University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2025: Richard Ainley
9/2/2025 10:31:00 AM | Athletics, Golf
The third in a six-part series on the Louisiana Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2025; next - Haley Hayden
UL golf coach Theo Sliman put it best when talking about former Ragin' Cajun teammate Richard Ainley.
"Our team, we were all individuals trying to play the best we could, but all of us wanted to beat Richard," Sliman said of his teammates from a quarter-century ago. "If we beat him, that meant that we played well and the team played well."
Ainley had that kind of golfing talent when he came to UL in 1999, and two years of refining that talent led to the Kenya native compiling numbers-wise the top career in the history of a storied Cajun program.
A quarter-century after his final collegiate appearance, he remains the all-time leader in career scoring average, and his senior scoring average mark wasn't broken until last year. His four individual tournament victories also remain the all-time school standard.
"He just had a natural knack for the game," said former Cajun coach Bob Bass. "He played with his heart all the time. From a standpoint of mechanics he was definitely different from any player I ever had, but I was not about to try to change him. He could absolutely make the ball do unbelievable things."
It's because of those talents and that success that Ainley will be inducted into the UL Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday, Sept. 5, as part of a full weekend of Hall of Fame activities that includes the Cajuns' second home football game of the season against McNeese on Saturday, Sept. 6.
He will be inducted along with football's Brett Baer, men's basketball great Kevin Brooks, baseball's Corey Coles, women's softball standout Haley Hayden and long-time UL administrator Dr. Ed Dugas at the Friday night ceremony.
Doors open at 6 p.m. with the ceremony beginning at 7 p.m. in the McElligott Club of the new Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium. Tickets are available from the Ragin' Cajun Athletic Foundation at RCAF@louisiana.edu or by calling (337) 851-7223.
Ainley is one of only two Cajuns to win the Sun Belt Conference individual medalist title (joining fellow UL Hall of Famer Trey Coker) when he won the league crown in his first UL season as a junior in 2000. It was only a little over a year earlier that Bass first saw Ainley play while he was at Bossier Parish Community College.
"I had heard a lot about him, and that there was a kid who could really play at BPCC," Bass said. "I had his name but I didn't know much about him except that he was shooting really low numbers."
Bass traveled to watch him play at a junior college tournament in Mississippi, where he watched a group that included BPCC and Faulkner State players. That particular group included the left-handed Ainley and another left-hander, Faulkner's Bubba Watson. Yes, THAT Bubba Watson, the two-time Masters champion, 12-time PGA Tour champion and one of the longest hitters on Tour during his career.
"The first hole I saw them was a really long par-three," Bass said, "and Richard hits it on the fringe, and then calmly walked up and holed out his chip shot. He just kept making really good golf shots the whole round, and beat Bubba that day."
As Bass soon learned, holing that chip wasn't anything unusual.
"He probably had the best short game I've ever seen," he said. "Unbelievable around the greens. I'd never seen anyone set up hitting a wedge from 50 yards and expecting it to go in the hole. It was all about feel with him."
"Putting, chipping, bunker play, he was just next-level on all of those," said Sliman, who was Ainley's teammate in both of his UL years. "He would hole out more than anybody. Almost every round, he'd have a hole-out, a pitch or a chip or even a wedge. If he was 150 yards in, he was trying to make it. He had that mind-set."
A two-time All-Sun Belt selection and a member of the league's All-Time team from the first 30 years of the Sun Belt, Ainley had two individual wins in each of his two seasons including the league title as a junior.
"That was really important to him," Sliman said. "I think he was the first person of color to play in the Sun Belt, so I can only imagine what that meant to him to win it. I know he was extremely excited and proud, and we were all excited and proud for him."
Ainley, a standout all-around athlete who played squash, cricket, field hockey and soccer in high school in his native Kenya, won nearly two dozen junior titles in international golf competition before coming to the U.S. to play college golf. But his first outing in the 1999 fall season wasn't a smooth one.
"We're at Nebraska and he goes out and shoots 86 in the first round, very uncharacteristic," Bass said. "I'm sitting there shaking my head, but he comes back that afternoon and shoots 70. That's when I knew he was special."
Ainley went from there to post 23 sub-par and 10 even-par rounds over two seasons, including three sub-par 70-69-68—207 rounds in April of 2000 when he won the Sun Belt title. He eventually earned PING All-America and Golf Coaches Association All-America honors in his senior year to go with All-Louisiana honors.
"He was that Michael Jordan-kind of teammate," Sliman said. "He had a special gift, and he pulled better golf out of all of us."
Fans are encouraged to stay engaged with the Ragin' Cajuns by downloading the #GeauxCajuns app. Click here for iOS/Apple platforms and here for Android platforms.
