Hall of Fame Class of 2024: Eddie Mouton
With his induction into the UL Athletic Hall of Fame this weekend, Eddie Mouton sets a record that likely won't be broken for some time, setting a standard for longevity and patience.
Mouton finished his athletic career at then-USL in 1963 when he was taken in the major league baseball draft and will finally be honored with UL's highest athletic honor in the 2024 induction – a span of 61 years.
Of course, nothing about Mouton's Ragin' Cajuns career or his life have been typical. He was a two-sport athlete at UL in baseball and basketball (after competing in five different sports at Lafayette's Cathedral High School) and came back to serve as coach for the baseball squad four years after his final playing season.
In between, he advanced as high as the Class AAA level in baseball, before having that career cut short by military service. Then, 40 years after his final appearance on UL's field, he returned and finished his degree not far removed from his 60th birthday.
"There are many reasons that I did not complete my college degree sooner, none of which are interesting," Mouton said. "But I now feel that I belong to the heart and soul of this great university, which is the main ingredient in the success of this city and Acadiana."
All of these accomplishments came as no surprise to his friends and family, including one son who also became a prominent Ragin' Cajun athlete – former basketball standout Ross Mouton.
"Eddie was so very smart," said long-time friend and former baseball teammate Gerald Hebert. "He played two different sports that their seasons overlapped, and not everybody can do that. Plus, he was one heck of an athlete."
Mouton was athletic enough to earn two All-Gulf States Conference honors – naturally, at two different positions.
Mouton was a three-year member of the Cajun baseball team from 1961-63 and a two-year member of legendary coach Beryl Shipley's basketball team from 1960-62 in a time when freshmen were not eligible to compete on varsity teams.
Mouton had watched Shipley's teams since the coach's arrival in 1957 and had been a football statistician for long-time UL sports information director Bob Henderson, so he combined those roles for a while.
"I kind of had a dual role on the basketball team, practice player and statistician," Mouton said. "But being on the same floor with such great players as Bill McHorris, Tim Thompson, Larry Simon, Dean Church and Howard Humphreys, that was really big for me. I had watched some of those players while I was in high school and I was sort of awe struck to be playing with them."
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Shipley had a special assignment for Mouton between his freshman and sophomore years.
"Coach asked me to go to the men's gym and play one-on-one with a prospect he was looking at," Mouton said. "I walked in and was introduced to Dean Church, an unlikely looking athlete, and I figured I'd show him a thing or two. After about 15 minutes he was beating me about 25 to 4. I always reminded Dean that I helped him get his scholarship."
But baseball was his sport to shine. He led the Cajuns in home runs (three), doubles (five) and runs scored (23) as a junior in 1962 when teams played much more limited schedules – only 29 games in that season. In fact, his three-year career spanned only 90 games, but those were enough to earn him All-GSC honors as a junior and senior in 1962 and 1963, once as an outfielder and once as a utility player.
Hebert arrived at UL as a freshman pitcher when Mouton was in his final collegiate season, but he said it didn't take long to see his prowess in the outfield.
"He had a lot of tools," Hebert said. "He ran well, he was athletic, he had a gun for an arm. Sometimes when you have seniors they look down their noses at the freshmen, but he was never like that. It took a little while to get to know him, but fortunately I was able to do that and we've been friends for a long time."
Mouton helped UL go from 12-22 in his freshman year to a 15-14 record as a junior and a 16-11 mark as a senior. Both of those seasons, a Cajun squad that had struggled for years went 11-8 in the GSC.
He was drafted by the Washington Senators following his senior year and played in that organization for several years, reaching as high as the Senators' Class AAA Pacific Coast League team before his military service. That experience helped greatly when he returned as UL's interim baseball coach in the 1967 season.
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"That year satisfied me that coaching was not my long suit," Mouton said.
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