BATON ROUGE, LA – MARCH 05: LSU Tigers head coach D-D Breaux talks to Sarah Finnegan during the meet between Florida Gators and LSU Tigers on March 05, 2017 at Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, LA. LSU Tigers won 198.150 – 196.600. (Photo by Stephen Lew/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
When Sara ‘D-D’ Breaux retired from coaching the LSU Tigers women’s gymnastics program in 2020, she ended her historic 43-year career as the longest-tenured coach in Southeastern Conference history. From humble beginnings in the ’70s to SEC Championship-dominance in the late 2010s, Breaux guided the Lady Tigers to equity – and to national prominence.
In February, SEC Storied will spotlight Breaux and her undeniable impact on LSU gymnastics and women’s athletics in the “The Fighting Tiger.”
Created by the Emmy award-winning duo, filmmakers and twin-sisters Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern Winters, the film debuts Fri., Feb. 13 at 10:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network following LSU’s gymnastics meet against Auburn.
The film will address the question: “can one person unequivocally make a difference?”
In the case of D-D Breaux and LSU, the answer is a resounding yes.
Filmmakers Lax and Stern Winters reflected on the experience of shooting the film, highlighting D-D’s famous Louisiana charm. “This was one of the more fun shoots that we’ve done,” they said, recalling a day of shooting in Grand Isle where D-D made them a “great New Orleans style meal.” For a moment, the communal experience made the filmmaking duo feel “part of the family.”
Their experience was far from surprising. In her 43 years at the helm for LSU Gymnastics, building community was a hallmark trait for Louisiana’s own D-D Breaux.
The spirit of “The Fighting Tiger” begins on the bayou in Donaldsville, Louisiana, where Breaux got her start on the balance beam her father built as a Christmas gift. Though her time with the Southeastern Louisiana University gymnastics team led to Olympic dreams, Breaux’s gymnastics career was cut short after an ACL tear.
After a short coaching stint with Southeastern LA, LSU Athletics Director Carl Maddox tapped Breaux for head coach on the new LSU Women’s Gymnastics team in 1977. In 1978, Breaux signed on to become an LSU Tiger and the rest was history.
However, as the SEC Storied film reminds us: history wasn’t made overnight.
Accepting Crumbs: The Uphill Battle
We had to “accept the crumbs we were given,” Breaux says in the film. For many years, these crumbs did not include a designated gymnastics facility. Instead, the team was regulated to a “corner in the fieldhouse,” where the uneven bars dangerously “dismounted into a wall.”
Despite the uphill battle at hand, Breaux took the helm in Baton Rouge with anticipation and fervor. Even with its abysmal beginnings, Breaux “envisioned…something great.” Greatness would not come without a fight.
For Breaux, this meant fighting for equality and recognition for LSU women’s sports, even when her opponents wore the same purple and gold tiger stripes. Though Title IX was signed into law in 1972, the provisions were sparsely enforced.
Despite winning the program’s first SEC title in 1981, LSU Gymnastics had quickly fallen behind the curve. While rival programs Alabama and Georgia started to take flight under donor investment, LSU Gymnastics became an afterthought.
Though they had their Fighting Tiger at the helm, LSU Gymnastics still struggled to gain traction with the local community, often competing in a largely-empty Pete Maravich Center. “We watched (the tickets get) thrown out in front of (our) faces,” former gymnast Jennifer Landry Board reported. LSU even raised a curtain to minimize the visibility of empty seats.
It was an era of “total non-compliance,” Breaux says in the film. To add to an abysmal facility, LSU Athletics refused to provide adequate equipment and apparel to the team. Breaux often purchased team grips and leotards herself.
Fighting Fire with Grassroots Grit
Though the administration’s treatment showed “no regard for (their) athletes,” Breaux continued to fight. Next up, she started to write.
In letters and memos addressed to LSU athletic administrators, Breaux tirelessly communicated the needs of her program and her fellow women’s sports programs. The message was clear: without university support, their programs could not succeed.
Breaux ‘kept receipts,’ filmmakers Lax and Stern Winters told me.
“She saved everything. She had every copy of every handwritten note that she wrote to the athletic directors that had, you know, she was fighting for salaries for the women sports coaches and for more assistant coaches.”
The success was far from immediate. In fact, Breaux’s advocacy took a hit in the form of one of her “worst memories at LSU.” Shortly after reciving a memo summarizing the safety issues in her facility, the then-Assistant Director of Athletics stormed into Breaux’s facility, crumpled up Breaux’s memo, pulled out her shirt, and dropped the document down her chest.
“If you ever write another letter like this, you’re going to be fired,” the AD told her. Unsurprisingly, this attack did not deter Breaux. “The Fighting Tiger” kept pushing, and she took to “grassroots antics,’ Lax and Stern Winters said.
