JEANERETTE — Four Jeanerette residents were honored at Monday’s Board of Aldermen meeting for a historic moment in 1972 when they became the first Jeanerette Senior High students to receive college football athletic scholarships.

That year, at the startup of the Nicholls State University football program, the university extended scholarships to Artia Hypolite (wide receiver), Ray Champagne (defensive end), Ronald Joseph Sr. (running back) and Richard Berard (fefensive end). They were the first athletes to receive football scholarship in the history of Jeanerette High School. The only Jeanerette athlete to receive a college football scholarship prior to that was Roger Williams from Francis Marion Boley High School in the mid 1960s, to Grambling University.

Mayor Carol Bourgeois introduced a resolution Monday night in honor of Berard, Champagne, Hypolite and Joseph.

“I really take pride in this moment,” Bourgeois said. “Some 47 years ago, four young men from Jeanerette made history when they were each awarded four-year scholarships to play college football at Nicholls University, which was an NCAA Division 2 school.”

Bourgeois said the moment was historic because it was the first time JHS students received athletic scholarships, and one of the first in Jeanerette.

The mayor noted that Roger Williams had earned a scholarship to Grambling.

In February, Hypolite, Joseph, Berard and Gerald Butler, of Slidell, were honored during Black History month at the Chick-Fil-A College Hall of Fame located in Atlanta for being the first four African Americans to play football at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux.

“In honor of black history month, these four players that I named were honored in the college football hall of fame for being a historic first at Nicholls State University as three of the first four African-Americans to earn a roster spot at Nicholls,” Bourgeois said.

“This being homecoming week, we are Jeanerette proud for honoring them for their contributions.”