Ouachita’s State Title closes Mike Downhour’s 36-year Broadcasting Career
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
The euphoric Ouachita Parish fans began filing out of the Caesars Superdome on Dec. 13, still giddy following their team’s 21-20 victory over District 2-5A rival Ruston for the Division I nonselect state championship.
The Lions continually faced substantial odds over the previous month, so what was another challenge facing the top-seeded Bearcats in the program’s first trip to a state final in 31 years? The school’s lone state crown in 1989 was a footnote this year’s team had to find on Wikipedia.
Sitting seven floors above the Superdome was Ouachita’s longtime radio play-by-play announcer, Mike Downhour, who was packing up his equipment for the final time. While his radio partner Desmund Lighten had already gone to the field to celebrate with his brother, punter Trey Johnson, Downhour’s 36-year career as “Voice of the Lions” had reached a successful conclusion.
“I realized it was going to be the last time to pack the suitcases, the bags,” he said. “I looked up, and it was overwhelming to realize that. I always knew this was going to be my last year, but I never dreamed it would end the way it did.”
Ouachita (11-4) had rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit, taking a one-point lead with 6:41 left and holding on for its sixth straight victory to end the season.
Wide receiver Wydell Clark had caught the go-ahead touchdown from quarterback Montrell Connor Jr. and five minutes later, delivered the play of the game on defense – an all-out pursuit that was reminiscent of Ouachita’s play in November and December. He got off the Superdome turf and chased down Ruston’s All-America tight end Ahmad Hudson and stripped the ball, which teammate Dyland Johnson recovered with 1:21 to go.
“That really should have been it right there,” Downhour said.
Ouachita had lived in tight quarters during the postseason, advancing four times by an average of less than six points, and the finale would be no less dramatic.
Ruston, without any timeouts, forced a punt and drove to the outskirts of field goal range. Following an Ouachita timeout with four seconds showing, the Bearcats lined up for what would have been the game-winning field goal, but the 52-yard effort from Joaquin Ramos was short.
“It’s short. It’s short,” Downhour’s radio call unfolded. “The Ouachita Lions are state champions. The Ouachita Lions are getting rings. State champions for the first time since 1989.”
Downhour intended to have a script prepared for such a moment, but poked fun at his own lack of housekeeping skills in the booth.
“I wanted to have something written,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have been able to find it with all of my notes. That’s what came out.”
Video captured Downhour and Lighten, a former Ouachita standout, shaking hands and briefly embracing. Their broadcast partnership was seven years old, which also included their hosting the coach’s show, but their love of Ouachita and the school’s football program was evident. “I didn’t remember high-fiving him. I have no memory of that,” Lighten said. “I wanted to get to the field and celebrate with my brother. Mike never gave me flak about it. He was so thoughtful. He asked me for some parting words before I left to join my brother. He just said to go celebrate.”
With his ascent within the Monroe Chamber of Commerce, reaching the role of Manager of Membership and Community Engagement, Downhour was a candidate to succeed Roy Heatherly as the group’s CEO/President following his announced retirement at the end of the year.
Because of the demands of the position, which requires travel in and out of the state, Downhour informed Ouachita High School officials before the season that 2025 would be his last on Ouachita’s radio broadcasts, which also included an online streaming of the games the past three years.
“I told them that, unfortunately, this would be my last one and I couldn’t do it anymore,” he said. “I told them I would train someone. You win some, you lose some. What an incredible run.”
Monroe’s Chamber of Commerce made the news official on Wednesday with Downhour’s appointment to replace the outgoing Heatherly. He begins in his new capacity on Jan. 1.
“It’s been tough on him and us,” Lighten said. “When we started streaming, that was a stress on Mike. We were kind of building an airplane as we were going. With each (playoff) win, I was like, we’ve got to finish this year right and send Mike off. It became like it was his senior year. It was a pretty cool experience each time knowing it was coming to the end of this chapter.”
Downhour’s a transplant from the New Orleans-area town of Harahan. His family moved to Pine Bluff, Ark., and then to Monroe, where his father, Rolland, had been promoted. It was a profession Mike wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a second-generation air traffic controller.
When the Downhour family arrived in Monroe, Mike was a freshman at Ouachita High, graduated, and attended Northeast Louisiana (now UL-Monroe) with ideas of becoming a TV meteorologist.
