Admire the newly remodeled north or west sides of Tiger Stadium, Mike the Tiger’s new sprawling habitat, or the stately Cox Communications Academic Center for Student Athletes, and you are partly appreciating the work of 35-year-old Ben Broussard.
The vice president of development for the Tiger Athletic Foundation has been working with his colleagues to improve all things LSU sports for the past eight years. The foundation is a private, nonprofit entity that recruits the necessary funding to improve student athletic facilities and programs.
Broussard and his staff of seven help make it happen by building relationships with prospective and existing donors.
A native of the Lafayette area, Broussard worked in sports marketing in Dallas and New Orleans after graduating from LSU. A pal who worked for the Tiger Athletic Foundation kept telling him he needed to meet Major General Ron Richard.
Eventually, he did, and in January 2004 he joined the foundation and set out to prove his abilities. At the time, the organization was wrapping up the Academic Center and embarking on the new habitat for Mike the Tiger.
“So right off the bat I was starting off with two very important projects,” Broussard says. “You’ve really got to get the community involved so that the Tiger Athletic Foundation could do some really great things for LSU.”
On the rare occasions when the Tigers lose, he has another critical role: consoling donors.
“This is the kind of job you’ll never hear somebody complain about. It really is a great job,” he says. “The flip side of that is that my profession is 90% of Louisiana’s passion. Which is great when things are going well, but the rare Sundays after a defeat your job turns into half social worker, half counselor.”
Broussard and his family live in south Baton Rouge and have no intention of leaving. When he’s not at the foundation, you’ll frequently find him at City Park.
“I read a lot where people say to succeed they think they need to go to Houston or Austin or Dallas where the jobs are,” Broussard says. “There may be a little bit of merit to that, but I genuinely think that people who stick around Baton Rouge to make their career have every opportunity to succeed.”
A fireman.
I would love to play music professionally.
It’s sort of the Golden Rule: I genuinely believe that if you treat people well, you’re going to succeed.
No question, it’s the culture. It’s the people power that Baton Rouge has. People treat people well here; people have a good time.
The City Park lake.
It would probably go toward the public education system.
Educating the public on what we do. Educating the nondonors and the nonticket holders as to what the Tiger Athletic Foundation does.
If I’m fortunate enough, I’ll be in south Baton Rouge the very happy father of two.
