Don Dubuc, a legend in the New Orleans outdoors scene for over 40 years, has been selected to receive a
Jimmy Collins Award for his lifetime accomplishments. The New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl, selects annual award winners in a variety of categories; it also selects
Sugar Bowl Athletes of the Month and each year’s
New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame class.
While there are many different categories of awards presented by the New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, some years the Committee finds that there are people deserving of recognition who do not necessarily fit into one specific category. For that reason, the Committee presents the Jimmy Collins Award to outstanding individuals and organizations. Collins was a longtime New Orleans sportswriter who is credited with creating the New Orleans Sports Awards and forming the Sports Awards Committee in 1958.
Dubuc retired in 2026 after nearly four decades as Louisiana’s voice of the outdoors. The 75-year old broadcasted the final edition of his long-running "Outdoors with Don Dubuc" radio program on Feb. 7.
“There's just some bucket list stuff while I’ve still got good health and I was at top of my game in the career,” Dubuc told Nola.com. “I'm going to be doing some traveling around the country, out of the country. I’ve got three daughters – none of them live here -- and I’m going to be spending a lot more time with them.”
Dubuc, an Archbishop Rummel grad, was born in New Orleans and raised in Jefferson Parish. He told Nola.com that be became hooked on fishing at an early age and he caught his first fish – a perch – at a kids’ fishing rodeo at a lake at the former Jefferson Downs horse racing track in Metairie, which is now the site of Lafreniere Park.
He also hosted the “Bayou Wild TV” show which also covered local outdoors topics. He shared the stories, traditions, and experiences that help to define Louisiana as the “Sportsman’s Paradise” and he became the trusted companion of generations of hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts, guiding all to their boat launches, camps, and duck blinds.
“Don is just like you hear him on the radio. He’s genuine,” said Mike Gallo, a fishing and tour guide who worked as one of Dubuc’s field reporters, told Nola.com. ““He's very sincere about the information that he provides to outdoorsmen because, really, at heart, he is an outdoorsman that loves fishing and hunting himself. So I guess it kind of came second nature to him after so long.”
The
New Orleans Sports Awards Committee came together when James Collins spearheaded a group of sports journalists to form a sports awards committee to immortalize local sports history. For 13 years, the committee honored local athletes each month and a variety of annual award winners. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the creation of the New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1971, honoring 10 legends from the Crescent City in its first induction class. While adding the responsibility of selecting Hall of Famers, the committee has continued to recognize the top athlete in the New Orleans area each month as well as a range of annual awards – the honors enter their 70th year in 2026.
The
Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 29 national champions, 114 Hall of Fame players, 55 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 92-year history. The 93rd Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will serve as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, will be played on January 15, 2027. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.6 billion into the local economy in the last decade.
-www.AllstateSugarBowl.org-