NLU had one of the nation’s best women’s basketball programs under coach Linda Harper, who sported two future All-Americans in Lisa Ingram and Eung Jung Lee. The Lady Indians were a local phenomenon but lacked any kind of presence on the radio until Downhour and Lance Havener began broadcasting their games on KNLU, the campus radio station.
“I had no radio experience, but no one was covering them back then,” he said. “No one wanted to pick up the ladies on regular radio stations. They didn’t think it was going to last. We started covering them, and the rest was history. They kept winning and winning.”
NLU went 102-15 between 1982-86 and made three trips to the NCAA tournament. The Lady Indians defeated Montana, 72-53, in a first-round home game at home on a Tuesday and were scheduled to play a second-round game on Friday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena against Cheryl Miller-led USC.
“We realized we were going,” Downhour said. “We didn’t have any money for that. We were able to get a few sponsors and raised money for gas. Four of us teamed up and went out and covered the game. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life.
“The next year we had more sponsorships and ended up going to Miami and the Bahamas,” Downhour said. “The ladies went everywhere. They ended up in the Final Four. I’m 19, and to be able to broadcast athletics for two years was overwhelming.”
NLU reached the Women’s Final Four in 1985 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. It was the school’s first trip after a Sweet 16 win over Louisiana Tech (85-76), but the Lady Indians were defeated by Old Dominion (57-47) in a national semifinal.
The experience was enough to ignite a change in the mindset of what Downhour wanted to do with the rest of his life.
“I kind of got the fever in college at NLU back then,” he said.
Local television station KNOE hired Downhour after college, and he was paired with local icon Lanny James, and later Phillip Palmer, on radio broadcasts of Neville High football.
Ouachita football coach Mike Vallery, who had led the Lions to the school’s first state title in 1989, asked both James and Downhour to broadcast the Lions a year later.
“It was such a thrill,” Downhour said.
Ouachita was back in the Superdome in 1994 with James handling the play-by-play duties and Downhour serving as the color analyst in the Lions’ 36-28 loss to Hahnville in the state championship game.
When James retired in 2000, Downhour moved into the coveted play-by-play role.
Downhour had several partners, who ranged from John Carr and former NLU baseball coach Lou St. Amant for 12 years.
“It was such a camaraderie and brotherhood working with our broadcast team,” he said. “I learned so much from John Carr and Lou St. Amant.”
The tandem of Downhour and St. Amant was missing a spot on the broadcast team with a vacancy at sideline reporter. Because of his familiarity with Lighten, whom Downhour had interviewed during Lighten’s high school playing career, he believed the former two-time Southland Conference champion at McNeese State and Canadian Football League player would be a natural for the position.
“Not long before he asked me, I was watching football and listening to probably (announcer) Troy Aikman, and I said to my wife that I could probably do that,” Lighten said. “I was calling out the plays before it happened. When Mike asked if I could do it, I felt a resistance. I was nervous and said that I couldn’t do that. I had to put my money where my mouth was. I did it begrudgingly.”
Downhour was there with reassuring words and constructive criticism for Lighten, who made the transition to the booth after St. Amant’s retirement.
“He had to mentor me twice, once for the sideline and when Lou retired,” Lighten said. “I had to step into those shoes, and he taught me to do the color analyst role. He showed me how to sell ads. He would tell me that I could go farther than this, that I could have a career in this if I wanted.
“I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for Mike,” Lighten said. “Our relationship started when I was playing, and after my career was over and I opened a business, he visited me and asked if I thought about broadcasting football. He thought I could do it.”
Lighten progressed to the point of earning the attention of ESPN, which needed a color analyst for its broadcast of UL-Monroe football games.
When former standout NLU quarterback Stan Humphries, who starred in the CFL, was unable to work a game, Lighten stepped in and has handled such ESPN+ games for the Indians the last four or five years.
“Mike vouched for me, and I did it,” he said. “I did OK, and the next year they invited me back.”
Downhour made a startling realization at his college graduation. The radio/film/TV major, who received the James A. Noe Memorial Scholarship, noticed his passion for radio paled in comparison to that of his time at Danny’s Fried Chicken as general manager.
He had found the girl of his dreams and wanted to marry her, but saw the economic drawbacks of a life in radio.
“I knew I had to find a better job, but I loved radio,” he said.
Downhour worked as a DJ at a local 100,000-watt radio station and was smitten with the celebrity the position provided in public.
