When the LSU women’s basketball team traveled Dec. 30 to New Orleans to play against Louisiana Tech University, it was a matchup of two of the nation’s most successful programs.
The Lady Tigers won the game, 61-44, in front of a crowd of 5,584 fans in the New Orleans Arena.
The game was also part of the Katrina Relief Basketball Classic, designed by 84 Lumber Company to raise money for the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity and the Friends of New Orleans Recreation Department.
All proceeds from the game were donated to the foundations.
“I went down there and saw the area and wanted to do something more because I felt like I didn’t do anything,” LSU coach Pokey Chatman said. “I just went about my normal day-to-day job. I wanted to do something to help and keep the spirit of recovery alive through this venue.”
Chatman, a New Orleans native, also founded Operation: Rebound, a program designed to raise money and awareness for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The largest part of Operation: Rebound was a month-long online auction hosted by www.lsusports.net.
Chatman said she felt compelled to help the city because the citizens of New Orleans continued to support the team throughout their hardships.
“It’s kinda weird how it came about because we are playing this season, and we get this new group of people who are following us,” she said. “And we become their source of inspiration. I think about it, and I wonder ‘How can we inspire them?'”
Miami Heat and former LSU All-American center Shaquille O’Neal, country music star Clint Black and the entire women’s basketball coaching staff donated autographed items for the auction.
Chatman also created the Pokey Chatman Foundation to raise money for Katrina relief. The group consists of 100 members who each contributed $1,000 or more to join.
LSU football coach Les Miles also donated his time to the relief effort.
Miles was named Grand Marshal of the Katrina Relief Basketball Classic. Chatman said Miles was an obvious choice because of the role he and the LSU football team have played in the state’s recovery the past two years.
“This is a wonderful event and something that we feel it’s important to be a part of,” Miles said in a news release.
The basketball game, auction and Chatman’s foundations have a goal to raise at least $150,000 for New Orleans.
Final calculations are expected within the next two weeks to see if the goal was reached.
Chatman said the courage of the evacuees has played a role in motivating the Lady Tigers in the past two seasons.
“I thought it was remarkable how these people didn’t have jobs,” she said. “Their wives and kids were all over. They became our inspiration. I remember for the Stanford game, listening to people talk you get so overfilled with emotion.”
According to Brian Miller, the team’s sports information director, plans are already underway for a second game next season.
—–Contact Casey Gisclair at [email protected]