Beyond 1894 Podcast | 122. Malcolm Butler: It's the People
Malcolm Butler enters his 26th year working within the Louisiana Tech Athletics department, including his current role as the Voice of Tech Athletics and the sport oversight for Bulldog Softball.
Butler spent his first 23 years as the head of the Louisiana Tech Athletics Strategic Communications Department (1999-2022) before transitioning into his current role in the summer of 2022.
His current role includes serving as the radio play-by-play voice for Bulldog football and men’s basketball and the ESPN+ talent for Bulldog softball. He also serves as the direct liaison between the Bulldog softball program and AD Ryan Ivey.
As the co-publisher of the Lincoln Parish Journal, an online media outlet in Ruston, he has won numerous awards, including being the runner-up in the Class II Prep Writer of the Year and the runner-up in Class II Columnist of the Year in 2024. He garnered first place awards in the Class II General Sports Feature category and Class II Prep Event category in 2024.
During his time as a full-time administrator at Tech, he spearheaded the strategic communications department while holding numerous titles, including his most recent stint as Senior Associate AD.
Butler began his career at Tech in July of 1999 as the assistant athletic media relations director. He was promoted to Director just four months later and served in that capacity until the fall of 2007 when he was promoted to Associate Athletic Director. He was then promoted in the summer of 2021 to Senior Associate AD.
His 23-year tenure in the LA Tech Communications Department is the second longest ever trailing only LA Tech Hall of Fame inductee Keith Prince (24 years).
The Ruston native served as the primary media contact for football (1999, 2008), women's basketball (1999-2001), and softball (2003-2022) while also serving as the primary contact for other programs at Tech on a periodic basis.
He served as the play-by-play voice for Lady Techster Basketball (2000-2021) and Lady Techster Softball (2007-current) and was named the successor in May of 2021 to Tech Hall of Famer Dave Nitz as the new voice for Bulldog Football and Men's Basketball.
Butler served as a member of the executive team for Tommy McClelland and Eric Wood during his final 11 years on the administrative side while also serving as the sports supervisor for softball (2018-current) and tennis (2013-2018).
He led the search for the Bulldog head softball coach in the summer of 2021 when Tech hired current skipper Josh Taylor, the two-time Conference USA Coach of the Year (2022, 2024). He also led the hiring search for former Tennis coach Amanda Stone, who was named the 2023 Conference USA Coach of the Year.
During his time at Tech, the Strategic Communications Department proved to be one of the most successful in the state, claiming more than 100 awards at the annual Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) SID contest, the second most behind only LSU. During that time, Butler personally garnered 48 awards, the most among all state SIDs, including first place awards for media guides, game notes, feature stories and radio play-by-play.
Butler served as the host media coordinator for three NCAA Women's Basketball First- and Second-Round sites hosted by Louisiana Tech (2000, 2001 and 2003) while also serving as the host media coordinator for the 2008 WAC Baseball Championships, 2013 WAC Softball Championships and the 2021 Conference USA Baseball Championships hosted by Louisiana Tech.
He broadcast more than 650 women's basketball games, including 15 NCAA Tournament games, and in excess of 800 softball games, including the 2008, 2017 and 2019 NCAA Regionals. He served as the sideline reporter for Bulldog football from 2013 through 2016 and has served as the host for Inside Tech Football, Inside Tech Basketball and Inside Tech Baseball.
He was named the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) State College Radio Broadcaster of the Year in 2017 after finishing as runner-up for the award to LA Tech Hall of Famer Dave Nitz in 2013 and 2016. He has placed in the top three in the contest seven times in the last 12 years.
Butler also won a pair of Golden Mic Awards in softball, including the Collegiate Softball Best Radio Call of the Year in 2022 and the College Softball Radio Personality of the Year in 2023.
A 1994 graduate of the Louisiana Tech journalism department, Butler served as the sports editor and editor of The Tech Talk, the University's student newspaper. He won the Wiley W. Hilburn, Jr. Award as the most outstanding journalism student at Louisiana Tech in 1994 while also being the recipient of the Kerry Garland Memorial Scholarship presented by the Shreveport Journalism Foundation. He also earned the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Student Award (1994).
He was a long-standing member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA), United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA).
Butler serves as a member of the Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Fame committee and served as vice chair of the Sports Information Directors Committee for the LSWA in 2019-20.
He was named a Ruston High School Distinguished Alumni in the fall of 2024 by the Ruston High School Alumni Association. He was honored by LA Tech Sports Properties and Louisiana Tech Athletics in March of 2025 for his 25 years of broadcasting Tech events.
