Omaha Paper on Hawthorne's Legacy

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Fate has a funny way of tapping athletes on the shoulder. But fate knows its way up to the radio booth, too. Ninth inning. Two out. Man on third. Tigers down one. Warren Morris up to bat.

“Well, now it’s going to take a single or an error or a wild pitch or a passed ...”

Hawthorne wasn’t able to get “passed ball” out of his mouth. Because Morris, a light-hitting, left-handed second baseman, went down low and swung at the first pitch. According to LSU’s radio audio archive, Hawthorne’s next words were: “Line drive, way back, way back, HOME RUN! TIGERS WIN! TIGERS WIN!”

To this day, Hawthorne says he doesn’t recall what he said. He just remembers he wanted to cry.

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Two national football titles. Three Final Fours. Six NCAA baseball championships. Skip Bertman, Nick Saban, Les Miles, Dale Brown, Shaquille O’Neal — Hawthorne has called their games and calls them friends.

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LSU coach Paul Mainieri told him he would take him to Omaha one more time. Now here they are, one loss from elimination, one loss from the end of a legendary career. Hawthorne has already made his last call. He’s written out how he’s going to sign off. That will be an emotional one, and it might as well come here in Omaha. When it happens, somewhere an LSU Tiger fan will sit down and have a good cry.

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