FRISCO, Texas – Legendary former McNeese State University football coach and athletic director Dr. Jack Doland, who later went on to become president of the university and a Louisiana State Senator, will be joined by former Northwestern State president Dr. Randy Webb as a 2015 inductee into the Southland Conference Hall of Honor.
 
Doland and Webb will become the 43rd and 44th inductees to the Southland Hall of Honor since it was originated in 1999. They are also just the third and fourth presidents inducted, joining Lamar's F.L. McDonald and Stephen F. Austin's William Johnson, both first-year entrants in 1999.
 
The induction will take place during the SLC's spring meeting on May 19 at Frisco's Westin Stonebriar Hotel.
 
"We are truly honored to recognize and celebrate the distinguished careers of Presidents Doland and Webb," Southland Commissioner Tom Burnett said. "Both presidents served as outstanding academicians with great knowledge of and participation within athletics.  These are two truly deserving Hall of Honor inductees."
 
Doland becomes the eighth McNeese representative to be inducted into the SLC Hall, joining Moe O'Brien (1999), Louis Bonnette and Bob Hayes (2007), Joe Dumars (2009), Sonny Watkins (2011), Kerry Joseph (2012), and Bobby Keasler (2014).
 
"It is truly an honor to have former McNeese President Dr. Jack Doland inducted into the Southland Conference Hall of Honor," said McNeese President Dr. Philip Williams. "Dr. Doland was a graduate of McNeese, Tulane University and Louisiana State University and an outstanding collegiate athlete in multiple sports.  Prior to being selected as the president of McNeese in 1979, he served as athletic director. He ranks among McNeese's most successful head football coaches and he was instrumental in gaining McNeese admission into the Southland Conference in 1972. Dr. Doland was dedicated to education and community service.  He was serving in the Louisiana Senate at the time of his death in 1991 and the McNeese field house was named in his honor in 1992. This recognition by the Southland Conference is well deserved."
 
Doland holds the unique standing of serving as McNeese State's head football coach (1970-78), athletic director (1971-1980) and president (1980-87), and while on the field, he was one of only two NCAA coaches with a Ph.D.  As an athletic administrator, he led McNeese's efforts to gain admission into the Southland Conference in 1972, and also used considerable influence to help start the Independence Bowl that hosted the Southland football champion from 1976-80.
 
A native of Lake Arthur, La., Doland was a football and basketball student-athlete at then McNeese Junior College before earning his bachelor's degree from Tulane in 1950. He played baseball and football at Tulane, and was a member of the Green Wave's 1949 SEC championship team. He later earned his master's and doctoral degree from LSU, and was a member of Phi Delta Kappa. 
  
After two years as a professional baseball player, Doland enjoyed tremendous success as a high school football coach in southwest Louisiana, both at DeQuincy High and Sulphur High, where his team won the 1965 Class AAA championship. He served as an assistant football coach at LSU from 1965-70, before returning to McNeese.
 
His nine-year coaching record at McNeese was 63-32-3 overall, and led the Cowboys to their first Southland championship in 1976, earning Southland Coach of the Year honors. In the inaugural Independence Bowl in Shreveport that season, Doland led the team to a 20-16 win over prohibitive favorite Tulsa. Before joining the Southland, his 1971 McNeese team was ranked No. 1 in Division II, and played in the Grantland Rice Bowl.
 
Doland left the McNeese presidency in 1987 to run for and successfully serve in the Louisiana State Senate.  He died in 1991 after a long bout with cancer. He was inducted into the McNeese State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1970 and into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. McNeese State's Jack V. Doland Field House and Athletic Complex is named in his honor.
 
Webb, a native of Haynesville, La. and a graduate of Northwestern State, became the school's 18^th president on July 1, 1996, and became the university's longest-tenured president at the time of his retirement in 2014.