Follow the Ragin' Cajuns on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (@RaginCajuns) to stay up-to-date on all that is happening with Louisiana Athletics.
"Our team, we were all individuals trying to play the best we could, but all of us wanted to beat Richard," Sliman said of his teammates from a quarter-century ago. "If we beat him, that meant that we played well and the team played well."
Ainley had that kind of golfing talent when he came to UL in 1999, and two years of refining that talent led to the Kenya native compiling numbers-wise the top career in the history of a storied Cajun program.
A quarter-century after his final collegiate appearance, he remains the all-time leader in career scoring average, and his senior scoring average mark wasn't broken until last year. His four individual tournament victories also remain the all-time school standard.
"He just had a natural knack for the game," said former Cajun coach Bob Bass. "He played with his heart all the time. From a standpoint of mechanics he was definitely different from any player I ever had, but I was not about to try to change him. He could absolutely make the ball do unbelievable things."
It's because of those talents and that success that Ainley will be inducted into the UL Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday, Sept. 5, as part of a full weekend of Hall of Fame activities that includes the Cajuns' second home football game of the season against McNeese on Saturday, Sept. 6.
He will be inducted along with football's Brett Baer, men's basketball great Kevin Brooks, baseball's Corey Coles, women's softball standout Haley Hayden and long-time UL administrator Dr. Ed Dugas at the Friday night ceremony.
Doors open at 6 p.m. with the ceremony beginning at 7 p.m. in the McElligott Club of the new Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium. Tickets are available from the Ragin' Cajun Athletic Foundation at RCAF@louisiana.edu or by calling (337) 851-7223.
Ainley is one of only two Cajuns to win the Sun Belt Conference individual medalist title (joining fellow UL Hall of Famer Trey Coker) when he won the league crown in his first UL season as a junior in 2000. It was only a little over a year earlier that Bass first saw Ainley play while he was at Bossier Parish Community College.
"I had heard a lot about him, and that there was a kid who could really play at BPCC," Bass said. "I had his name but I didn't know much about him except that he was shooting really low numbers."
Bass traveled to watch him play at a junior college tournament in Mississippi, where he watched a group that included BPCC and Faulkner State players. That particular group included the left-handed Ainley and another left-hander, Faulkner's Bubba Watson. Yes, THAT Bubba Watson, the two-time Masters champion, 12-time PGA Tour champion and one of the longest hitters on Tour during his career.
"The first hole I saw them was a really long par-three," Bass said, "and Richard hits it on the fringe, and then calmly walked up and holed out his chip shot. He just kept making really good golf shots the whole round, and beat Bubba that day."
As Bass soon learned, holing that chip wasn't anything unusual.
"He probably had the best short game I've ever seen," he said. "Unbelievable around the greens. I'd never seen anyone set up hitting a wedge from 50 yards and expecting it to go in the hole. It was all about feel with him."
"Putting, chipping, bunker play, he was just next-level on all of those," said Sliman, who was Ainley's teammate in both of his UL years. "He would hole out more than anybody. Almost every round, he'd have a hole-out, a pitch or a chip or even a wedge. If he was 150 yards in, he was trying to make it. He had that mind-set."
A two-time All-Sun Belt selection and a member of the league's All-Time team from the first 30 years of the Sun Belt, Ainley had two individual wins in each of his two seasons including the league title as a junior.
"That was really important to him," Sliman said. "I think he was the first person of color to play in the Sun Belt, so I can only imagine what that meant to him to win it. I know he was extremely excited and proud, and we were all excited and proud for him."
Ainley, a standout all-around athlete who played squash, cricket, field hockey and soccer in high school in his native Kenya, won nearly two dozen junior titles in international golf competition before coming to the U.S. to play college golf. But his first outing in the 1999 fall season wasn't a smooth one.
"We're at Nebraska and he goes out and shoots 86 in the first round, very uncharacteristic," Bass said. "I'm sitting there shaking my head, but he comes back that afternoon and shoots 70. That's when I knew he was special."
Ainley went from there to post 23 sub-par and 10 even-par rounds over two seasons, including three sub-par 70-69-68—207 rounds in April of 2000 when he won the Sun Belt title. He eventually earned PING All-America and Golf Coaches Association All-America honors in his senior year to go with All-Louisiana honors.
"He was that Michael Jordan-kind of teammate," Sliman said. "He had a special gift, and he pulled better golf out of all of us."
Fans are encouraged to stay engaged with the Ragin' Cajuns by downloading the #GeauxCajuns app. Click here for iOS/Apple platforms and here for Android platforms.
Follow the Ragin' Cajuns on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (@RaginCajuns) to stay up-to-date on all that is happening with Louisiana Athletics.
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