The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH her career just about over and done with, Lavern Eve is now basking in her success as the most dominant female javelin thrower the Bahamas - and by extension, Louisiana State University - has ever produced.

On Friday night in the L’Auberge Baton Rouge Events Center, Eve returned to LSU where she was one of eight members of the 2015 Class of Athletic Hall of Fame inductees.

“Can you imagine? I’m just elated,” said Eve when asked how she felt about her latest achievement. “The event was something that I never really experienced before. It was one of my most memorable moments. It was fantastic. Fantastic.”

As she was called to the podium, Eve said they introduced her to the song “Sponger Money” and she couldn’t help by dancing to express her gratitude.

When you look back at the accomplishments that she attained at LSU, you would understand why she was so elated. She was a discus, shot and javelin thrower from 1986-88, helping to guide the Lady Tigers to three NCAA championships. In 1987, she was the individual NCAA champion for javelin. That same year she set the school record for the longest javelin throw - 204 feet, nine inches - a mark that still stands today.

Eve, a two time All-American, helped lead the LSU women’s track and field team to the 1987 NCAA outdoor championship, a title which started a streak of 11 straight outdoor NCAA crowns for the Lady Tigers. She went on to compete in five Olympic Games, eight IAAF World Championships and win 22 gold medals at various events, including one at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

She enjoyed her greatest moment on the international scene when she was sixth in the javelin at the Olympics in 2004 in Athens, Greece.

But for Eve, the induction ceremony was like going back home to where her career really got started.

“When I first got the call from the athletic director, he told me that they have some good news for me. He said he was Joe Alleva and I was being nominated for the LSU Hall of Fame. I thought it was almost a joke,” she said. “About two weeks later, I got a call from him confirming that I was selected, so I started to take it all in.

“When I went back there, I felt like I was going back home because I had spent a lot of time in Baton Rouge. I made so many friends. They were like my family down there, so going back there was nostalgic for me because I enjoyed the time that I was there. I really enjoyed seeing a lot of my friends, the trainers and some of the people who came through the programme with me. A lot of them came out to the event.”

She was joined by three of her sisters from Nassau, Judy (Tynes), Charmaine (Eve) and Karen (Simms), along with Berly Eve, another sister who lives in Houston, Texas.

Having stopped competing since 2012, Eve said she is basically done and now she can go out in the sunset.

“This is one of my most memorable experiences. When you are in the Hall of Fame, it speaks volumes because you are a part of a selected group of fraternity or sorority,” she said. “Very few people can make that entry. At LSU, they only have 130 people in the Hall of Fame and it’s done on a regular basis. This is not something that they do every year, so that makes it very special.”

And putting her career at LSU into perspective, Eve said it’s one that she will cherish for the rest of her life.

“It was where it all began because that was where I started making the World Championship and Olympic teams (for the Bahamas),” she said. “So with the coaches that we had at LSU, they saw something that was far more than just competing for SEC or NCAA. They looked far beyond that and I want to thank people like coach Dan Pfaff, who made it all possible for me. So I have to say that my career at LSU was a stepping stone for my greater success in life.”

Nowadays, Eve is working in Atlanta, Georgia, where she resides, but her ultimate goal is to come home and make a contribution to the further growth and development of the athletic programme through the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and the BAAA.

She’s just waiting to get that call just like she did when LSU rang to let her know that she was going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.