Matt Dunigan being honored at Louisiana Tech in 2018.
When 2019 Lake Highlands High School graduate and football recruit Jakson Thomson shows up on the Louisiana Tech campus for two-a-days this summer, he’ll find he’s not the first quarterback from Lake Highlands to make a splash at LA Tech. This Saturday, Matt Dunigan will be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches.
“Boy, he could chunk that apple,” said E.J. Lewis in a Shreveport Times article announcing Dunigan’s honor. Lewis was the longtime Tech assistant who recruited Dunigan out of Lake Highlands.
All-Southland Conference receiver Karl Terrebonne, a teammate of Dunigan’s, also praised his quarterback in the Times article.
“If Matt winked at you in the huddle, he was going to throw the ball to you whether you were open or not. Matt just threw the ball in between everybody. Going back to the huddle, he’d just smile.”
Dunigan graduated from LHHS in 1979 and led the Bulldogs to a 9-2 regular season record his senior year with 2,843 yards and 23 touchdowns. His team beat South Carolina State in the playoffs 38-3 but lost to Delaware in the semifinals.
Dunigan played in the Canadian Football League, retiring in 1996 with 43,857 passing yards and 303 passing touchdowns. He was voted one of the CFL’s Top 50 Players and was elected to the CFL Hall of Fame.
Dunigan has coached and even published a cookbook, and he works as a CFL analyst on TSN. He often speaks about the dangers of concussions in youth football.
