Just sitting back reflecting on the loss of COACH Hall....While he was not a graduate of our school, he was a Cajun through and through. While he coached basketball, he was a Cajun Fan of all sports, while he coached a women's team, he believed and routed for the men's sports, all of them. While he left us to coach at another school, even then he called himself HEADRAGINCAJUN, then he was forced out at Cincy, and still followed us as HEADRAGINCAJUN, now a great man has left us, a man that I can say truly understood what it meant to be a Cajun, even though he was not born one. Coach Hall, talked about loving it in Lafayette and I truly believe would have come back if everything would have worked out. I hate to think that this man is gone at such a young age.
I remember, back about 5-6 years ago, I was living in Charlotte and outside of catching a couple of women's basketball second halves when I was at U(s)L in the late 80's and early 90's, I had never watched a Cajun women’s game. But they were having a hell of a season and were going to be one PPV vs UNT. I payed for the game and watched it completely through to the end (we won, by the way)
He gave me reason to believe that we could be competitive in every sport and I watched him completely turn around the worst sport we had at the time, into not only a winner, but a NCAA participant and not because we won our conference tournament, but because we were an AT LARGE bid.
While I never met the man, I feel as though I knew him very well, he responded to each and every email that I sent and every question I had. The man loved this university and loved coaching kids and was good at it.
RIP, Coach Hall and to each and every member of you family I hope time heals this. We lost a great one in Coach Hall and while he was only a Cajun for a short time, he will be remembered fondly by at least one LIFETIME CAJUN!!!!!
Thanks for all you did COACH, we will miss you.
Fantasitic tribute, Dave!! I still remember last year, when I started getting some PMs on this board from COACH. At first, I was wondering if someone else on here was screwing with me, because I had never met the man nor corresponded with him in any way before. In his notes, he asked if there was someone I could talk to about having him come back UL. The two things that did convince me it was him were that 1.) he still used HEADRAGINCAJUN, and 2.) the things he said about the University and us as fans was as heartfelt as anyone I've ever heard. I made some inquiries within the AD and Alumni Association but was unable to get anywhere with it. To hear about his death now truly pains me because I KNOW that J. Kelly Hall wanted to come back here in the worst way, and he absolutley would've brought our women's program back to the glory to which he once had it. He told me that he still considered Lafayette home and I believed him.
R.I.P. COACH. You will always have a home in Spirit HERE.
I think a moment of silence before kickoff would be fitting.
igeaux.mobi
To: GetTheFacts1st
Do you know the "facts" why Coach Hall was not rehired?
I never knew the reason he left Cincinnati. can someone fill me in?
They let him go after going 26-33 in two seasons, the main reason was the Big East record.
here is the article.
http://www.gobearcats.com/sports/w-b...041009aaa.html
Ironically his regular season record was an average of 13-16 at UC, but his replacements record was 11-17, so that was a step backwards, not to mention that they finished 4-12 in the conference last year. Obviously not a step in the right direction either.
INTERPRETATION: The current high school equal coach under contract was ANOTHER sub-par hire by the AD and with no money in the till to buy out his remaining contract last year, we remain in stuck position with a ho-hum title-9 caretaker. Should have had an opening there, but there was no money in the till to buy out HS= and bring in a real collegiate coach, which sets us back further. RCAF should have been set up in the 70's and if so, $$$ would not have been an issue and we would be light years ahead of where we are today. Unfortunately RCAF wasn't in Doc A's vocab.until senior-itis set in. Does anyone know when a real AD (Farmer) will get to make real decisions that move us ahead? Does anyone have a time frame on how much longer he will wait in a holding pattern before bolting? He is fast becoming a hot commodity and if a large school comes calling, we are toast and it would be a bonafide dumb arse move on our part to let him get away.
Why would any large school want Scott Farmer? Its not as if he is a reason behind some wild success we are having. I think Scott is a good person and does a great job, but some of you think he walks on water.
Bash Walker all you want, he hired Bob Marlin, RCAF was started on his watch. Marlin got a coaching salary well above what we had been paying. He was able to bump Robe's salary well above what it used to be. He is also presiding over a ton of facility improvements.
Again, this is a thread to honor Coach Hall, and his memory, if you want to _____ about the administration do it in another thread.
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