This is the first of seven stories on the 2022 UL Athletics Hall of Fame Class. Today: Russ Faulkinberry.
Russ Faulkinberry was a big man, in more ways than one. He was also someone the then-USL athletic department and football program badly needed when he joined the staff as head football coach in 1961.
Then known as the Bulldogs, the squad had gone 19-28-1 over the five seasons prior to Faulkinberry's arrival, and when the Murfreesboro, Tenn., native and former Vanderbilt standout arrived, he knew something had to change.
Faulkinberry put his first USL team through training and workouts unheard of prior to him taking over the program.