“I thought it was the greatest thing in the world,” he said. “You could be anywhere, and everyone knows your name.”
His climb was just beginning.
For six years, Downhour was involved in a startup Christian Contemporary station, before taking over as general sales manager of a station that also employed his wife as a DJ. He was then the general manager who oversaw several stations in the Monroe/Alexandria market until 2022.
“It’s been radio my whole life,” he said.
Heatherly found the kind of qualities in Downhour he was looking for in a potential successor, bringing him to the Chamber of Commerce.
Downhour was a big proponent of Monroe and the advances the city had made with the addition of Meta’s commitment to construct a multi-billion-dollar Artificial Intelligence data center campus in nearby Richland Parish. The proposed 2,250-acre campus is reportedly expected to cover four million square feet and create 5,000+ permanent jobs and thousands of construction jobs.
“There’s so much potential there,” Downhour said of Monroe. “Meta’s going to transform the area into something we haven’t seen before.”
Coming in on the heels of Ouachita’s first state title, the energetic and upbeat Downhour looked forward to such subsequent trips to New Orleans when he became a part of the Lions’ broadcast team.
Five years later, Ouachita was back in the Superdome under Vallery, where they lost to Hahnville.
They hadn’t been back until this season’s historic run.
“The ball just didn’t roll that way,” Downhour said. “John Carr had them fired up with Desmund playing. I thought if we could do that (finals) every two to three years, I’m fine. It was 31 years later that I finally got to step foot back in the Superdome again.”
Ouachita made 34 trips to the state playoffs, minus the 2001 and ’03 seasons, with four trips to the state quarterfinals and three to the semifinals under former NLU national championship coach Pat Collins and Carr.
Lighten was part of some of the heartache Ouachita dealt with during that span. The Lions’ deepest run during Knighten’s career was a trip to the Class 4A semifinals in 2005, losing to Bastrop (33-26), which was eventually stripped of its state championship.
Ouachita also dropped a 35-21 decision to Bastrop a year later in the quarterfinal round.
“Kids in the Ouachita (parish) system as eighth graders were moving to schools such as Neville, West Monroe, Ouachita Christian, and Sterlington and were regularly winning (state) titles,” Downhour said. “Ouachita wasn’t able to retain its talent until this year’s class came through. There were years where Ouachita floundered and slumped.”
Lighten would later discover the weight the team’s postseason shortcomings had on Downhour.
“A call here, a play that doesn’t get made,” he said. “It can beat you down. They made these early exits in the playoffs. We would ride down south and got our butts beat in the second round by Destrehan. They fed you jambalaya and then whipped you. It was rough on him because we knew the team was good. We knew they could do it, but could they break the Ouachita curse?”
Ouachita’s broadcasts were first-class with Downhour behind the microphone. Throw in talented color analysts over time, and when Knighten joined seven years ago, the Lions became arguably the envy of the state when it comes to having a sideline reporter, spotter, and statistician in the booth.
When Knighten joined the crew, the makeup of the broadcast team was a collection of Ouachita graduates in Downhour, former OHS and ULM running back Bryant Jacobs, now an assistant principal at the school. Ricky Robinson has handled the statistical and spotting duties and is on the headset, feeding information to Downhour.
Downhour and Knighten have also hosted a weekly radio show for the head coach.
“We all bled that Cardinal red,” Downhour said. “It was a brotherhood that you can’t imagine.”
Downhour’s 36th and final season turned into a rollercoaster ride with the kind of finish that left him wanting more.
Ouachita raced out to a 5-0 start with wins over Captain Shreve (37-19) in the opener. There were also gratifying wins over Sterlington (33-22), the eventual Division III nonselect state champion, and Division II power Franklin Parish (42-14).
“No one would look at us, we weren’t ranked, and they carried that chip on their shoulder,” Downhour said.
The dip in the carnival ride came during District 2-5A play, losing four straight games by an average of 7.3 points to Ruston, West Monroe, Neville, and Alexandria. The Lions finished the regular season with a 56-0 win over Pineville, resulting in a No. 14 seed and a challenging playoff bracket.
The same close quarters that Ouachita didn’t manage well in the regular season were prevalent again in the playoffs. They won their first two playoff games over St. Amant and Destrehan by a total of five points and headed to Bossier City to face Parkway, where a clip from a Shreveport television station provided additional motivation for the quarterfinal.
