LaFrance nominated for Arena Hall of Fame

George LaFrance is already an Arena Football legend, voted the No. 3 player in league history by the AFL’s Historical Committee.

The New Iberia Senior High graduate and five-time Arena Bowl champion might just add “Hall of Famer” to his resume in the near future as a 2011 candidate for the Arena Football Hall of Fame. Fans can vote for Hall of Fame candidates by going to www.arenafootball.com and clicking on the link “2011 Arena Football Hall of Fame Candidates.” Fans must be registered with the Web site to vote.

“It would be nice if New Iberia gets behind him and helps one of their own get in the hall of fame,” said New Iberia Senior High assistant football coach Robert Pinckney, LaFrance’s stepbrother.

LaFrance certainly has the stats to back up his nomination. A two-time AFL Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year (1989 and 1991 in both instances), LaFrance ranks second all-time in league history in postseason points (250), postseason all-purpose yards (3,678) and postseason receiving touchdowns (38) for his 12-year career.

He also is third all-time in career all-purpose yards (20,480) and postseason receptions (130). LaFrance played for the Detroit Drive from 1988-93, the Tampa Bay Storm from 1994-99 and the New Jersey Red Dogs in 2000 before retiring at age 35.

“Personally, it’s an honor just to be considered,” said LaFrance, who currently lives in New Mexico, where he is athletic director at Dine’ College, a junior college on the Navajo nation lands. “It’s more from the fans, the sportswriters, the coaches, and my fellow players who got a chance to watch me perform.

“It’s great.”

LaFrance played in the league championship game, the Arena Bowl, in nine of his 12 seasons. The championships were great, from 1988-90 and 1993 with Detroit and in 1995 with Tampa Bay.

But it’s something else about his career that sticks with him.

“I’ve been blessed,” said LaFrance. “I’ve won plenty of championships and won many awards. But the thing that sticks most is the ones we lost.”

And though it’s been 10 years since his playing days ended, he still misses the competition, said LaFrance.

“But I’ve got great teammates (who are now) all over the world, coaches all over the world,” he said. “It’s like friends for life. You learn you can’t do it by yourself. That’s what I instill in our athletes (at Dine’ College).”

Personal accomplishments eventually fade and records are made to be broken, said LaFrance. But team accomplishments last forever.

“It was more just the championships,” said LaFrance. “You keep those forever.”

He also tries to instill a no-quit attitude in his school’s athletes. His most impressive statistical season came in 1998, when he was benched at the start of the season in favor of a younger player. He responded with 65 receptions, third most in his career for a single season. Incredibly, 35 of those catches (54 percent) went for touchdowns, his highest season total and one of only two seasons where he topped 25 TD catches for the year.

“(The benching) didn’t deter me,” said LaFrance. “It actually helped me. I got to see more from the bench than I would have from the field. I got a different perspective.

“I took that negative and turned it into a positive. Every time they threw the ball to me, I made it happen. I believe you make the most of your chances.”

LaFrance is struck by the connections he’s made through the years. When he first finished his college career at Baker University in Kansas, LaFrance and Baker U tight end Mike McCarthy became graduate assistant coaches at Fort Hays State. LaFrance then went to training camp with the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, returning to coach for two years at Fort Hays with McCarthy.

They went their separate ways after those two years, with LaFrance pursuing a playing career and McCarthy pursuing a coaching career that eventually brought him to … Green Bay, where he is head coach for the defending Super Bowl Champion Packers, the team LaFrance tried out for.

LaFrance also said Ahsaki LaFrance, the oldest of his and wife Darlene’s three daughters, is a pre-med student at the University of Arizona and ran track. As an athlete for the Wildcats, she’s come to know football player Marcus Benjamin, a Westgate High graduate who also played at U of A. 

“It’s a small world,” said LaFrance, adding with a laugh that Benjamin was shocked to find out Ahsaki LaFrance’s dad was from his hometown. The LaFrances’ middle daughter, Nizhoni, is a student at New Mexico State, studying animal science, while youngest daughter LaBelle is a third grader.

LaFrance said he still loves the AFL. NISH won the state baseball championship his junior and senior seasons, and he had the opportunity to play college baseball, but chose football instead, even though the Yellow Jackets didn’t make the playoffs in his junior or senior seasons.

“My heart was in football,” said LaFrance.

His place in Arena Football history is already assured. 

His status as a Hall of Famer could be sewed up soon as well.