What a Legacy: Logansport, home to Dale Morvan for nearly 50 years, will add his name to football stadium
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
When Dale Morvan left Coushatta High for Logansport in 1976, he was asked to take on an additional sport to his primary role as assistant football coach.
With a background in boys’ basketball, a sport he coached at Class C Allen High in Natchitoches Parish, Morvan was instead handed the reins to the girls’ basketball program. A year later, he guided the Lady Tigers to the school’s second state championship in six years, defeating Live Oak, 54-42, for the Class 1A state title.
The football program, though, wasn’t winning at such a high level of success, and removed its head coach, extending an overture to Morvan to become head coach.
“We weren’t very good in football, and at the end of the second year, they told the coach he wouldn’t be rehired as the football coach, and he left,” Morvan said. “There was nobody to take it over.
“I turned it down a couple of times and then they talked me into it,” Morvan said. “We were fortunate to have some tough boys and went 6-4 the first year. We started to develop the program, and the kids bought in, and we became successful, and we started winning some games.”
Logansport became a model of consistency during Morvan’s 20 seasons. The Tigers won 67% (153-75-2) of their games, five district titles, qualified for postseason play 15 times, and climbed to the mountain in Class 1A with a memorable 33-32 victory over Mangham, completing a perfect 15-0 season in 1995.
“He (Morvan) was good at getting kids to play at the highest level,” said Logansport coach Kevin Magee, quarterback of the ’95 state title team. “In my opinion, when you get kids to play above their ability, that’s what the profession’s about. Getting them to perform and excel above what they think they’re capable of.”
Morvan left Logansport for a four-year stint as head coach at Class 3A Mansfield before retiring. He returned to DeSoto Parish, where he’s won three terms on the school board, representing the Logansport area, where his impact and guidance have been driving forces for the past decade.
When it came time for Logansport High to find a way to honor Morvan’s contributions, the DeSoto Parish School Board unanimously voted to add his name to the school’s football field this fall.
When Logansport opens District 3-1 play at home against St. Mary’s on Oct. 10, the school’s football field will officially become Dale Morvan at Tiger Stadium.
“I was completely in the dark about it, said the 77-year-old Morvan. “I had expressed my desire not to do that. Not that I thought I was that good or anything, I’m just not that type of person to have stuff like that plastered.
“I do appreciate it, I’m humbled by it,” Morvan said. “It’s quite an honor. I had a great career at Logansport. We won a lot of ballgames and a state championship, and also won a state championship in girls’ basketball.”
Magee, who coached Logansport to a 14-0 season and the Class 1A state title in 2016, said the process of adding Morvan’s name to the stadium had been in the works for nearly two weeks.
The latest bond proposal by Morvan helped continue a makeover of Logansport’s stadium. It included home and visitor bleachers, which were both torn down in January, visitor side concession stands and dressing room, and an additional storage building.
The project, which began in January of 2024 and forced Logansport to play its first four games on the road, also included a Jumbotron scoreboard with messaging and graphics capability, a new entrance way into the stadium with wrought-iron fencing with a completion date set for Sept. 29.
“It’s going to be absolutely unbelievable,” Magee said. “We asked to wait (on renaming of the field) until the entire project is complete. We’ve ordered some signage to place under the Jumbotron, and when that’s complete and mounted, we will have a celebration.
“It’s just well deserved,” Magee said. “He’s put his whole heart into Logansport High School, our community, and our church. He’s just an incredible individual. He’s very special to me. I grew up with his son and spent a lot of time at his house. It was like a second home for me.”
Understanding Morvan’s reluctance for such notoriety, Magee said one of the biggest undertakings in the process was getting the measure of renaming the stadium on the school board’s agenda outside of Morvan’s knowledge.
Magee was purposely late to the most recent board meeting and out of Morvan’s view. He had previously made Morvan’s family aware of his planned presentation, which received resounding approval.
“The surprise was all over his face,” he said of Morvan. “The emotions came after that. It was a good night.”
Morvan, who is in his fourth and final term on the board, said he’s thankful to his constituents in the close-knit community of Logansport (population 1,340) and his fellow board members for the respect and belief they’ve continually shown during his tenure.
Magee said Logansport’s voting district is responsible for $35 million in upgrades and improvements to Logansport’s campus during Morvan’s time on the board.
“I’ve been fortunate to have enough people on our side, and we did something that we wanted to accomplish at our school,” Morvan said. “I put in a couple of bond proposals, and people had enough confidence in me and that I wouldn’t frivolously throw it away and voted for it. There are some really good things happening at Logansport High and the elementary.”
The school received a new fieldhouse in 2020 following a bond that Morvan backed and new artificial turf was put in place two years ago. Once work is completed on the football facility, the remaining money from the bond is earmarked for the renovation of the front of the gymnasium and a new floor.
Moreover, both the baseball and softball fields will receive artificial turf fields, and the current all-weather track will be resurfaced.
“He continuously pushes and asks and demands,” Magee said of Morvan.
Morvan, who grew up on a farm in Allen, attended Natchitoches High School and played offensive line for Northwestern State.
With the help of a friend, Morvan’s coaching career began at Allen High, followed by stops at Coushatta (now Red River), Logansport, and Mansfield.
Morvan shared with his wife Janice, whom he’s been married to for 47 years, that he believed it may better for his career to work in Shreveport to gain valuable experience as an assistant coach, which would help further his career.
