Athletic greatness comes in all shapes and all sizes.

It doesn't come naturally, but is achieved from hard work, diligence and adversity along the journey.

There's opportunity and there's always struggle.

There is triumph and there is defeat, and there is always a story behind the glory.

Bobby Arden has done just about everything in the journalism business, and he's still producing compelling content.

Having made the shift from newspaper to online publications.

His creativity.

His versatility is unique.

He sets a certain standard that so many can never achieve.

Back when newspapers had hard and fast deadlines.

And here's a game that would end at 955.

Bobby would have that story in by 10:00.

Bobby.

Not often do I get a chance to converse with someone whose copy was sent by a linotype machine.

Not many people in the audience probably know, but certainly that goes back a while.

You've been at this for well over half a century.

16,000 or so stories of have come from your mind and your your hands.

your skills are remarkable.

Your ability to write under pressure on deadline, cranking out award winning stories in ten, 15 minutes, is legendary, quite frankly, among your scribes.

And I know you recently have found out that there is journalism heritage in your family being adopted and then later learning about your biological parents who had a very deep journalistic background.

Yeah.

And, everything, originates from my mother's side.

I didn't know.

I knew I was adopted, obviously, but I didn't, you know, really have a big, you know, I didn't really want to search for her that much.

And when I had, the heart attack and when I had the, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, I think my my son kind of hit the panic button, and it's like, okay, what's in store for me?

So he went to, Ancestry.com, and just so happened they were having a two for one kit.

There you go.

And so he did his.

He didn't get any matches.

Mine sat on a coffee table for eight months, and my wife passed by one day.

And she said, you either take it or I'm throwing it away.

So about a week later, I did, and, I discovered after 73 years of, you know, not knowing who my mother was, I located her through her, twin sister on Ancestry As far as the writing, genetics, I had, an uncle who's written a fantastic book on world War two.

And then I had a half sister who died, in October.

And she was a long, a long time editor of a travel host magazine.

I had another uncle who wrote lyrics for his church and did the music.

I have a niece, who teaches creative writing at a university in California.

I'm talking to a biological cousin day before yesterday, and she says, you know, I have a daughter who's a freshman, and guess what?

She wants to be a writer.

So it's evidently pretty prevalent and pretty strong.

You couldn't have escaped it if you tried it.

No.

And, I had no, you know, I had I did not know I was a writer or had any ability until I went to high school, and we were taught at, AIC, which is now Opelousas Catholic, and we're taught by the, Christian Brothers.

And they were very strict, but they made men out of us because there was an all boys school.

And but my junior year they started noticing some of the, things that I was writing in class, some of the critiques and stuff like that, and they said, okay, this is what you need to do.

And so then I started focusing on it.

He wrote for many years in his hometown, for The Daily World and Saint Landry Today.

Before beginning a stint in Opelousas, Access Television and while continuing to write for outlets like the Baton Rouge State Times and the Daily Iberian.

Bobby can cover everything, and Bobby has covered everything.

He's covered everything from high school, college pro football to murder trials to, city council meetings.

Parish council meetings.

That's a unique talent.

He covers a national championship game the same way he would cover a Tuesday non-conference soccer match in Saint Landry Parish.

He treated the same way with respect and dignity.

And that's why he's one of the best.

You're either going to laugh at him because he's a grumpy old man, and that's funny, or you're going to laugh with him because he's got some off the wall story about some character he's covered or friends with.

It's a kick covering game for Bobby.

I know one of the most influential people, who is a Distinguished Service Award winner, and that's Roger Brandt, former editor of the, the Opelousas newspaper.

You and he were inseparable and did some great things.

Yeah.

In 1972, Roger hired me to do, basically everything he did he didn't want to do, and but it turned out great because Roger was a great innovator.

And people don't don't realize this.

This is early 70s, and Roger was doing things like box scores, agate type, the quotes and stories.

You know, he was big on that.

Going down and talking to coaches, talking to players, things that you do today.

But back then, people were just writing stories from the press box and not incorporating in quotes and everything.

And, so it really worked out well because he would basically do the design of the paper, write his column, Instant Replay, which was widely read and, I would do the writing, all the features.

You know, one of the things to that I truly admire about your career, and it didn't matter to you whether it was peewee football, whether it was youth baseball or softball, whether it was college sports, football, bowl games, Super Bowl science, you covered them all.

And then hard news, as well as as the business evolved, murder trials and political corruption cases and local government.

I mean, you were you were and are a Renaissance writer and that that, that doesn't come easily to a lot of people.

Yeah.

And, I really didn't get into the news aspect until probably the late 80s when I started working with The Advocate, and they hired me to do everything in seven parishes, and I wore out automobiles and tires and everything, but I covered everything just as you said, from school boards, from city councils, parish government and the murder trials, what you mentioned there is the aspect.

It's all about people.

And if you want to be a writer, you have to be able to connect with people.

And the other thing, like I used to tell my journalism students to be a good writer, you have to read good writing.

And, you know, I emphasize that all the time.

Well, you bring up a point that I think has escaped attention to the most part, and that is all.

During your journalism career, you also were an English teacher and a journalism teacher, in, in schools and had influence over, students in that regard as well.

Not many people can, can have two full time jobs.

Yeah, I was thinking about it.

Oh, several years ago.

And, I've probably put 9 or 10 people into the journalism orbit, whether it was a writer, a photographer, a videographer, what happened was that all of that work translated into 60 and 80 hour weeks, because you would finish school.

And then it was the weekend.

And in sports, and then you'd have high school.

UL-Lafayette, probably.

And then the Saints on Sunday.

Ardoin has received numerous awards for his work in sports journalism, along with three separate State Education Writer of the year awards.

But he made the transition.

You know, he does things for websites.

He does a lot of social media.

He keeps the public informed.

And that's the big thing that he does is that he has kept up with the times when people need to.

News in Saint Landry Parish.

Bobby Ardoin is a name.

They turn to and a name they trust.

his lifetime commitment to a career would earn him a spot in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

As a winner of the Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism.

Well, I want to conclude with, what you're doing now, because even at 76 years old, you're not retired.

Co-owner of the website Saint Landry now, and, that keeps you busy and yet continues to serve the community that that, has, has endeared itself to you over the years yet.

And it's kind of been hard for people to grasp the concept of online newspaper, they think, and our newspaper has to be print.

And right now, if, if you look or even look around the state in the northern part of the, state, people are starting up mom and pop websites just like like ours.

I mean, we're in it not to be, media moguls.

We'll never make a fortune, but we're subsisting and we're having fun.

That's the main thing.

And you're serving the needs of the local people, which is not served by anybody else.

And that's so critical.

No, because, all of the larger papers around us, they have, basically retreated from doing any local news.

So, I mean, we're filling a gap.

And our problem is, is we don't have enough space on the website every day to actually, to, to sufficiently publish all that we need to publish.

Bobby Ardoin, congratulations on your induction into the 2024 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

It's very well-deserved.

Well thank you.

It's been a as the the Grateful Dead said, it's been a long, strange trip.

If you enjoyed this conversation.

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