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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.

Glenn Guilbeau knows sports.

He's been a writer for local and national publications for four decades.

He's an excellent writer.

He's an excellent reporter.

He's not afraid to ask the tough question.

He has contributed to The Advocate, Tiger Rag Magazine, Gannett Louisiana, The Montgomery Advertiser, and USA today, just to name a few.

Glenn Guilbeau more than 40 years of journalistic excellence.

And let's go back a few years.

You started at Tiger Rag professionally.

You've come full circle back to Tiger Rag, but there have been a lot of stops in between.

in 1983, I graduated from University of Missouri, and I already had a job lined up with Tiger Rag, beforehand with Steve Myers, my my first editor and really one of my best editors, but, you know, and covering, all the sports at all at LSU or the big ones.

And that was Skip's first year.

You know, Skip and I came in at the at the same time, really.

And, so that was that was fun.

But, was that Tiger rag just for a year or so, I went to the Montgomery Advertiser and covered Ray Perkins and and Alabama and then, the, Slidell Century News briefly back near home in New Orleans, then the Alexandria town talk, where I got to know you and covered LSU again, and then the mobile register back to Alabama.

In 93 to 98 covered Alabama and Auburn.

And then 98 came back to Baton Rouge, covered Nick Saban and Bertman at the same time, which was really cool.

You you're not going to get much better than that at the same time.

And then when in 2004 went to USA today Louisiana, they opened the bureau in Baton Rouge.

And I worked with them for really the majority of my career until 2021 and went national, so to speak, to outkick.com under, Fox Sports.

But it was national, but not everybody knew it.

I spent a lot of time explaining what it was, but that was really probably the best time in my career, the three years at Outkick, because I got to cover a wide variety of things and then then back to Tiger Rag and, in 2024.

So.

Is there a material difference in covering, say, Alabama and Auburn as opposed to LSU?

Yeah, I would, I would say so because of the dichotomy between the two schools.

You know, they hate each other and they're really the same school.

I mean, they're mirror images of one another and they're on opposite ends of the state.

But that Iron Bowl game, that was the greatest game I ever covered year after year.

I mean, that's as big as any bowl game, you know, other than a national championship game.

It's just really something special about that Iron Bowl that you really don't have in Louisiana.

And LSU was as huge as Alabama or Auburn, but but just one in the state.

That I actually knew Glenn before I became the coach at LSU, I received a phone call from him while I was the coach at Notre Dame because there were rumors that I was going to be coming down to Baton Rouge to discuss the position with Skip Bertman, And and Glenn called me to ask me if that was true.

I just think Glenn is is one of the top journalists that I've ever met in my lifetime in sports.

He is one of the region's most recognizable writers and has racked up numerous awards, including recognition from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, the Associated Press, and the Football Writers of America.

You know, he told it.

What?

The way he saw it.

And it wasn't always, you know, bells and whistles about our program.

You felt that he put a lot of thought into his evaluation of what he saw out there.

Guilbeau is known for his candid style of writing, and sometimes sharing opinions that fans cannot easily digest.

should never want the team to win or lose.

That's right.

You should pull for either you He is consistent in what he's done for years.

He's not afraid or shy about giving his opinion if it's controversial.

And at the same time he thinks you're right, he'll he'll he'll write that as well.

And you've got to respect a guy who can give, both sides of what he thinks.

And he never seemed to me to be really concerned about any criticism one way or the other, or any praise.

He always just did what he thought was right and wrote like he believed what was right or wrong.

Let's talk about the relationship in Baton Rouge, South Louisiana, between fanatical LSU fans and what they expect to read in the newspaper or see on television or hear on radio.

What do they want to hear as opposed to what might be the truth?

Yeah.

Well, I mean, you've you've received criticism in your career over he's against LSU.

Yeah, yeah, I still get that, you know?

But, it's funny, you know, if, if you're totally objective, which is, which is a goal, you know, it's kind of impossible if you totally objective, you're you're right in the middle.

Right?

Well, LSU fans or fans of any school, Alabama, Auburn or Saint fans, they don't want you to be objective.

They they want you to be all for them way over here.

So if you're if you're objective, you know, they they think you're negative.

So if people think you're negative you probably are.

Being objective is the way I see it.

So but by being objective, the the most rabid fan base, the most rabid elements of the fan base are going to think you're negative.

