Northwestern State University will induct Pi Kappa Phi alumnus Doug Ireland and five others into its Alumni Hall of Distinction, the Long Purple Line. Ireland joins the following inductees in the 2024 class: the late Jack Brittain Jr., Henry Burns, Dr. Steve Horton, Dr. Chris Maggio, and Robert “Skeeter” Salim.

The inductees will be honored at a luncheon on Friday, Oct. 25 at 12 p.m. at the Natchitoches Events Center. Doors will open at 11:15 a.m. Tickets are available at https://nsulalongpurpleline.eventbrite.com. 

Northwestern State has honored 152 alumni with induction into the Long Purple Line. 

Ireland has been chairman of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame since 1990, just over a year after he left the Alexandria Town Talk sports staff and launched a 30-year run as the sports information director at Northwestern State, retiring in 2019. Ireland spearheaded efforts leading to construction and the 2013 opening of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum in Natchitoches. 

During his career, Ireland has earned numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, setting an LSWA writing contest record in 1987 with six first places and nine prizes overall. In 2021, he was enshrined in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame as a winner of the LSWA’s Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism. 

In 2008 the North Louisiana National Football Foundation Chapter gave him its “Distinguished American Award” and in 2016, he received the Southland Conference’s Louis Bonnette Sports Media Award for career accomplishment. He was named 2022 “Mr. Louisiana Basketball” by the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches, and later that year was named one of the 100 most impactful members of the Greek community at Northwestern for his service from 2007-22 as advisor for the Beta Omicron Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. In 2022, he was honored by NSU’s Department of New Media, Journalism and Communication Arts as a Distinguished Communications Professional. 

Since 2021, Ireland has been the sports director for Online Journals LLC, which encompasses 14 parish journals in northwest and central Louisiana. 

Ireland becomes the seventh Pi Kappa Phi initiate named to NSU’s Long Purple Line.

Read more about the 2024 Long Purple Line inductees here: https://www.nsula.edu/six-named-to-alumni-hall-of-distinction-the-long-purple-line/