Fielding the American Dream

Greg LaFleur of Ville Platte exemplifies the available opportunities in post-segregation era
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The American Dream is still alive and well today and still means what it meant hundreds of years ago as countless Americans are continuing their ascent up the social ladder by gaining successes in life. But, until recent decades, this American ethos was limited to certain segments of the population because of prejudicial ideals among the white society.
Black History Month is celebrated each February and honors the achievements of those black Americans who have come before and who have knocked down the barriers that walled off people from achieving their American Dream.
“Black History Month is an opportunity for us to understand our history and to understand how we got to where we are today,” said Ville Platte native and former athletic director of Southern University in Baton Rouge Greg LaFleur. “I think some of the young black kids don’t realize the opportunities that we have today that we didn’t have just 30 years ago.”
“Like when I was growing up, I couldn’t have gone to LSU to play football, and I’m just 59-years-old,” he continued. “A 16-year-old today wouldn’t understand that, so Black History Month gives us an opportunity to tell them that story and have them appreciate what they have today.”
LaFleur is a living testament of these new opportunities as he is somebody who came from a racially divided Ville Platte and has gone on to achieve his American Dream by playing football at every level. He described what growing up in Ville Platte was like before integration. “We only had two movie theaters in Ville Platte, and we could only go to the Platte Theater because it had a balcony,” he stated. “We had to sit up in the balcony, and we were not even allowed in the Jan Theater. The city parks were segregated, so we had to go to the park that was by James Stephens. We couldn’t go to the park on the northside, and we couldn’t go to Chicot State Park until 1968. All these things people probably take for granted now, but that was not always the case.”
The schools were also segregated in Ville Platte while LaFleur was growing up, and his father, Gervis, was highly involved with the football program at the black high school James Stephens.
“My father was a very big football fan, and he played football in high school,” LaFleur said. “He had a couple of college offers when he finished high school, but he couldn’t afford to get to the schools that offered him.”
LaFleur continued, “He was a big advocate for football and loved football. He always helped with the football program at James Stephens before integration. He was head of the booster club, and they would raise money to send the football team to Chicota Youth Camp for two weeks every summer. So, I was always around football growing up.”
When LaFleur was in the eighth grade, integration came to Evangeline Parish schools in 1969. He was then able to play football for the Ville Platte High School Bulldogs. Although the team did not win much while he was there, the experience provided him with an opportunity that he would not have gotten if it was not for integration.
“This coach, Dave McCarty, was standing on the sideline at Ville Platte High during practice one day, and we didn’t know who he was,” LaFleur said. “Then, after practice, my coach told me he was an assistant coach at LSU that was there to watch me practice.”
“LSU was looking at a quarterback and a couple other players at Opelousas Catholic,” he continued. “The head coach at OC, Micky Mills, told the LSU coaches to go to Ville Platte and check this kid out in Ville Platte. That’s how LSU was able to find me, and also from the recommendation of Coach Feaster at Mamou High School. They had a great fullback there, and anytime a coach would go to Mamou High School, Coach Feaster would tell them to go to Ville Platte and look at players there.”
The opportunity for LaFleur to play football at LSU would not have been possible had it not been for trailblazers who came before him. “When I was growing up, we couldn’t play football at LSU,” he explained. “It’s not that I had any ambition to play at LSU, it’s just that I couldn’t. I couldn’t even dream of playing at LSU. I was in the ninth grade when LSU had its first black players in 1972, Mike Williams and Lora Hinton. I was in shock and awe when I saw them on TV.”
The coach for LSU at the time was the legendary Charlie McClendon. It was the ultimate firing of “Coach Mac” that led to LaFleur getting much time on the playing field in Tiger Stadium. “At the end of my junior season, they fired ‘Coach Mac,’” he said. “Just before we went home for Christmas, they hired a new coach. When we came back in January to register for the spring semester, I had my alarm clock set to get up to go register. My alarm was the radio, so, when the radio came on, it said that LSU’s coach (Bo Rein) was missing (in a plane crash). We never got to meet the new coach, and we went a week or two without a head football coach. Then, LSU decided to make Jerry Stovall the coach.”
“When they made Jerry Stovall the coach, LSU went to the veer offense, and we played a two-tight end set. So, I had a chance to play as a senior. Had it not been for ‘Coach Mac’ getting fired, I probably would have never gotten on the field. I don’t want to sensationalize somebody getting fired, but that was a break for me.”
This “break” in LaFleur’s football career led to him getting drafted in the third round of the 1981 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. Although he was cut coming out of training camp, LaFleur landed with the St. Louis Cardinals. “It was fun that we were playing football, being that I was a professional football player, but I certainly would have enjoyed it more had we been on a winning team and been in the playoffs every year,” he said about his five seasons in St. Louis.
LaFleur’s professional football career ended in 1986 with the Indianapolis Colts, but his time spent in the athletic profession was not over. As he said, “When my football career was over, I was in a management trainee program at a restaurant. I got a call from the athletic director at LSU named Joe Dean, who asked me to work in the athletic administration. So, I did and worked at LSU for 12 years.”
He left LSU to become the athletic director of Texas State University before taking the same position at Southern University in Baton Rouge in 2005. “It was challenging because we had limited resources at Southern, so it was a grind,” he expressed. “We did the best we could do with what we had to work with.”
He added, “We were able to put in a plan that generated about 120-percent more than we had ever raised before.
LaFleur’s time working in the athletic departments of both major universities in the capital city led him to running (although unsuccessfully) for mayor-president of Baton Rouge. “Back in 2000, there were some influential people in Baton Rouge who approached me about running for mayor, and I was just 42-years-old. I didn’t feel I was ready for mayor, and I was enjoying my time working at LSU. I didn’t want to give that up to run for mayor.”
“Now, we fast forward to 2016, and the same people who approached me in 2000 about running thought I had a good chance to become mayor of Baton Rouge,” he continued. “So, I prayed about it and visited with my family to see if it was the best thing to do, and I felt comfortable at that point getting in the race.”
He ran on a platform of bridging “the gap because of my experience at LSU and at Southern to bring the community together.” He also ran on a platform of eradicating the crime in the city, particularly the rate of homicides which is in the top 10-percent in the country.
Throughout his life, LaFleur has seen how sports can help people with certain situations. “Sports, and football in particular, is a microcosm for life,” he explained. “It teaches you the values of making it in life. You have to learn how to sacrifice, you have to learn how to make a commitment, you have to learn to be pushed to the limit, and you have to learn how to get up when you’re knocked down. All these things played a big part in me being able to have the life that I have in general as a whole.”
Being a person who has overcome racial hurdles to become a prominent person in the community, LaFleur serves as a role model for the youth. His message to the youth is simply to stay the course. He concluded, “Do the best you can in school and try to get a profession in something. We all may not go to college, but we all can train ourselves to be a professional at something. That’s what I like to see the young kids do.”