People start collections for various reasons: for their monetary value, to create decorative spaces in their homes, or the challenge of finding something rare. For Patrick Theriot, it was a tugging urge after finding an unknown collection of his father’s that led him to pay homage to his grandmother in his own way.

Rummaging through an old desk of his father’s years ago, Theriot found a stamp collection that made him wonder what he could collect. And then, in 2002, he found a 1998 Sports Illustrated with Shaquille O’Neal on the cover and bought it with his grandmother in mind; she was a “huge LSU basketball fan.” “A friend who worked in marketing at LSU at the time got it autographed for me,” Theriot remembers. “I started to wonder if there were other autographed Sports Illustrated covers featuring LSU athletics.”

And thus, the collection began and one by one, he’d find them preferring the more valuable covers without mailing labels. Signatures from Pete Maravich, Les Miles, Kevin Faulk, Billy Cannon, Chris Jackson (including one after he changed his name to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf), and others amount to 26 autographed covers framed on a wall in his office. Two others wait in a draw to be framed. To his knowledge, it is the only collection of Sports Illustrated covers featuring LSU in some way or another.

Compared to many memorabilia collectors, Theriot doesn’t consider himself the “autograph hound.” Good “people” skills and a tenacity when it comes to research, developed in his 25 years as an independent landman, have come in handy and as he says, “It’s good to keep connections.”

“When LSU won the national championship in 2003, the daughter of my mom’s neighbor was the trainer on the team and got Glen Dorsey and Matt Mauck to sign the cover. Verge Alsbury, LSU senior athletic director, helped me get some signatures. I got Joe Burrow’s signature through a friend. I made a trade with a collector I found on the East Coast who had autographed 1968 and ’69 covers with Pete Maravich.

His most memorable find is a 1958 preseason college football guide commemorating LSU’s first national championship spotlighting Coach Paul Dietzel on the cover. “After finding him in the phone book, I called and left a message,” says Theriot whose mantra is ‘What have you got to lose in asking?’ Still, he couldn’t believe it when the national coach returned his call. “I ended up mailing the magazine to him and he returned it with his signature along with autographs of several other All-American players. I’ll never forget the note Dietzel clipped to the magazine that directed me to page 66 for the year’s season forecast. It read something like: ‘…LSU is talented but will be an average team in the SCC.’”

A couple of autographs weren’t as easy to come by. “For nine years, I searched for Jordan Jefferson, who was on the 2011 cover. One day I was on the Internet and saw that he was working as a grad assistant on the Colorado State University football team. I sent the issue to him and he signed it. For whatever reason, it took over a month to get from Colorado to New Iberia!” Theriot laughs.

Unlike many collectors who never finish adding to their trove, Theriot currently has just one autograph that eludes him: the cover with All-American player Chad Lavalais from Marksville.

When he glances at the wall of covers, the one with most sentimental value is the 1998 issue with Shaq, “because of my grandmother who passed away in 2008. She instilled the LSU love; she had season tickets and now I do, too.”

An LSU alumnus himself, Theriot has an undergraduate degree in landscape architecture and a Master of Natural Science degree. You note the pride when he points out that he graduated 50 years, “to the day,” after his grandfather.

Theriot intends to pass the collection on to his son John Patrick, “J.P.,” who is a freshman at LSU this month. Sitting in on the interview much of the time, J.P. says of the keepsake that will one day be his, “It’s gonna be great. I have a few signed NFL pieces myself and, later on, I’ll have a special room for all of them.”