RUSTON – Louisiana Tech and Canadian Football League Hall of Famer Matt Dunigan is among a star-studded group of eight inductees chosen for the 2019 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class.

Dunigan joins 5-time NFL Most Valuable Player Peyton Manning, former LSU football coach Les Miles, 5-time USA Olympic volleyball standout Danielle Scott-Arruda, Southern University baseball coach Roger Cador, Alexandria-Peabody Magnet High School coach Charles Smith, LSU football All-American Max Fugler, and Rodeo Hall of Famer T. Barrett "Teaberry" Porter.

The Class of 2019 will be enshrined Saturday, June 8, in Natchitoches to culminate the 60^th Anniversary Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Induction Celebration June 6-8.

Dunigan starred for the Bulldogs from 1979 through 1982 before spending 14 seasons in the Canadian Football League (1983-1996). He broke nine Tech school records, including Terry Bradshaw's mark for passing yards with 7,042 (which now ranks fourth in school history).

The Dallas, Texas, native earned Kodak and AP Division I-AA All-American honors as a senior with the Bulldogs when he passed for 2,843 yards and 23 touchdowns while leading LA Tech to a 10-3 record and the Southland Conference championship. Tech advanced to the second round of the I-AA playoffs his senior season.

He was inducted into the Louisiana Tech Hall of Fame in 2011.

During his CFL career with six teams (Edmonton, British Columbia, Toronto, Winnipeg,  Birmingham and Hamilton), he threw for 43,857 yards and 306 touchdowns and rushed for 5,031 yards and 77 TDs - accounting for 48,888 total yards and 383 TDs. He ranks second in CFL history in TD passes, third in passing yards (43,857), third in attempts (5,476) and third in completions (3,057).  He ranks fourth all-time in rushing TDs (77) and is fifth in rushing yards by a quarterback (5,031).

Dunigan holds the CFL single-game passing mark, throwing for 713 yards and five TDs in leading Winnipeg to a 50-35 win over Edmonton on July 14, 1994. A three-time All-CFL pick (1985, '88 and '95), he is the only quarterback to lead four different teams to the Grey Cup. He guided his teams to six Grey Cup appearances, winning in 1987 for Edmonton and in 1991 for Toronto. 

The 2019 Induction Class will be showcased in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Museum, operated by the Louisiana State Museum system in a partnership with the Louisiana Sports Writers Association. The striking two-story, 27,500-square foot structure faces Cane River Lake in the National Historic Landmark District of Natchitoches and has garnered worldwide architectural acclaim and rave reviews for its contents since its grand opening during the 2013 Hall of Fame induction weekend.

A 35-member Louisiana Sports Writers Association committee selected the 2019 inductees. The panel considered a record 145 nominees from 30 different sport categories on a 31-page ballot, said Hall of Fame chairman Doug Ireland. 

The eight new competitive ballot inductees will raise the total of Hall of Fame members to 350 competitors honored since the first induction class --  baseball's Mel Ott, world champion boxer Tony Canzoneri and LSU football great Gaynell Tinsley -- were enshrined in 1959 after their election a year earlier.

Also to be spotlighted next summer will be three other Hall of Fame inductees, the winner of the 2019 Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award and the recipients of the 2019 Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism presented by the LSWA. Those contributor ballot inductees will be announced later this year.

The complete 11-person Class of 2019 will bring the membership in the Hall of Fame to 433 men and women, including 19 Dixon Award winners and 64 sports journalists.

The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame already includes 18 Pro Football Hall of Fame members, 18 Olympic medalists including 11 gold medal winners, 10 members of the Basketball Hall of Fame, seven of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, six National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, 37 College Football Hall of Fame members, nine National High School Hall of Fame enshrinees, jockeys with a combined 16 Triple Crown victories, six world boxing champions, seven Women's Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinees, seven College Baseball Hall of Fame inductees,  10 College Basketball Hall of Fame members, four NBA Finals MVPs, four winners of major professional golf championships, four National Museum of (Thoroughbred) Racing and Hall of Fame inductees and two Super Bowl MVPs.

Biographical information on all 422 current Hall of Fame members is available at the LaSportsHall.com website, with a steady stream of info available at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Facebook page and the @LaSportsHall twitter account.