University of Louisiana’s National Championship Weightlifting Teams

Part Three: The Culture of Winning

Chapter 6 – The Weightlifters

After graduation, many of the athletes went on to excel in their careers, including the following:

Late 1950s: Walter Imahara, U.S. Army and founder of Imahara’s Nursery; Mike Stansbury, artist and founder of one of the first health clubs in south Louisiana; Louis Riecke Jr., owner of lumber yard and from 1970-1980 was the strength and conditional coach for the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers football team; Cliff LeBlanc, a Ph.D. in education and administrator at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida; Stafford Palombo, sales; and Buster Loubriel, a native of Puerto Rico who joined the Air Force and served in Greenland.

Early 1960s: Mike Thompson, attorney, state representative, ordained Catholic deacon and former president of the Louisiana Homebuilders Association; Carlton Falgout, football coach and insurance executive; Alvin Chustz, assistant school principal and fundraising company; George Weatherford, insurance executive and former president of the UL Athletics Hall of Fame Club; Pat Stewart, federal DEA agent and investigator for the Louisiana State Bar Association; Dave Fabacher, a Ph.D. biologist; Paul Muffoletto, a professional singer and song writer; Gene Hebert, master’s degree in education, teacher and musician; James Courville, USL professor of geography and high school running coach; Rollie Andre, Navy and commercial real estate agent; Mike Williams, innovative commercial enterprises, founder of Zacks Yogurt and 1998 Senior World Cycling Champion; Melvin Spinella, head football coach at Vanderbuilt High School in Houma and manager of electrical sales for Bayou Black Electrical; Joseph Poss Major, manager and breeder of Arabian horses, collector of antique tractors and sportsman; Dick Fleming, commercial sales corporation; Jess Shows, commercial marine fabrication; William F. Sarver Jr., Navy and administration for South Central Bell Telephone; Lynn Aurich, a Ph.D. psychologist and civic activist; William “Frog” Stagg, a native of Jennings (no information available); Gaynor Burleigh, a Ph.D., scientist, professor at University of Arkansas and a leading expert on the honey bee; and Terry Perrin, Ford Motor Credit and Tenneco Oil Company.

Late 1960s: Joseph Murry Jr., a Ph.D. in education and a strength coach for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills; Jay Trahan, a division president for Baker Hughes; John Arceneaux, horseman, management and a U.S. Army Green Beret; Jim Reinhardt, a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and professor at UL; Charles Jenkins (no information available); Eddie Ortego, pilot in experimentation military aircraft; Joseph John Stelly, a native of Lafayette (no information available); Joe Barcelona, educator; Wayne Comeaux, Albertson’s food store; J. Weldon Granger, a national labor lawyer and philanthropist who endowed The Willis Granger and Tom Debaillon Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Francophone Studies; Ken Morris, physical therapist; Randy Peloquin, sales; and Warren Perrin, attorney and president of the state agency CODOFIL (Council for the Development of French in Louisiana) from 1994 to 2010.

Early 1970s: E. Gerald “T-Boy” Hebert, chemical company, real estate developer and chairman of the Higher Educational Board of Supervisors of the University of Louisiana System and endowed a chair in marketing in the Moody School of Business; Bill LeBlanc, medical sales comptroller and operations manager; Wayne Vizzini, medical sales specialist; Eddie Young, owner of construction company; Bobby Woodson, sales; and James H. Craig, worked for the State of Louisiana in social services for several years then became a trauma/ER nurse.