“There was an interview with Parkway’s players that reached social media,” Downhour said. “They said Ouachita couldn’t throw the ball, and they would shut down the run, and that they looked forward to moving on. That lit a fire.”
Ouachita emerged with a 28-22 victory, setting up its first semifinal game in 21 years at rival Neville, which defeated them on Oct. 24 when a failed two-point conversion resulted in a 38-37 victory.
The Lions’ suffocating defense, led by nose tackle Dylon Berymon and Deandre Mansfield, limited Neville to 195 total yards of offense in a 14-7 triumph.
“I don’t think the people at Bill Ruple Stadium (Neville’s home field) believed we held them to seven points,” Downhour said. “We were going to the Superdome. It’s the final stop on ‘The Revenge Tour.”
Ruston, a 21-14 winner over Ouachita in the regular season, was making its 14th appearance in a state championship game where it had won eight times.
The Bearcats opened a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter before the Lions answered with a touchdown on Macario Dade’s 27-yard score at the 6:44 mark of the second quarter.
A field goal from Ramos with 1:51 left before halftime provided Ruston with a 17-7 halftime edge.
“I got a little negative during the Ruston broadcast,” Lighten said. “Everything that could go wrong did. It was Mike who lifted me up. He said they had showed fight no matter what in the playoffs.”
Lighten said he was further moved by a text message he received during the game from a friend.
It was a bible verse imploring Ouachita to keep the faith and to pull through.
“That was from a Neville fan,” Lighten said.
Whatever the track record that may have hindered Ouachita in the past was quickly erased in the second half.
The Lions, who had moved 325-pound nose tackle AJ Washington to center during their stretch run, saw their offensive line begin to assert itself during a 9-play, 97-yard drive to get within three points with more than three minutes to go in the third.
Conner combined on five of those plays, with his lone pass going for 49 yards to Clark to Ruston’s 3. Dade, his team’s Most Outstanding Player with 150 yards on 20 carries, scored on first down, and Kameron Gayle added the extra point.
Ruston matched the field goal with Ramos’ second of the game – a 38-yard effort – for a 20-14 lead with 46 seconds showing in the quarter.
It was the last time the Bearcats would score.
Ouachita’s defense limited Ruston to 37 yards rushing on 18 attempts and held the Bearcats out of the end zone, thanks to the determination of such players as Clark.
When a fourth-and-goal pass from Connor to Dade blew up into a nine-yard loss, the Lions forced a three-and-out and got the ball back to their offense for what turned into a drive for the state championship.
Dade gained 14 yards on first down to Ruston’s 42 when Clark noticed Connor keeping a second-and-12 play alive. He slipped inside of his defender near the pylon in the end zone, motioned to Connor to throw it up to him, and came down with the go-ahead score with the ball initially secured against his helmet.
Gayle added his third extra point.
“That’s the rapport they have,” Downhour said of Connor and Clark. “Clark waved his hand, pointed in the air, and went and got it. It wasn’t a picture-perfect play. That was yard ball with two guys that had been doing it a long time.”
Six minutes, 41 seconds separated Ouachita from an improbable run with defeats of the Nos. 3, No. 6, No. 2, and No. 1 teams to win the state championship. The Lions were also bidding to become the first team to finish fifth in their district to win a state title and the third-highest-seeded team.
Clark’s highlight-reel play with 1:21 left in the game took place at the end of an eight-play drive that drained more than four minutes off the clock.
Hudson, a menace in the first matchup, had game highs in receptions (6) and yardage (179) and appeared to have set up Ruston to break Ouachita’s heart with a show of muscle and resolve. His catch on third-and-three was moving the Bearcats into prime scoring position until Clark tracked him down and knocked the ball out, which Johnson recovered.
“He was juked out and down on the ground,” Downhour said of Clark. “He knew he could catch him, but wasn’t sure what he would do once he caught him. He dove for the ball, and the ball comes out.”
Ruston was able to use the remainder of its timeouts and forced Ouachita to punt with Lighten’s brother uncorking a 60-yard effort that carried into the end zone for a touchback with 46 seconds still to play.
The Bearcats recorded two first downs and reached Ouachita’s 35 when an incompletion left four seconds on the clock, bringing out Ramos for the lengthy attempt that fell short as time expired.
