Former McNeese State football head coach BOBBY KEASLER (photo courtesy of Johnson Funeral Home)
A memorial service takes place Saturday for a McNeese State legend. Family, former players, friends, and Cowboy fans will pay their final respects to Bobby Keasler, who died earlier this month at the age of 80. McNeese Sports Information Director Matthew Bonnette says Keasler turned the McNeese football program into a winner after some lean years.
“He restructured everything and got it back where it needed to be, and then more so. I think you can credit the stigma McNeese football has around the country, it’s because of Bobby Keasler and what he’s done,” Bonnette said.
Keasler guided McNeese to four Southland Conference championships from 1991 to 1997. In 1997, he took the Cowboys to the Division 1-AA national championship game. Bonnette says Keasler coached 53 first-team All-Southland players and 16 first-team All-Americans.
“He recruited high-character athletes, quality athletes; he had rules, and they listened to him,” Bonnette noted.
Keasler was an outstanding three-sport athlete at New Iberia High School and began his coaching career in New Iberia at the middle and high school levels. He became head coach at McNeese State. His coaching career concluded with three seasons at ULM. Bonnette says Keasler’s death is a tremendous loss for the entire state.
“Not only because of the kind of coach he was and what he did for the football program, but the person he was; just a fantastic human being,” Bonnette recalled.
The memorial service will take place at Johnson Funeral Home in Lake Charles at 1 p.m. Public viewing is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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