Delaney, Russell, Long pictures will be revealed

NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State University’s Student Government Association will unveil three portraits of significant figures from the university’s history in a program at 11 a.m. Thursday, May 9 in the Stroud Room of the NSU Athletic Field House. The public invited to attend the unveiling and enjoy refreshments afterwards.

Portraits of Joe Delaney, Scharlie Russell and Jimmy Long will be revealed before they are installed in the Student Union, Student Services Center and Russell Hall.

Delaney was a two-time All-American athlete for the NSU Demons as well as a track and field star. He played two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and was chosen as AFC Rookie of the Year in 1981. Delaney died June 29, 1981, while attempting to rescue three children from drowning in a pond in Monroe. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Citizen’s Medal from U.S. President Ronald Reagan and was inducted into NSU’s alumni hall of distinction, the Long Purple Line, in 2017.

Russell was head librarian at Louisiana State Normal School/Louisiana State Normal College, as NSU was then known, from 1910-1940. Russell Hall, formerly the school’s library, was named for her when the Eugene P. Watson Memorial Library was constructed in 1972. Russell Hall, which houses the School of Business, is one of only two remaining buildings on the NSU campus named after women.

A member of the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors since 2001, Long served eight consecutive terms in the House of Representatives from 1968 to 2000. Colleagues in the House and Senate adopted a resolution during his last term honoring Long as “Dean of the Legislature.” A recognized authority on education policy, he chaired the House Education Committee and was instrumental in the creation of the Louisiana Scholars’ College at NSU as well as the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts. Long died in a traffic accident on Aug. 9, 2016.

The unveiling is part of the SGA’s portrait project which aims to place pictures of individuals in the buildings and spaces for which they are named and to highlight contributions by women and people of color who are part of NSU’s history. More portraits will be unveiled later this year.

For more information, contact Shayne Creppel at creppels@nsula.edu.