Six individuals were inducted into LSU's 2025 Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday night in Baton Rouge, and two of them hail from the local area.
McComb-native John Brady was inducted for his tenure as the Tigers' men's basketball coach, while Bogue Chitto's Cornelia Gayden-Wilson earned her spot from her days as a basketball player.
Brady guided the Tigers to the 2006 Final Four with a 27-9 overall record, which included a win over top-seeded Duke and fourth-seeded Texas over the span of 48 hours.
“That’s arguably one of the best weekends in the history of LSU basketball,” Brady said.
He coached at LSU from 1997-2008 and led the program to SEC titles in 2000 and 2006 while being named conference Coach of the Year during both seasons.
“There’s a lot of emotions for me with getting selected for the HOF,” Brady said. “It’s humbling, it’s gratifying, and I’m very thankful. When you reflect back on your career and the things you did over 11 years, with all the ups and downs, it’s emotional.”
When reflecting on his career, the countless strong bonds he formed with players are what stands out to Brady the most, as he's proud to say that he accomplished exactly what he set out to do when he started coaching.
“The relationships I formed with players were very important to me, because it means a lot to watch them grow up and mature,” Brady reflected. “That was one of the main reasons I got into coaching originally, was to help young people be better than they thought they could be.”
And throughout his journey, Brady was assisted by plenty of key figures. But one family stands out when it comes to him securing the job in Baton Rouge.
“The main thing I want people to know is that I’m very thankful to Joe Dean, who was the Athletic Director at the time, for hiring me,” Brady said. “And then I’m also very thankful towards his son, who I was a grad assistant with at Mississippi State and out of that relationship I was able to get a job at LSU. Meeting the Dean family changed my life.”
Brady earned degrees from Belhaven and Mississippi State and currently works as the color basketball analyst for the LSU Sports Radio Network.
Gayden-Wilson was the definition of a sharpshooter, as she still ranks No. 1 on LSU's career 3-point makes list with 337, and she is also top of the list for most triples made in a single season (105 in 1994-1995).
"I want to give honor to God for allowing all these amazing things to happen in my life," Gayden-Wilson said. "Right after the AD called me, I called my husband [Johnny] to share the news with him, because I know he’s my biggest fan.”
The achievements don't stop there, as Gayden-Wilson also holds the Tiger record for points in a game (49 vs. Jackson State in 1995) and established the NCAA mark for made 3-pointers in a game with 12 on the same day, which stood until 2018.
Gayden-Wilson was a four-year letterwinner from 1992-1995, three-time All-SEC Selection and an All-American in 1995.
"I have lifetime relationships from LSU, and being apart of the SEC is like a different world with how they accept nothing but excellence," Gayden-Wilson said. "And that shaped my life into wanting to be excellent at everything."
Before her days in Baton Rouge, Gayden-Wilson starred on the hardwood for Bogue Chitto, and she thanks her various mentors and the community as a whole for molding her into what she is today.
“My Bogue Chitto family is second to none,” Gayden-Wilson said. "My mom is one of the strongest women I know, and I had a mentor in Tama Moore who was my librarian at school. My junior high coach was Mickey Myers, and my high school coach was Ronald Dale Gill."
She currently works within the Pike County Sheriff's Office and also coaches local basketball training sessions through her "Rainin' Three Hoop School."
"I've been able to pass what I learned on to the kids I coach, and I'm excited for them to get to know what that pursuit of excellence is like," Gayden-Wilson said.
The induction ceremony took place at the Manship Theatre in downtown Baton Rouge.
“It makes it so much sweeter to know that my friend and I went into the Hall of Fame at the same time. I couldn’t be happier,” Gayden-Wilson said. “When we built a gym at the Pine Grove Church back in the day, John came to be the keynote speaker right when he was coming off the 2006 Final Four season.”
Brady certainly agrees with that sentiment, and he even had a hand in Gayden-Wilson being inducted into the HOF this year.
“She’s such a special lady and was a special player at LSU,” Brady said. “I told her six years ago that she needed to be in the Hall of Fame and that I was going to do my best to get here there. So I went and talked to Kim Mulkey about her, and she talked to other people that took the ball and ran with it.”
The other inductees included golf head coach J. Perry Cole (1933-1943), gymnast Rheagan Courville (2012-2015), men's basketball player Ronald Dupree (2000-2003) and women's basketball's Temeka Johnson (2002-2005).
