Gilligan, Watkins Selected for Southland Conference Hall of Honor
FRISCO, Texas - Lamar University baseball coaching legend Jim Gilligan and former McNeese State athletic director and basketball coach Harold V. "Sonny" Watkins and will soon be inducted as the Class of 2011 in the Southland Conference's Hall of Honor, the league announced Wednesday. Gilligan and Watkins will be enshrined during the Southland's annual Honors Ceremony and Dinner May 24 at the San Luis Resort and Convention Center in Galveston, Texas.
"It's very appropriate that both Jim Gilligan and Sonny Watkins join the Hall of Honor," Southland Commissioner Tom Burnett said. "As the winningest baseball coach in Southland history and one of the NCAA's all-time winners, Jim Gilligan's coaching career has been a big part of the league's successful baseball history over five decades. Sonny's contributions as a leading athletic administrator not only led to great things at McNeese State, but he consistently provided a well-respected voice in the strategic decisions for many conference-wide issues."
Gilligan has been a mainstay in the Lamar dugout for most of the past 34 years (1973-86 and 1993-present) and is the first Southland Conference coach to reach 1,200 career wins, ranking him sixth-best in the NCAA among active Division I coaches and 24th all-time. A five-time conference coach of the year, Gilligan has coached 45 first-team all-conference selections and has sent 145 players into professional baseball.
A 2004 inductee into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame, Gilligan has guided Lamar to nine Southland regular-season championships, three conference tournament championships and 12 of the school's 13 NCAA regional appearances, including last year when the Cardinals swept four games to win the Southland tournament despite being a No. 6 seed.
A two-time Lamar graduate with a bachelor's degree in physical education (1969) and a master's degree in health and physical education (1970), Gilligan's teams have won at least 35 games in 22 seasons, including a school-record 54 games in 1981. Under Gilligan, Lamar has twice played in the NCAA regional finals, one step from a shot at the College World Series. He garnered his 500th victory in 1986, becoming the youngest coach to do so at the time.
Between his stints at Lamar, Gilligan managed the 1987 Salt Lake Trappers of the Pioneer League that broke a 68-year-old professional record by winning 29 consecutive games. To recognize the achievement, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., created a permanent display featuring Gilligan's No. 29 jersey. Before becoming Salt Lake's manager in 1987, Gilligan served as the Trappers' pitching coach in 1986. That season, Salt Lake had the best pitching staff in the league, and the Trappers won the Pioneer League championship.
Gilligan's other professional baseball experience includes serving as the pitching coach of the Miami Miracles and the Taiwan National Team. He also helped form the Chinese Professional Baseball League by drafting player development contracts and supplying the foreign players, who consisted of American, Dominican and Panamanian players.
A former Southland Conference student-athlete and southpaw pitching star at Lamar, Gilligan led the Cardinal's 1967 team in wins (five), earned run average (2.54) and strikeouts (60), earning all-conference recognition. He later worked as a graduate assistant coach for the Cardinals in 1970-71 after pitching a year in the Detroit Tigers' organization.
Last September, Gilligan was honored by Lamar and Beaumont city officials as Florida Avenue running alongside Vincent-Beck stadium was officially dedicated as Jim Gilligan Way.
For 25 years Watkins was an integral part of the McNeese State athletics program, where he competed as a student-athlete in basketball, served as an assistant men's basketball coach and as a co-head coach for women's basketball before a 10-year career as the school's athletic director.
As an administrator, Watkins orchestrated the resurrection of McNeese State's football program as it became the most dominant team in the Southland. The Cowboys' athletics program saw six different sports win 17 league championships under Watkins' leadership. The university also laid claim to its only all-sports trophy in 2001-02. The All-American Football Foundation recognized Watkins as one of the top athletic directors in the nation in 2004.
A four-year letterman with the Cowboys basketball team (1963-66), Watkins received a bachelor's degree in health and physical education with a minor in science in 1966, and followed with a master's of education in 1967 along with a counselor certification. Watkins' tenure at his alma mater began immediately following his graduation from McNeese State as the assistant coach with the men's basketball team. In four seasons on the Cowboys staff (1968-71), Watkins helped lead McNeese State to a Gulf States Conference championship in 1968 and won a then-school record 19 consecutive games.
In four years as co-head coach of the Cowgirls (1990-94) alongside Bridget Martin, Watkins helped lead McNeese State to three consecutive Southland Conference tournaments. Watkins also helped groom two first-team all-conference selections, including two award winners in 1992, as McNeese State was the first team to sweep both the newcomer and freshman of the year awards when Tangela McAlister and Robin Daniels were named the respective recipients.
Watkins served as athletic director from 1995-2007 when he brought about improvements to the university's athletic facilities and established McNeese State as one of the premier universities in the Football Championship Subdivision. The Cowboys won seven conference titles in football during Watkins' tenure and played in two national championship games in 1995 and 2002. Among the new athletic facilities that were constructed or whose process began on his watch were the Hodges Street women's athletic facility, the three-tier Cowboy Stadium press box, the baseball and softball facilities, the resurfacing of the outdoor track and the new Jack Doland Fieldhouse which will be completed in June.
He also served on the NCAA Football Committee and on the Southland Conference committees for championships and officiating.
The Southland Conference Hall of Honor, established to recognize individuals who have played an instrumental role in the history, growth and development of the conference, inducted its first members in 1999. For more information on the Hall of Honor and its past inductees, visit www.southland.org.