Inducted: 1993

There is no record of the number of games Wilfred “Skeeter” Theard’s Redemptorist High baseball teams won over his 39-year career as the Rams’ head coach, but it is estimated that his prep and American Legion baseball teams combined for more than 1,000 victories.

A graduate of Warren Easton High School and Loyola University, Theard began a professional baseball career in 1941, before serving in the Coast Guard during World War II. He return to the diamond in 1946, playing six more years of minor league ball, before moving onto the teaching and coaching ranks in New Orleans.

Theard coached Redemptorist’s 1980 team to the school’s only state championship.

He used to teach his players to thump their chest with their right hand as they ran to first base in the event of a close play at the bag, his rationale being that the umpire was probably watching the ball and listening for the base-runner’s foot to hit the bag.

Theard also coached teams in the New Orleans Recreation Department and All-American League.

Theard was born March 22, 1918; he died on January 8, 2004 at the age of 85.