So if everybody thinks you're positive, then I would say you're doing something wrong.

Would you call it a love hate relationship?

It is.

I think, you know, I think I think most fans have, or a lot of fans, I would say even LSU fans have a little more balance than than that.

But it's funny, I'll say this because you had asked me about Alabama and Auburn, Alabama fans to me that they they really just want what's positive because they're more used to winning than LSU.

The cool thing about LSU fans is they've had a lot of success, but they've really had more disappointment than Alabama fans.

So LSU fans kind of want you to be negative when things are going bad.

I mean, they want you to write about firing the coach.

Yeah, they really do.

So.

So LSU fans, while they're they're positive when things are going well, they have a little more edge to them than most fan bases because they're so used to things just exploding and going bad right after.

They were good.

How many bye lines have you had in your career?

Which extends beyond 40 years?

And.

And what was the very first one?

Well, the very first one at the Daily Reveille here at LSU when I was a freshman at LSU, was about guys throwing frisbees at the parade grounds.

I just noticed that a lot.

And I did a big feature in the Daily Reveille, the first one at the Reader's Digest at Rummel High and in Metairie was, was about a guy, Shane Rigdon.

And he played soccer on the on the Rummel soccer team, and he got hurt and there was no medical personnel at the at the match, which was not surprising.

You know, there's a lot of sporting events at that time.

So I did you know, it's big, you know, why wasn't there anybody there?

You know, it's a big controversial story which I love.

So you know, started early in there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I remember talking to the athletic director about it and he was upset, you know, but but, it, I did quite a few stories for the Raider's Digest that at Rummel and then, in college, the Daily Reveille.

And then I went, I transferred to Missouri.

I entered the portal and, and went to University of Missouri and they had student papers all over the place, the Man Eater, Campus Digest.

And then the Columbia missourian was was a daily paper really unique?

It was a daily paper for the city of Columbia, but it was totally run by the journalism school.

So you actually got to work for a real daily, not just a student paper while you're at, at Missouri.

And then.

So how many times have you typed by Glenn Gilbeau?

Well, because you asked me before this, I added them up an approximately 20,000 byline since 1978.

Tell me, in those 20,000 bylines what you would consider, if you can, the most significant or impactful story that you've ever written.

Well, the the the the only story that I won first place APSC which is the the big one, was a feature on Toe Nash I don't know if you remember, Toe Nash was a, baseball player in Sorrento, Louisiana.

He was just discovered out in the woods, basically could hit the ball left handed, right handed, could pitch.

But he was in the minors and he had kind of a legendary Paul Bunyan type career.

And, it was exciting to do that story.

And then another story that I really got heard a lot about was on the day that Ed Orgeron was introduced as head coach at LSU, I published a column saying that it was a terrible hire and why it was a terrible hire, and I got a lot of criticism.

But then after things went down, I started getting credit for it.

But in the you know, if you if you say if you write in a column that it's a bad hire and the guy wins the national championship, you're wrong.

But it was still a very well read column.

But, I would say I probably regretted that.

Because he did he prove me wrong?

There's no question about it.

One of his most recent accomplishments is offering the book Everything Matters in Baseball, which chronicles the life of Hall of Famer Skip Bertman.

Tell me something you learned about Skip that maybe you didn't know.

In the process of researching and writing this book.

I didn't really realize how great an athlete he was.

And, when he was, playing baseball in high school.

And I knew how smart he was, but he was an excellent student as well in high school and college, and, you know, could have been could have gone to med school, been a doctor or could have could have done a lot of things, but, just, just a fascinating guy.

This guy's not just some talented sportswriter TV.

Podcast.

He can do so many things.

So that's something you learned about Skip Bertman, Is there something that most people don't know about Glen Guilbeau?

I actually was a pretty good youth baseball player.

Made All-Star teams.

I was honored a 13 to 15 year old All-Star team as a 13 year old.

Played shortstop.

And I always liked the game and enjoyed the game at a young age.

In fact, I illegally played in in two leagues at the same time as a kid so I could play four games a week instead of just two.

So I really just love baseball.

So just being able to cover Skip was just a great thrill for me.

And your career has been remarkable.

You are well-deserving of the 2025 inclusion into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

Congratulations.

Thank you, I enjoyed it.

It's, It's an honor.