By Jeff Matthews, Alexandria (La.) Town Talk
It had to be one of the shortest job searches in university history.
When Northwestern State sports information director Doug Ireland was
looking for an assistant a few months ago, one of his first phone calls
was to Henderson State SID Matthew Bonnette.
Ireland had recommended Bonnette for the Henderson State job to HSU
athletics director and former Northwestern football coach Sam Goodwin. Now
he wanted to know if Bonnette knew of anybody good who might be interested
in coming to Natchitoches.
As it turned out, Bonnette did. Himself.
Bonnette and his wife, Colene, were about to have their second child and
wanted to move back to Louisiana. His father, Louis, is the SID at McNeese
State. Brother Michael is the SID at LSU.
Ireland knew Matthew very well. Even if he hadn't, he would have realized
on the spot that he had found his man.
"With Matthew, no prospective employer who knows Louis or Michael would
need to look at a résumé," Ireland said. "All you need to know is he's
Louis' son."
Indeed, the Bonnette name carries a lot of weight in the business of
sports information.
Louis has been at McNeese State for nearly 40 years and is among the most
respected men in his profession. Michael handles media requests for one of
the highest-profile athletic departments in the country.
"I've been doing this 37 years," Louis Bonnette said. "And I don't know of
anybody who's had two sons in the business."
Louis, a Pineville High School and Louisiana Tech graduate, started at
McNeese in 1966, coming over from the Lake Charles bureau of the Beaumont
(Texas) Enterprise.
In those early years, the MSU athletic department was not what it is now.
Jack Doland was the football coach and athletics director. Louis was the
SID and business manager. They had one secretary between them.
Trying to fit family time into his busy schedule, Louis started bringing
his boys along to help him out at games. He would often bring either
Michael or Matthew on road trips with him.
"They were helping me ever since they were big enough to walk," he said.
Over the years, Louis' sons learned the values that have served him so
well - hard work, integrity and, above all, perfectionism.
Matthew recalls one time when press box workers put together final
statistics from a football game. The corners on the pages did not match up
exactly, "so we had to pull the staples out and do it over again."
Instead of getting burned out on the lifestyle that went along with their
father's job, Michael and Matthew took to it.
Michael transferred from McNeese to LSU after one semester, but continued
as a student worker in the Tiger sports information department, working
his way up until he was made department head four years ago.
Matthew briefly left school to pursue his other talent, video, but
returned to get his degree and follow in his father's footsteps.
"I'm just so proud of them," Louis said. "I think they're doing a super
job."
They could hardly ask for a better role model.
Louis has won the Louisiana Sports Writers Association's Distinguished
Service Award and last year was inducted into McNeese's athletic Hall of
Fame, an institution Bonnette himself started.
He has worked more consecutive football games than anyone else in the
history of his profession. Tonight - when McNeese hosts Northwestern
State - will be No. 436 in a row.
Nearing 63, but in great shape - he is an avid golfer and fisherman -
Louis says he'll keep going until he no longer loves his job. No one is
holding their breath waiting for that to happen.
"He has never slacked off," Matthew said. "If anything, he gets better
every year."
Matthew will also be at tonight's game, albeit on the other side. At the
same time, Michael will be in Tuscaloosa, Ala., as LSU faces the Crimson
Tide.
Just a typical Saturday night for the first family of sports information
directors.
"In our profession, there's nothing like what's happened with Louis and
his sons," Ireland said. "It's just a remarkable situation."