked second best in the nation.
Hymel won two CoSIDA district awards, one in 1990 for Excellence in Writing and in 1988 for the men's basketball brochure, co-edited by assistants Barry Niemeyer and Mickey Triche, as the best in the district. He won LSWA Awards for best football program in 1984 (third) and for feature writing (second) in 1985.

After leaving the SID office, Hymel was director of Southeastern's University Center basketball and events center for 11 years, managing the facility while it became the home for the Louisiana High School Athletic Association's annual state girls basketball championship tournament known originally as the “Sweet 16.” The tourney set attendance records and the arena and its staff earned rave reviews for their management skills as fans filed in from around the state year after year.

Upon his retirement from full-time duties at SLU in 2005, he began work as the Alumni Athletic Coordinator for the Southeastern Alumni Association. He coordinates the university's Hall of Fame Day activities.

Hymel managed the LSWA High School and College newspaper writing contests for several years beginning in the 1970s.

As Sports Editor of the Hammond Daily Star in 1966, he won LSWA awards for writing (first, second and third places in different categories), while also gaining recognition for excellence from the Associated Press. Hymel earned an AP La-Miss honorable mention for photography in 1966 and AP La-Miss honorable mention for sports writing in 1966.

Adolph built an amazing career as a referee from 1964-2005. The New Orleans native officiated an estimated 23,000 amateur bouts, including in the 1988 Olympic Games. He became a professional referee in 1992, working another 1,000 bouts, 32 of those being world championship fights.

In amateur boxing, he refereed AAU, military service and regional and national championships around the nation, and joined the ranks of international officials in 1975, overseeing more than 1,600 international bouts while traveling abroad on 26 occasions to many countries, the likes of Cuba, Germany, Russia, Korea and many more.

Among the fighters he officiated were many of the great names of his era: Mike Tyson, Roy Jones, Jr., Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler, Larry Holmes, Tommy Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Lennox Lewis, and Hector Camacho.

Adolph also officiated Louisiana High School Athletic Association football games for nearly 30 years, including state title games in the Superdome Classic, and was the game clock operator for the NBA's New Orleans Jazz in the 1970s when the team played in the Superdome. He is still involved in prep officiating by teaching and training officials in the River Parishes Football Association.

He is already enshrined in the Greater New Orleans/Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame, Louisiana American Italian Sports Hall of Fame, Warren Easton Hall of Fame, Southern AAU Officials Hall of Fame and the USA Southern Boxing Hall of Fame.

Jose Sulaiman, president of the World Boxing Council, is among those touting Adolph's candidacy for the Boxing Hall of Fame. Rusty Rubin, managing editor of ringsports.com with more than 50 years of covering the sport, calls Adolph “a future Boxing Hall of Fame referee.”

Anderson was a six-time Pro Bowl selection during 13 seasons with the Saints (1982-94) in an amazing 25-year NFL career, one season shy of the NFL's all-time record of 26 by George Blanda. With the Saints, Andersen set franchise records with 1,318 points, 302 field goals and 412 extra points. He made 77.6 percent of his field-goal attempts (302-389) and had a long of 60 yards. He still holds the club record for games played with 196.

Dubbed “The Great Dane,” the native of Copenhagan holds NFL career records in field goals made (565), attempts (709), points (2,544) and games played (382).

Known for his accuracy and game-winning kicks after joining the team as a fourth-round draft pick in 1982, he made 40 field goals of 50 yards or more for New Orleans. He scored a club record 121 points in 1987 when they reached the NFL postseason for the first time ever, and after parting ways with the Saints in 1995 went on to play 12 more years with four teams, making 25 of 28 field goals at the age of 47 with Atlanta in 2007.

Johnson was part of the Saints' famed “Dome Patrol” four-man All-Pro linebacking corps in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A sturdy 6-foot-3, 235-pounder who was a four-time Pro Bowl pick from 1989-92, Johnson was a feared inside linebacker and perhaps the hardest hitter alongside Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame members Rickey Jackson, Sam Mills and Pat Swilling. In 1991, he, Mills and Swilling became the first set of three linebackers from the same team to start the all-star contest; one year later they were joined by Jackson to become the first club with four linebackers in the Pro Bowl game.

Johnson became a starter in 1987 -- the first year the Saints made the playoffs -- and collected more than 100 tackles three times (including a career-high 114 in 1988) while starting 98 of the 120 games he played with the team. He also had 12 sacks, four interceptions, 11 forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries in his NFL career.

After a stellar four-year career at McNeese State, Jordan was Louisiana's all-time rushing king with 4,106 yards when he left the school and now ranks third statewide behind Kevin Faulk and Mewelde Moore. Jordan, a prep star in Iota, was a four-year All-Southland Conference pick for the Cowboys who played nine pro seasons - including seven with the Saints (1986-92).

A fullback during his Saints career, Jordan helped the team win 69 games as the Saints posted their first winning season and first playoff appearance (1987), along with their first division title (1991). He rushed for 687 yards on 184 career attempts and scored six touchdowns while blocking for Rueben Mayes and Dalton Hilliard, two of the team's top all-time rushers. Jordan also played in the USFL in 1984-85 and in 1984, he was the league's fourth-leading rusher (behind Joe Cribbs, Kelvin Bryant and Herschel Walker) with 1,276 yards and eight TDs, while catching 45 passes for 427 yards and four TDs.

Complete information on the 12 honorees, along with the complete rundown of events from June 23-25 including headquarter hotel information, is available on the www.lasportshall.com website, or by calling the Hall of Fame office at 318-238-4255.