BATON ROUGE — The LSU Athletic Department and EATEL were proud to announce the first anniversary of LSUsports.net, The Official Web Site of LSU Athletics, on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2000.
Launched to the public on Nov. 22, 1999, LSUsports.net replaced the former in-house site, sports.lsu.edu, and broadened LSU’s web presence to every corner of the globe.
“LSUsports.net has allowed us to take the publicizing of LSU athletics to another level,” LSU Sports Information Director Michael Bonnette said. “It is without a doubt the best of its kind and one that many universities are trying to duplicate.
“Since going on line with LSUsports.net one year ago, the feedback that we have received has been tremendous. It’s allowed us to reach our fans, not only across the United States, but from one end of the world to the other. Whether its being able to listen to a football or basketball game or looking up historical information on a former athlete, it’s all right there at your fingertips.”
Powered by EATEL Web Development and created as part of EATEL’s corporate sponsorship and commitment to the University, LSUsports.net has become one of LSU’s strongest marketing avenues over the past year.
“We here at EATEL are very proud to announced the one-year anniversary of LSUsports.net,” EATEL President Dan Ahern said. “We have been overwhelmed with the site’s success during this past year. The number of visitors to the site on a daily basis has been more drastically more than we expected.”
“Through LSUsports.net and our partnership with LSU, EATEL has been able to be a more effective member of the Louisiana market and to leverage our local roots with the strongest player in the Louisiana market, which is LSU,” EATEL Marketing Director Ron Rouillier said. “It has also allowed us to move further along with our web development team and get involved with the development of streaming audio for local radio stations.”
As the exclusive home to all live audio broadcasts and live statistics of LSU football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball games, as well as press conferences, coaches talk shows and LSU Sports Network radio shows, LSUsports.net ranks among the elite websites in college athletics.
Along with the streaming audio of the LSU men’s and women’s basketball teams’ runs through the NCAA Tournament after the 1999-2000 season, LSUsports.net brought LSU track and field head coach Pat Henry‘s 20th national championship and baseball head coach Skip Bertman‘s fifth national championship to fans throughout the world.
LSUsports.net was also home to the LSU softball team’s NCAA Regional Championship and the LSU men’s tennis NCAA Regional, along with the LSU men’s golf team’s CCLA Intercollegiate Championship title, the LSU women’s golf team’s inaugural LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic at the University Club.
National championship diving performances from LSU’s Ashley Culpepper (3-meter) and Jamie Watkins (1-meter) were also featured on LSUsports.net, as well as the LSU women’s tennis team’s run to the NCAA Final 16 for the first time since 1995 and the LSU soccer team’s record-setting season in 2000. For the first time since 1994, the LSU cross country team sent a representative to the NCAA Championships, while the LSU volleyball team earned a spot in the 2000 SEC Tournament Championship for the first time since 1992.
The past year has truly been one of the most tremendous seasons for both LSU and its Official Web Site, LSUsports.net.
With the addition of Online Ticketing for football, men’s basketball and baseball in the summer of 2000, LSUsports.net joined a small minority of University athletic web sites to provide its fans the ability to purchase individual tickets over the Internet.
The LSUsports.net Online Gift Center expands the opportunity for Tiger fans throughout the world to purchase officially licensed LSU apparel and merchandise direct from the LSU Gift Center located in Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge.
LSUsports.net continues to be one of the most timely updated and well maintained collegiate sites in the country, complete with scores, game stories, box scores, up-to-the-minute statistics, conference standings, rosters, player and coaches biographies, as well as schedules for all 20 LSU varsity sports.
One of the most unique features of LSUsports.net is its exclusive eTigers Den. In this members-only site, LSU fans received weekly features on past games, this week’s opponent, current and past athletes, coaches and staff, as well as access to all archived broadcasts from the “Voice of the Tigers,” Jim Hawthorne.
With the addition of LSUsports.net, the LSU Athletic Department and EATEL made tremendous strides toward success in the new millennium and beyond.