Wolf Pack Athletics announces 2026 Hall of Fame class

NEW ORLEANS – The Loyola University New Orleans Athletics Department announced its 2026 Hall of Fame on Tuesday, as Paige Carter, Daria Delfino, Johnny Griffin Jr. and Tommy "TJ" Whittaker are set to be enshrined on Saturday, January 24. 
 

Festivities include a Wolf Pack basketball doubleheader starting at 12 p.m., and the four inductees will be honored at halftime of the men's game. Following the two games, a formal ceremony and reception will take place on campus. For more information on the ceremony, please contact alumni@loyno.edu.
 

Carter (2016-2020), who just became eligible this year, was a unanimous selection by the Hall of Fame commission as the first Wolf Pack swimmer to be inducted. A 2020 graduate, she still holds four individual school records in the 500-yard freestyle, the 1,650-yard freestyle, the 200-yard breaststroke, and the 400-yard IM, as well as a part of two relay school records. Carter is also a seven-time NAIA All-American, earning that title four times at the 2020 NAIA National Championship and three times in 2019. 
 

Delfino (2015-2019) was another unanimous selection, and she was a member of the 2019 women's golf team that got inducted earlier this year. Deflino led the Wolf Pack to their first-ever SSAC Championship in 2019 with a second-place finish (+2), and she holds program records for the best national championship tournament score (293, +5) at the 2019 event, and for most individual wins with four. She was the first-ever NAIA All-American in program history, earning first-team honors in 2019 after her 13th-place finish. 
 

Griffin (2015-2017) played two seasons for the Wolf Pack men's basketball team, but he did enough to currently hold the ninth position for most career rebounds (606) and most career blocks (68). His 9.77 rebounds-per-game average is the best average among the others in the Top 10 as well. Griffin transferred into the program after two seasons at Chicago State, and he earned NAIA All-American Honorable Mention honors after both of his seasons in a Loyola uniform. After graduation, he built a successful professional career in Canada and Slovakia, and most recently for the Kokomo Bobkats in The Basketball League's 2025 season. 
 

Whittaker (1944-1945) is the only inductee from the old era of Wolf Pack Athletics, and he was a key figure on the 1945 men's basketball national championship team. Whittaker was the third-leading scorer on that team, and he'll join teammates Leroy Chollet, Jim Hultberg and John Casteix in the Wolf Pack Athletics Hall of Fame. After his time at Loyola, Whittaker became a New Orleans legend by playing minor league baseball and semi-pro basketball in the area, winning city, state and regional championships at Jesuit High School, and co-founding the well-regarded Lake Castle Private School, where he served as a mathematics teacher and athletics director before he passed in 1991.  
 

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