“Of course, it’s going to come down to the last play of the game,” Downhour said. “We’ve watched this kid kick. He can make a 50-yarder, but not this time.”
Downhour was finally able to exhale.
“During the playoffs, he’s almost waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Lighten said of Downhour. “Something was going to happen because it always does. This year was different. The shoe never dropped. We made the plays. This was the most dominant we’d seen Ouachita … maybe ever. To see Mike get to call that was a pretty cool experience.”
It was also unique for Lighten to be able to share such a moment with his younger brother.
It had been 21 years since Ouachita was stopped by Bastrop one step short of reaching the Dome, one that his brother helped Lighten successfully navigate.
“It was kind of a cool thing that my little brother played a part,” he said. “We (the broadcast team) get rings also. It comes full circle in him helping me get a ring I never got when I was playing. I’ve got two conference championship rings in college, but it doesn’t hit the same as getting that state championship ring.”
The 426th broadcast of Ouachita football for Downhour was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Not only did the Lions reach the top of the mountain in the state’s highest classification in his final foray, but the 2 ½-hour broadcast didn’t always follow some of the tenets handed down by James.
Downhour, who had missed only two games in 36 years – one for the death of his mother in 2018- was always cautious, as James suggested, to never refer to Ouachita as “we” or “us” and remain professional with a reasonable tone throughout.
By the end of the game, with Clark’s touchdown and defensive gem, Downhour sensed a piece of school history taking place and was up to the task of framing the moment.
He celebrated when the game’s final play went Ouachita’s way, succinctly capturing what had just taken place, putting it into a context that wasn’t about him, but the school, the coaches, and players.
“Mike’s big points were always that we were the people’s eyes and ears that couldn’t be there,” Lighten said. “We had a responsibility to have a good broadcast, get the players’ names right, and have a good relationship with the coaching staff. You have to earn their trust to get the information to do your job.
“When the field goal was missed, and Mike said the Ouachita Lions were getting rings, it went viral,” Lighten said. “In the seven years we’ve been doing it, it was Mike’s best broadcast. He crushed it.”
Lighten and Downhour, who both attended Ouachita’s postgame news conference, began their return trip to Monroe later that same evening, stopping at Popeye’s off I-55 along with Jacobs and Robinson, and were quickly the focal point of jubilant fans asking to take pictures.
When photos surfaced online of Downhour and Lighten at the establishment, more fans showed up to meet the two personalities, who were gracious enough to offer analysis of the game and relive the high points.
“We were on Cloud 9 the whole trip back,” Lighten said. “My phone was blowing up with text messages and phone calls.”
Nearly a week after winning the state championship, Downhour expedited a “Celebration Show”, complete with a title sponsor, which was hosted at a local restaurant to pay tribute to the Lions.
It resembled the coach’s show format, but because of the additional amount of content, plus interviews with several coaches including head coach Bengy Lewis, and players ranging from Clark and Connor, the show was extended to two hours.
Fans at the jammed-packed establishment took pictures with the state championship trophy and their favorite players, sitting quietly while Downhour and Lighten moved the show along in much the same manner they did a football game. Their chemistry remained intact, as well as their love of the school and respect for the coaches and players.
John Carr was another person with great admiration for Downhour and mentioned that in a conversation with Lighten. Not only had Downhour been responsible for football broadcasts the past 36 years, but he had also breathed life into Ouachita’s boys and girls basketball teams, along with baseball and softball, during district play or deep postseason runs.
“We talked after the final, and he mentioned Mike’s loyalty and just that he was such a solid guy,” Lighten said. “I knew that I had a good, loyal partner who was straightforward, you could trust.”
That ‘Ouachita Guy’, as Downhour’s commonly referred to, may be the Monroe Chamber of Commerce’s gain, but Ouachita High and the Lions athletic program will never be far from his heart.
He’s hopeful next fall, when Ouachita plays on Fridays, to have a ticket in hand and a seat in the stadium.
“I can hardly remember life before Ouachita football,” he said. “We lost four games in October, and I thought we would go one-and-done or two-and-out. These kids woke up, started playing the way we knew they could play. It’s been surreal, almost a movie script, the way these kids won.
“When I saw the ball (on the last field goal attempt) halfway, I realized the clock was on zero,” Downhour said. “I said it’s over. The Lions win. The Lions are state champions for the first time since 1989.”