L-Club Spotlight on Howard Dumont: LSU Tennis (1957-1960)

Howard Dumont enrolled in LSU in the Fall of 1957. He was quick to get involved, joining ROTC, pledging ZBT (a campus fraternity) and playing clarinet. He also walked on to the Tennis team his freshman year, lettering 1957-1960.

LSU’s tennis coach Coach Robinson became a father figure to Dumont during his time at LSU. Dumont worked for him in the tennis center, now named after Coach Robinson.

Dumont also became very close with Coach Robinson’s younger son Johnny, who was also on the tennis team yet better known for his role in helping to bring LSU their first national championship. Also while at LSU, Dumont, Robinson and Billy Cannon started a business together selling weight sets out of the tennis center. Upon purchase the buyer received a barbell and a standard assorted set of steel plates that came in a burlap sack with the LSU logo printed on the sack.

By his senior year, Dumont was unanimously elected as the captain of the LSU varsity tennis team. When Coach Robinson first saw the results of the vote he joked, "You must be kidding, you guys just elected the worst tennis player on the team to be your captain", to which several teammates replied that there was no better or dependable man than for the title than Dumont. Any time Howard would finish his match early he would support and root on his teammates.

During his time at LSU Howard was also one of Mike I’s primary caregivers. He fed Mike 8 lbs. of horse meat a day, drove him onto the field at the start of each home game, and transported him to the closer away games.

Dumont met the love of his life, Anne during his time at LSU. He never missed the opportunity to take his kids to see Coach, Mike the Tiger and campus. They moved several times in the early years working while Dumont was working for JC Penny's Corp., but settled down in High Point , NC in 1972. Dumont and Anne recently celebrated 60 years of marriage and together they have two sons and four grandchildren.

His top interest and priorities continue to be his family, tennis and LSU. He stayed in touch with Coach Robinson until his passing and is still in touch with Johnny. After more than 30 years, he retired with JC Penny’s but continued to run or work for a variety of other businesses up until very recently.

Once a Tiger. Always a Tiger!