NEW ORLEANS — Janice Joseph-Richard, whose .824 winning percentage is the highest ever by a Xavier University of Louisiana basketball coach, was announced Wednesday as a 2016 inductee of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Joseph-Richard (pronounced REE-shard), who died nearly five years ago, will be enshrined Saturday, June 25 in Natchitoches to culminate a three-day Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration. A 35-member Louisiana Sports Writers Association committee selected the inductees.
Joseph-Richard coached the XU women for six seasons (1992-98), leading them to a 159-24 record, 91-11 in Gulf Coast Athletic Conference games. Her final five XU teams won GCAC regular-season and tournament championships, and the Gold Nuggets won their final 28 games (including tournaments) against GCAC opponents.
She is the only XU basketball coach to earn four consecutive first-round victories at the national tournament. Her Gold Nuggets won in the opening round of the NAIA Division I National Championship every year from 1995-98. Joseph-Richard was GCAC Coach of the Year four times, including each of her final three seasons.
Joseph-Richard also was a head coach at San Jose State for seven seasons (1999-2006) and her alma mater, Louisiana College, for three seasons (2007-10). Her 16-season record as a head coach was 307-163.
As a player at Louisiana College, Joseph-Richard was an American Women's Sports Federation two-time first-team NAIA All-American and was All-GCAC four times, the last three unanimously. She collected more than 2,300 points and 700 assists at LC and as a senior (1985-86) set the GCAC season record of 283 assists. She led the GCAC in scoring and assists each of her final two seasons. Her final season she also led the Lady Wildcats to third place in the NAIA Division I National Championship at Kansas City, Mo.
Joseph-Richard died Dec. 1, 2010, at age 46 after a lengthy battle with breast cancer.
Current Gold Nuggets head coach Bo Browder was an assistant on Joseph-Richard's final XU team. Current Gold Rush head coach Dannton Jackson was Joseph-Richard's assistant from 1993-97. Both Browder and Jackson are the winningest XU coaches in those programs' histories.
Joseph-Richard will be the third Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductee who attended XU or whose XU accomplishments factored significantly in the selection. Donald "Slick" Watts (basketball) was inducted in 2011, and Otis Washington (football) was inducted this year. (Watts' XU coach, Bob Hopkins, was inducted in 1978 primarily because of his playing career at Grambling and in the NBA.)
The other 2016 inductees will include Ben Sheets, Rick Jones and Dave Malarcher (baseball); Anthony Thomas. Jim Hightower and Arthur "Red" Swanson (football); and P.J. Brown (basketball). Three more inductees will be announced later this year.
| Janice Joseph-Richard as Head Coach of XU Women's Basketball | |||||||||
| All Games | GCAC Games | | |||||||
| Season | W | L | Pct. | W | L | Pct. | GCAC Rank | ||
| 1992-93 | 21 | 8 | .724 | 12 | 4 | .750 | 3rd of 9 | ||
| 1993-94 | 28 | 4 | .875 | 15 | 1 | .938 | Tie-1st of 9 | ||
| 1994-95 | 25 | 5 | .833 | 14 | 2 | .875 | 1st of 9 | ||
| 1995-96 | 28 | 6 | .824 | 16 | 2 | .889 | 1st of 10 | ||
| 1996-97 | 29 | 7 | .806 | 16 | 2 | .889 | 1st of 10 | ||
| 1997-98 | 28 | 4 | .875 | 18 | 0 | 1.000 | 1st of 10 | ||
| Totals (six seasons) | 159 | 34 | .824 | 91 | 11 | .892 | |||
Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director XULAgold.com XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA twitter.com/xulagold www.facebook.com/xulagold | |||||||||
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