Shaquille O’Neal’s size 22 game shoes, Pete Maravich’s game shorts and Nick Saban’s 2003 Sugar Bowl headphones are just a few items showing in a new LSU sports exhibition on campus. The Jack and Priscilla Andonie Museum will re-open Sept. 2 with a new exhibition entitled “LSU…Home of Champions”. This new exhibition contains 50 sports displays, 30 vibrant purple-and-gold banners, 24 televisions, a video projection system and hundreds of LSU memorabilia and photographs. “This exhibition, its primary focus is men and women’s basketball because of this last season,” said museum founding director Tom Continé. “Also, the primary focus is Coach [Les] Miles’ first season.” The other part of the exhibition, Continé said, is dedicated to former LSU coach Nick Saban and his championship team and former LSU coaches Skip Bertman and Pat Henry’s national championship baseball and track-and-field teams, respectively. Some eye-catching items on display include Maravich’s autographed 15,000th NBA point basketball, Wally Pontiff’s baseball hat and batting gloves, Sugar Bowl and Peach Bowl life-size replica trophies and Warren Morris’ home run bat. The Andonie museum first opened June 1, 2004, as a building to house Andonie’s 13,000-plus collection of LSU items. Larry Jones, LSU alumni association fund raiser, collected $500,000 from alumni in nine months to help pay for the construction of the museum. Andonie, a well-known New Orleans physician, said he and his family started collecting in the early 1970s simply as a hobby after meeting former LSU football coach Charles McClendon. “We started collecting stuff and eventually we had over 13,000 items,” Andonie said. “One day I talked to my wife Priscilla, and we agreed that we need to give it to LSU.” Today the collection is worth more than $1.5 million. After the first exhibition closed in August 2005 for museum upgrades, Continé said the building was repainted, a new lighting system was installed and a new floor setup was arranged. Within two months after the repairs were complete, Museum Director Buddy Ethridge, electrical engineering graduate student Sathish Thiruvengadam and Continé reassembled the museum’s present configuration. “We want to create a museum that is very powerful, that’s exciting, that’s fun to be in, and it helps older tigers who come in reconnect or connect in a stronger way with this great University,” Continé said. “And we call that nostalgia.” Because of the size of Andonie’s collection, every room in the building is adorned with LSU items, including the offices and the bathrooms. “What we need is a building 10 times this size,” Continé said. In addition to housing timeless LSU collectables, the museum also has a section geared to children. Xbox 360s and Playstation 2s are available to use, and there is a section called “Kids Corner” where people can dress up in outfits such as cheerleading uniforms or put on Mike the Tiger’s mascot head for a quick photo. “We’ve made the museum as hands-on friendly as we can,” Continé said. Ethridge said the museum is special because of its showcasing flexibility. “One of the key features of a sports museum is the moment you open your doors, you’re out of date,” Ethridge said. “We put up a record one day, and it’s broken the next day.” The museum, Continé said, will undergo a change once every football season to mark the beginning of a new year of LSU athletics but will also be modified during the year if an LSU team merits postseason success. “It’s important for students to know that this museum is primarily for them because they’re the lifeblood of LSU,” Continé said. “They are the heart and soul of LSU.” Andonie said he knew his collection did not belong in his home, where just his family and friends few people could enjoy it. “I would say if you want the history of LSU sports you need to go because there’s so much history there, and there’s so much memorabilia,” Andonie said. “It belongs to the LSU fans.”
—–Contact Kyle Whitfield at [email protected]