That never materialized, though, but a legacy at Logansport High was born that’s included Morvan’s two decades of coaching, and time with the parish school board, leading to a sense of fulfillment each Friday when he and his wife attend home games.
“Everybody wanted to be in Shreveport,” he said. “But it didn’t pan out that way. My wife and I are big Logansport Tiger fans.”
Logansport rarely overpowered teams with size and talent, but the characteristics of Morvan’s teams showed up in intangibles such as tenacity and selfless play.
“They had a togetherness and worked together as a team,” he said. “I was just part of it. I’ve never thought I was a great coach or anything. I did have a really good relationship with the kids.”
Magee, whose older brother Doug was his center on the ’95 state championship team, said consistency was a hallmark of the teams he played on during his career.
“Coach never wavered, we never had those valleys,” he said. “He got the most out of his players. He was such a great motivator. We were not special athletically. We had some great athletes through that period, but as a group, we were an average, normal 1A school. We just overachieved because we didn’t know any better.”
Logansport’s team in ’95 was a force of nature with Magee at the trigger.
The Tigers also had standouts in future LSU signees Robert Davis and Cisco Perkins, along with lineman Antonio McKeever, for a team that went undefeated.
Perkins, who rushed for half of his 2,000 yards in the postseason, was named the state’s outstanding player on the Class 1A All-State team with Magee, Davis, and McKeever all earning first-team status.
“I thought we were going to be pretty good that year,” Morvan said. “We played some high-level schools and had some success. We also had some above-average ball players.”
The talented Tigers, though, trailed Mangham by three touchdowns at halftime of the state championship game when Magee led the team’s second-half comeback. He accounted for all five of the team’s touchdowns – all passes to Davis – and the team edged the Dragons by a point.
“They were just gritty,” Morvan said. “They wanted to play for me. That’s why we were successful. They believed in it. After we won some games against larger schools, I began to think we had a shot. It was quite a ride.
“We knew Robert had speed, and we were able to iso (isolate) him on the safety, and Kevin was able to lay it in there,” Morvan said. “We moved him around to different spots. He was a fantastic athlete, and when he caught it, there was no one that was going to catch him.”
The Logansport community made an indelible mark on Morvan’s life, a place he’s been for the last 49 years. It’s an area where both his daughter Kayla and son Jeremy were born and raised and are graduates of Northwestern State.
Two of his three grandchildren attend Logansport High where senior Cane McCoy is a center on this year’s team, and his granddaughter Ainsley Morvan is a pitcher/shortstop for the Lady Tigers’ softball team.
“That was my goal,” Morvan said of his hopes of establishing roots in Logansport. “DeSoto Parish hired me and has been very good to me. When we got to Logansport, they welcomed my wife and I, and we’ve become part of the little community. Logansport High School means so much to me. I wanted to leave it better than what I found it.”
While the school is the centerpiece of the community, Logansport gravitated toward Morvan in more than his capacity for coaching football. Two decades of coaching at the school catapulted him into one of the area’s most recognizable figures, but it’s been his work over the past decade with the school board that’s solidified his status as a trusted voice in the parish.
“In any way, shape, form, or fashion, he can support both the academic and athletic community; he’s positive with anything to do for us,” Magee said. “He’s one of those guys that’s always going to be there for you with support. He wants to be informed. During the season, we probably talk every morning, and twice a week when we’re out of season.
“We cover everything, and he generally wants to know,” Magee said. “It’s really special. You don’t see that type of loyalty to a school or community anymore. I’ve gotten to see it first-hand, and it’s a big reason where I get my loyalty from in that capacity.”
Morvan couldn’t be more pleased with the direction of Logansport’s program under Magee, who begins his 11th season and will have his son Kollin playing quarterback. The Tigers, despite having to play additional road games in the first half of the ’24 season, made a strong charge to the Division IV non-select semifinals, falling to eventual state champion South Plaquemines.
“He’s just an outstanding coach,” he said of Magee. “He’s very smart, does whatever it takes. He works his tail off to become the success he has. He’s going to be way better than I ever was. He already is.”
With annual advancements to the home field and fan experience, Logansport’s become the envy of a lot of Class 1A schools. Magee said it’s common to find affirmation from opponents once they’ve played in the stadium.
Thanks to Morvan’s leadership, the Tigers have benefitted on several levels, ranging from their game day environment outside the gates to the stadium to the new amenities within the playing field, to transform games into events.
“We try to find clips of videos of preseason interviews from other schools we’ve played in the last couple of years,” Magee said. “We continued to hear a lot of those kids say that Logansport’s the coolest place they’ve played. That’s meant a lot to us. The kids appreciate that. We try to create an environment with fireworks and a good sound system.
“We get big crowds every Friday,” Magee said. “The opposing teams know they need to travel well because we’re going to show up. It creates an environment where the kids can enjoy a memorable night of good high school football.”
Morvan believes the community’s teamwork has been at the heart of his success as a coach and public servant.
“The parents have had enough confidence in me to coach their kids, and the kids had enough confidence in me to want to be winners,” he said. “That’s what Logansport is now. We don’t like losing.
“The people have been really good to me,” he said. “We’re just a small community that works together. We like football. We like sports, and we just try to make it happen. We try to make it work, and it does work.”