John Ferguson (1919 - December 17, 2005) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

sportscaster for the

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

teams on radio and later television. He also called

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

games,

Cotton States League The Cotton States League''Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball: The Official Record of Minor League Baseball'' – Lloyd Johnson, Steve McDonald, Miles Wolff (editors). Publisher: Baseball America, 1997. Format: Paperback, 672pp. Language: Englis ...

baseball games and the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

football game of the week.

Biography

John Ferguson was born in 1919 in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. He began his career calling Cotton States League games in

El Dorado, Arkansas El Dorado, founded by Matthew Rainey, is a city in, and the county seat of, Union County, on the southern border of Arkansas, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 18,884. El Dorado is headquarters of the Ark ...

in 1942. When World War II started, Ferguson enlisted in the army as an Army Air pilot completing 144 missions piloting cargo planes over the Himalayas between India and China, supplying B-29s for their bombing runs. After World War II, Ferguson moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and when

WJBO WJBO (1150 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, calling itself "WJBO Newsradio 1150 AM & 98.7 FM." It carries a talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios are on Hilton Avenue, east of downtown ...

-AM won the rights to LSU games they asked if he was available and he took the job. After the 1958 season, Ferguson took a break from calling LSU games to do the Southwest Conference football game of the week. Because of this, Ferguson was not the announcer for Billy Cannon's Halloween run versus Ole Miss in 1959.

J.C. Politz J.C. Politz (1924-2006) was an American sportscaster best known for calling games for the Southern Jaguars football team, LSU Tigers basketball and football teams and St. Louis Cardinals (NFL). He also called games for the Tulane Green Wave, S ...

was the LSU broadcaster from 1959–1960. In 1961, Ferguson returned to LSU and broadcast men's basketball and football games. For a time, Ferguson was also the play-by-play commentator for the

. The 1983 season was his last year as radio broadcaster at LSU. In 1984, Ferguson transitioned over to TigerVision, LSU's pay-per-view television network for football games and Jim Hawthorne took over as radio broadcaster for LSU baseball, men's basketball and football. Also in 1984, Ferguson was awarded the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association. He retired in 1987. Ferguson also served as the executive director of the

Tiger Athletic Foundation The Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF) is a private, non-profit corporation dedicated to supporting Louisiana State University (LSU) and its athletics program. It is the primary source of private funding for LSU athletics and contributions to TAF ...

. He died in 2005 at the age of 86 in

Zachary, Louisiana Zachary is a city in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies north of the city of Baton Rouge, and had a population of 14,960 at the 2010 census, up from 11,275 in 2000. At the 2020 census, Zachary's population increased to 1 ...

and was interred at

Port Hudson National Cemetery Port Hudson National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in Port Hudson, north of the city of Baton Rouge in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasse ...

."John Ferguson Obituary"
The Advocate

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, John American radio sports announcers American television sports announcers Baseball announcers College basketball announcers in the United States College football announcers Louisiana Tech University alumni LSU Tigers basketball announcers LSU Tigers football announcers National Football League announcers New Orleans Saints announcers 1919 births 2005 deaths United States Army personnel of World War II

Biography

See also

References