Anthony Ray Robichaux (September 10, 1961 – July 3, 2019) was an American

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

coach who served as head coach of the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns baseball team. He had previously served as head coach at

McNeese State McNeese State University is a public university in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Founded in 1939 as Lake Charles Junior College, it was renamed McNeese Junior College after John McNeese, an early local educator. The present name was adopted in 1970. ...

Coaching career

McNeese State

Robichaux played at McNeese State, and became interim head coach immediately after ending his playing career. He was made permanent head coach following the 1987 season, and remained with the Cowboys until 1994. Only once in his time at McNeese State did the Cowboys finish below .500, and in his final season he led the team to their first 40 win season and first national ranking. Robichaux's pitching staffs placed among the nation's top six three times in five years, including 2nd in 1990. He is currently the all-time winningest coach at McNeese State, with 263 victories leading the Cowboys.

Louisiana

For the 1995 season, Robichaux was hired as the head coach of the Southwestern Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns baseball team. In his twenty-five seasons with the school, he led his team to twelve NCAA Regionals, four NCAA Super Regionals, the 2000 College World Series, and two athletic name changes (In 1999, the name changed from Southwestern Louisiana to Louisiana-Lafayette. In 2018, the athletic name was officially changed to Louisiana). In addition, Robicheaux coached the team to five

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...

regular season titles and the 1998 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Tournament, 2014 Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament and 2015 Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament championships. He became the Ragin' Cajuns all-time leader in wins on March 17, 2003.

Head coaching record

Death

On July 3, 2019, Robichaux died at

Ochsner Medical Center Ochsner Medical Center, historically also known as Ochsner Clinic, Ochsner Hospital, and Ochsner Foundation Hospital, is a hospital in Jefferson, Louisiana, a short distance from the city limits of New Orleans. It is a part of Ochsner Health S ...

Jefferson, Louisiana Jefferson is a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the north side (referred to as the "East Bank") of the Mississippi River. Jefferson is part of the New Orleans– Metairie–Kenner metropolitan ...

, a suburb of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, after suffering a heart attack June 23, 2019. He was 57 at the time of his death and is buried in

Crowley, Louisiana Crowley (Local pronunciation: ) is a city in, and the parish seat of, Acadia Parish, Louisiana, Acadia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 United States census, Crowley had a population of 11,710. Crowley is the principal city of th ...

. On opening weekend of the 2020 season, former players of Robichaux unveiled a statue of Robichaux near

M. L. Tigue Moore Field at Russo Park M. L. Tigue Moore Field at Russo Park is a ballpark located on the South Campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, Louisiana. It was built in 1979 and currently has a capacity of 6,033, following the renovations/additions o ...

. Throughout the shortened season, as well as the 2021 season, many teams, such as

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

(whose assistant coach was also assistant under Robichaux) as well as

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...

wore #36, a symbol of Tony Robichaux on batting helmets, hats, and jerseys. During a 2020 midweek game between Louisiana and McNeese State, two of Robichaux's former teams, home team McNeese renamed their bullpen in Robichaux's honor.

Protégés

Seven of Robichaux's assistants went on to become college head coaches:

Matt Deggs Matt Deggs (born August 20, 1971) is an American baseball coach and former infielder, who is the current head baseball coach for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns. He played college baseball at Alvin Community College (1991–1992) then transferred to N ...

who replaced him at UL, and who had previously served as head coach at Sam Houston State;

John Szefc John Szefc is an American college baseball coach, currently serving as the head coach of the Virginia Tech baseball team. He has held that position since leaving the University of Maryland in June, 2017, where he had coached since the 2013 season ...

at Virginia Tech; Todd Butler at McNeese State and Wichita State; Jim Ricklefsen at McNeese State; Brad Holland at ULM; Wade Simoneaux at

Louisiana Tech University Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activ ...

; and Jason Gonzales at

Texas A&M University-Kingsville Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

References

External links

Tony Robichaux
at University of Louisiana at Lafayette {{DEFAULTSORT:Robichaux, Tony 1961 births 2019 deaths People from Crowley, Louisiana Baseball players from Louisiana Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns baseball coaches McNeese Cowboys baseball coaches McNeese Cowboys baseball players