Southeastern alumnus establishes sports journalism scholarship
Thursday, October 19, 2017 
by: Tonya Lowentritt
(Photo credit: Jonathan Rhodes)
SPORTS JOURNALISM SCHOLARSHIP ESTABLISHED - Southeastern Louisiana University Alumni Athletic Coordinator and alumnus Larry
Hymel has established The Endowed Scholarship for Sports Journalism. Hymel, right,
congratulates the first scholarship recipient junior accounting major Nikisun Shrestha,
who was selected based upon his sports reporting for the student newspaper “The Lion’s
Roar.”
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University Alumni Athletic Coordinator and alumnus
Larry Hymel has added establishment of The Endowed Scholarship for Sports Journalism
to his more than 50 years of service to his alma mater.
Junior accounting major Nikisun Shrestha was selected as its first recipient
based upon his sports reporting for the student newspaper “The Lion’s Roar.”
Shrestha is an international student from Nepal who came to the university with
an interest in sports.
“I’m just incredibly honored to be getting the first scholarship,” he said. “Coming
in as an international student from Nepal, sports was one of the first things I could
really connect to in America. It has helped me meet new people, meet the coaches and
student-athletes, and helped me settle into the cultural shock of a new environment.”
Shrestha said he is thankful to the Office of Student Publications and the people
he has worked with for their support and direction.
Hymel himself worked at “The Lion’s Roar” while he was a student and later became
the first Sports Information Director for the university in 1966 after being the sports
editor for “The Daily Star” in the same year. He served as SID for 28 years before
retiring to become the University Center Director for the next 11 years. In 2005 he
retired once again, but became the Alumni Athletic Coordinator. He will retire from
that position at the end of this semester. Earlier this year, he received the Lion
For Life award from the Lion Athletic Association.
In 2011, Hymel was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame for Distinguished
Service in Sports Journalism. It was then that Hymel decided to establish the scholarship.
“I was there because of Southeastern, and there are two other former ‘Lion’s
Roar’ sports editors in the Louisiana Hall of Fame,” said Hymel. “It all fits together.
I wanted to give back to Southeastern because Southeastern has given so much to me.”
Hymel wanted the scholarship to primarily aid students producing sports writing
for the university athletics department.
“It is going to be awarded on a semester to semester basis,” said Hymel. “My
first priority, because I worked with sports information for so long, is to give it
to a student who writes in sports information. It can also be a student from ‘The
Lion’s Roar,’ since it is still dear to my heart, as well.”
Shrestha is currently training to become the sports editor of “The Lion’s Roar”
and looks forward to improving as a sports journalist.
“I like to think of myself as a student of sports journalism,” said Shrestha.
“I want to keep improving because I am still new at this, and there is much to learn.
This scholarship provides me with motivation to continue to get better in sports journalism.”
