This past Friday, Tulane University Athletics inducted former baseball players Jack Cressend and Wayne Francingues, football place-kicker Brad Palazzo, women’s basketball legend Kolby Morgan and longtime women’s basketball head coach Lisa Stockton into the Hall of Fame.  

Cressend, a pitcher for the Green Wave, led the team in strikeouts in both 1995 and 1996. He set a career-high for most strikeouts in a single game against the University of Missouri with 15 in 1996 and spent five seasons in the MLB after college with the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians. He briefly coached at Tulane after he finished his stint in the majors. 

Francigues was drafted to the Baltimore Orioles in the third round out of high school but chose to make his way to Tulane instead. He finished his career with a .413 on base percentage and a .280 batting average. He also played football for the Wave as a running back, where he rushed for seven touchdowns in 1968. 

Morgan, over her four years at Tulane, solidified herself as a basketball legend. The guard is the only player in Tulane history to reach 1,000 points before the end of their sophomore season. She finished with 2,240 career points, making her second in school history. A four-time American Athletic Conference All-American team selection, Morgan made her mark on basketball at Tulane. 

Placekicker Palazzo kicked the doors down into the Hall of Fame by leading Tulane in almost every single season and game category among kickers. He set records for most field goal attempts in a season as well as the most points scored in a game with 22. He led all of college football in 1997 in field goals per game, where he was named third-team All-American. 

Stockton is one of the greatest collegiate basketball coaches of all time. After coaching for 30 years, from 1994 to 2024, she announced her retirement from coaching. She is the all-time winningest women’s basketball coach in Louisiana, coached five future WNBA players and at one point led the Wave to nine consecutive March Madness appearances. She is already inducted in the Conference USA Hall of Fame, despite Tulane’s move to the AAC. She averaged nearly 20 wins per season for all of 30 years, showing her coaching prowess and recruiting.  

Congratulations to the 2024 Hall of Fame class!