From spending the night in the Pete Maravich gift-shop to sell season tickets, to handing out free gymnastics tickets to grocery shoppers (alongside her two daughters and athletes), D-D resolved that her program would “never go backwards.”
Further, when LSU Gymnastics fell on the chopping block in a bombshell 1996 Title IX lawsuit, Breaux didn’t waiver. Short off three consecutive awards as SEC Coach of the Year, D-D fought for LSU gymnastics, softball, and women’s soccer. They all stayed.
“Nothing was off limits for me,” D-D told filmmakers. “I didn’t want much, I didn’t want more, I wanted equal.”
From Empty Seats to the Super Six
When LSU hired Skip Bertram as Athletic Director in 2001, in rushed a new, less combative administration. Bertram was quick to point out that Breaux was entitled to decades of unpaid bonuses due to postseason appearances.
Instead of accepting the backpay, D-D had a different idea. Forget the personal bonuses – Breaux asked for Bertram to put the money into LSU Gymnastics. After years of fighting, D-D could finally take a breath, but she would still need to work.
In the 2000s, the work began to turn into tangible results. In 2008, the LSU Gymnastics team made the elusive Super Six – gymnastics’ national championship – for the first time since the format was introduced in 1993. In 2014, the Tigers finished on the podium, clinching 3rd place at the NCAA championships.
With increased success, the years of grassroots advocacy began to pay off – the crowd at “the PMAC” swelled. After years of negligible turnout, LSU finally raised the black curtain and filled seats with eager gymnastics fans.
“In the beginning, I knew every season ticket holder,” Breaux reminisced.
By the mid 2010s, those days were long-gone. On any given Friday, an LSU Gymnastics meet was headlining attraction. With crowds spilling over 14,000, sell-outs became as routine as the gymnastics skills and LSU women’s gymnastics quickly became one of the most coveted tickets on campus.
BATON ROUGE, LA – MARCH 05: LSU Tigers head coach D-D Breaux sings the LSU Alma Mater the during the meet between Florida Gators and LSU Tigers on March 05, 2017 at Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, LA. LSU Tigers won 198.150 – 196.600. (Photo by Stephen Lew/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Crown Jewels: The NIL Era
When LSU’s Joe Alleva administration committed to breaking ground on a new, state-of-the-art gymnastics facility (thanks to Breaux’s advocacy within the Tiger Athletic Foundation), Breaux felt she finally struck gold.
Finally, “our athletes felt special,” she said.
“For LSU gymnastics – the past, the present and the future – this facility is a crown jewel,” Breaux said in 2014. “It’s a monument to the great student-athletes that have been here before. It’s a premier facility, and it will stand tall for those athletes that we will open the doors to now and in the future.”
The facility opened for practice in 2016. Just one year later, Breaux and star Ashleigh Gnat led the LSU Tigers to its first SEC Championship since 1981. In 2018, they completed the repeat. In 2019, they solidified their greatness with the three-peat.
Supported by the fervent fanbase, her assistant coach Jay Clark and the administration, “the belief system was in place” for D-D and the LSU Tigers to win – and they did. Though they came one-spot short of the national title in both 2017 and 2019, the fighting tigers found their identity under D-D Breaux.
Win or lose, they were “ferocious.”
Even after Breaux’s retirement, the “swagger” she long fought for was here to stay in Baton Rouge. The swagger included entrepreneurship and female athlete autonomy in the new Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) era.
Unsurprisingly, Breaux was at the frontlines for Louisiana student athletes, advocating for the foundational state bill that authorized athletes to earn compensation based on their Name, Image, and Likeness. It was signed on July 1, 2021.
With freshman social media sensation Olivia Dunne on the roster, Breaux understood the importance of the bill, particularly for female athletes in traditional non-revenue sports like gymnastics. Dunne went on to become one of the highest earning athletes in college sports – male or female.
The Enduring Swagger: Final Banner
When the team finally struck gold at the 2024 NCAA Championships, D-D Breaux – now retired – stood in the stands. Though she wasn’t on the floor coaching, she proudly wore the purple and gold, sitting adjacent to her former gymnasts: ‘D-D’s girls.’
Yes, the 2024 LSU Gymnastics roster won the title, but the win represented a victory for all of “D-D’s girls”…from 1978 to 2019.
As the confetti fell, head coach Jay Clark pulled Breaux onto the Fort Worth stage to celebrate. “It wouldn’t have happened without her,” he said.
LSU’s quintessential “Fighting Tiger” had long felt that something was missing in the rafters of the Pete Maravich Center: a national title banner.
When LSU finally raised its national title banner in January 2025, the “empty space” D-D Breaux had longed for in the Pete Maravich Center rafters was finally gone. In reality, that space had slowly been filled over 43 years of tireless effort—one fight, one letter, and one title at a time.
Catch the “The Fighting Tiger” on Fri., Feb. 13 at 10:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
