Join the 64 Parishes Winter Publication Party in Ruston
Lincoln Parish Library, Ruston Room
910 N. Trenton St., Ruston, LA
December 4, 2025
6 – 8:30 pm
This event is free and open to the public. Register your spot here.
Join us on Thursday, December 4, to celebrate the release of 64 Parishes’ winter 2025 issue! Presented by Louisiana National Bank, the winter issue publication party is also a celebration of the impact and legacy of Grambling State’s hall of fame baseball coach, Wilbert Ellis.
Grambling State’s Dr. Edward Holt, author of the 64 Parishes profile on Coach Ellis, will moderate a panel discussion with Coach Ellis and some of Ellis’ close friends and colleagues, including the Ruston Rocket Bert Jones, Pastor Maurice White, former Grambling Tiger and MLB player Gary Eave, attorney and former Louisiana State Representative Patrick O. Jefferson, and John Belton, District Attorney for Louisiana’s Third Judicial District.
The party will take place at the Lincoln Parish Library Ruston Room from 6 to 8:30 p.m.,with a cocktail hour at 7 p.m. before we begin our program. Refreshments will be provided.
The event is free and open to the public, but please reserve your spot in advance via Eventbrite.
We hope to see you there!
A SNEAK PEEK AT THE ARTICLE
“More than a Game: Coach Wilbert Ellis and the legacy of Grambling State University baseball”
By Edward Holt
At the age of nine, Wilbert Ellis found his vocation. Whereas some children dream of playing sports, Ellis decided on a different career path: coaching. From organizing and running games with a hundred fellow kids as a youth, he would go on to serve as the second head coach of the Grambling State University baseball team from 1978–2003. Over the course of twenty-six seasons, he amassed a 745-462-1 record, led his team to three Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championships, and sent nearly fifty players to sign with Major League Baseball teams. The myriad awards and accolades for this seven-time SWAC Coach of the Year include induction into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2007), the SWAC Hall of Fame (2011), the Grambling Legends Hall of Fame (2012), the Louisiana Justice Hall of Fame (2022), the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (2024), and the National College Baseball Hall of Fame (2024). Those who know Coach Ellis would note that what undergirds this greatness is a humility and focus on the fundamentals. As Coach Ellis mused when asked about his career, “I have never thought so much about Wilbert Ellis as I do about other people.”
For more of this story and others, grab a copy of the winter 2025 issue when it hits shelves and mailboxes on December 1.