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Agreed....Originally Posted by Dwayne From Minden
Jim's tenure lasted 7-9 years too long. Hindsight says that getting a new AD between when Tech got the WAC inviation in 1999 and when it actually joined in 2001 would have been the right time. Not nearly enough was done to ride the momentum of that move, and again the blame rides the express elevator to the 16th Floor.
Everyone seems to love to hate something or someone... bottom line... if Oakes didn't put us in the WAC, we would be in the Sun Belt (a place that everyone loves to hate) or worse than that, we would be independent and still broke as a joke. Oakes is a HOFer!
I'm still hoping to see "Rebel" Oakes in the Tech Athletic Hall of Fame one day. I've researched him for a nomination to the HOF but the linked article is the most complete biography to date on Tech's first ever professional player: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/37539897
Ditto!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good stuff!
Thanks to John D. jr another BPN'46. Most interesting article and well worthy of considering for HoF..
I’ve been advocating for Ennis T. Oakes to be inducted into the Louisiana Tech Athletic Hall of Fame for several years. As Tech is currently seeking nominations for the 2021 class for the Hall of Fame, I'm hoping this is the year he gets in!
It's time. After all, he was Tech’s first athlete to play professionally. He was a highly respected Major League Baseball player and manager. Later in life he was an oil man and brought in the first well in the rich Lisbon Oil & Gas Field in Claiborne Parish. Oakes made many Claiborne Parish landowners wealthy by drilling on their land.
Oakes grew up in the Arizona Community in Claiborne Parish. The family moved to Ruston in the early 1900s so the children could attend Louisiana Tech, then called Louisiana Industrial Institute.
Recently I discovered another Tech grad, prolific Louisiana author Sam Mims, wrote a book about Oakes in 1940 called "Oil is Where You Find It." Mims and Oakes were students together during Tech’s early days. Before Tech ever allocated any funds for athletics, Oakes and Mims teamed up to raise funds for equipment. They put on a football game charging 5 cents admission to watch the “Oakites” play the "Miminites.”
Oakes went on to play baseball while Mims joined the Marines during WWI, then became a lawyer and wrote books. To learn of a book that gives Oakes’s life story was a thrill but now I have much more material to use to write about this man. Maybe it will help obtain the recognition he deserves in the Tech Hall of Fame as a student leader, exceptional student athlete, professional player and businessman.
Oakes was nicknamed "Rebel" by northern ball players who kidded him about his accent and Southern roots. The sports reporters quickly took up the moniker.
In 2020, a photo of Oakes was placed on the cover of "Historic Claiborne 2020," a book on the history of Claiborne Parish by the local history club.
I know where folks can get a copy of that book if they want one - only $20I’ve been advocating for Ennis T. Oakes to be inducted into the Louisiana Tech Athletic Hall of Fame for several years. As Tech is currently seeking nominations for the 2021 class for the Hall of Fame, I'm hoping this is the year he gets in!
It's time. After all, he was Tech’s first athlete to play professionally. He was a highly respected Major League Baseball player and manager. Later in life he was an oil man and brought in the first well in the rich Lisbon Oil & Gas Field in Claiborne Parish. Oakes made many Claiborne Parish landowners wealthy by drilling on their land.
Oakes grew up in the Arizona Community in Claiborne Parish. The family moved to Ruston in the early 1900s so the children could attend Louisiana Tech, then called Louisiana Industrial Institute.
Recently I discovered another Tech grad, prolific Louisiana author Sam Mims, wrote a book about Oakes in 1940 called "Oil is Where You Find It." Mims and Oakes were students together during Tech’s early days. Before Tech ever allocated any funds for athletics, Oakes and Mims teamed up to raise funds for equipment. They put on a football game charging 5 cents admission to watch the “Oakites” play the "Miminites.”
Oakes went on to play baseball while Mims joined the Marines during WWI, then became a lawyer and wrote books. To learn of a book that gives Oakes’s life story was a thrill but now I have much more material to use to write about this man. Maybe it will help obtain the recognition he deserves in the Tech Hall of Fame as a student leader, exceptional student athlete, professional player and businessman.
Oakes was nicknamed "Rebel" by northern ball players who kidded him about his accent and Southern roots. The sports reporters quickly took up the moniker.
In 2020, a photo of Oakes was placed on the cover of "Historic Claiborne 2020," a book on the history of Claiborne Parish by the local history club.
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
Very interesting info. Thanks for posting it. And yes, "Rebel" Oakes sounds very qualified for the Louisiana Tech Athletic Hall of Fame.I’ve been advocating for Ennis T. Oakes to be inducted into the Louisiana Tech Athletic Hall of Fame for several years. As Tech is currently seeking nominations for the 2021 class for the Hall of Fame, I'm hoping this is the year he gets in!
It's time. After all, he was Tech’s first athlete to play professionally. He was a highly respected Major League Baseball player and manager. Later in life he was an oil man and brought in the first well in the rich Lisbon Oil & Gas Field in Claiborne Parish. Oakes made many Claiborne Parish landowners wealthy by drilling on their land.
Oakes grew up in the Arizona Community in Claiborne Parish. The family moved to Ruston in the early 1900s so the children could attend Louisiana Tech, then called Louisiana Industrial Institute.
Recently I discovered another Tech grad, prolific Louisiana author Sam Mims, wrote a book about Oakes in 1940 called "Oil is Where You Find It." Mims and Oakes were students together during Tech’s early days. Before Tech ever allocated any funds for athletics, Oakes and Mims teamed up to raise funds for equipment. They put on a football game charging 5 cents admission to watch the “Oakites” play the "Miminites.”
Oakes went on to play baseball while Mims joined the Marines during WWI, then became a lawyer and wrote books. To learn of a book that gives Oakes’s life story was a thrill but now I have much more material to use to write about this man. Maybe it will help obtain the recognition he deserves in the Tech Hall of Fame as a student leader, exceptional student athlete, professional player and businessman.
Oakes was nicknamed "Rebel" by northern ball players who kidded him about his accent and Southern roots. The sports reporters quickly took up the moniker.
In 2020, a photo of Oakes was placed on the cover of "Historic Claiborne 2020," a book on the history of Claiborne Parish by the local history club.
One sidebar question: Is former LA Tech Athletic Director Jim Oakes --a native of Homer in Claiborne Parish-- related to Ennis T. "Rebel" Oakes?
Jim is distant relative. Maybe like great great nephew.
HD on post #15 of this thread A.G. pretty much confirms Jim's relation to Rebel.
BTW, I did not realize that this thread is nearly 10 years old. Now that the book and recent article has been discovered, I hope that there is enough to get him into the Tech HOF.
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