George Nattin Jr.

George Leon Nattin Jr. (February 25, 1940 – September 28, 2014) was a businessman from Bossier City, Louisiana, who was a star basketball player for the LSU Tigers from 1958 to 1962. He was the only child of George Leon Nattin Sr., the mayor of Bossier City from 1961 to 1973.

Basketball

Though born in Houston, Texas, Nattin was reared in Bossier City, where he excelled in basketball at Bossier High School: All City, All District and All State in 1956 under coach John McConathy. He was valedictorian of his 1958 graduating class, the president of the student council, voted "Most Likely to Succeed", and an inductee of the BHS Alumni Association^[1] and the Sports and Spirit Hall of Fame.^[2] Nattin was an inductee of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches. Not long before his death, he was inducted into the LSU Basketball All Century Team.^[1]

At LSU, his career free throw percentage of .792 ranks seventh on the university's all-time list, as of 2014. He led the team all three years in scoring with 13.5 points per game in 1960, 16.5 in 1961, and 12.8 in 1962. He led the team in field goals made twice (165 in 1961 and 122 in 1962), free throws in 1962 (62), field goal percentage in 1961 (41.8 percent). He led the team in free throws in 1961 and 1962 with 79.5 and 78.4 percent, respectively. Nattin's 937 career points fell short of inclusion in the 1,000-point club. His career free throws of 79.2 percent ranks eighth on the All-Time List at LSU.^[3]

Nattin made the 1960s All-Decade Team selected in 2008-2009 as part of the centennial celebration of LSU basketball. He was on the final ballot for the All-Century team.^[3] Nattin was All-SEC in 1961 and Academic All-SEC in 1962.^[1]

On January 13, 1961, as a starter for Coach Jay McCreary in a home game, Nattin helped LSU to defeat the Kentucky Wildcats, coached by the legendary Adolph Rupp. This was the first time in nineteen competitions, including a Southeastern Conference championship playoff game in 1954, that LSU had defeated Kentucky. The Tigers scored 73-59 over the Wildcats. Nattin netted twelve points, hit three field goals and made all six free-throw attempts. LSU did not win again against Kentucky until 1972, two years after Pete Maravich had moved to the National Basketball Association.^[3]

In a 1961 road trip to No. 2 Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and to No. 5 University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Nattin scored 25 points against the Blue Devils. The game went into overtime, but the Tigers still lost. Nattin waited in Durham to read about the game in the morning newspaper.^[4]

Later a talented golfer, Nattin was instrumental in restoring the Palmetto Country Club, built in 1954 in Benton.^[1] Nattin and several partners purchased Palmetto to save it from demolition to make way for a proposed subdivision. Many Bossier Parish civic figures were Palmetto members.^[4] However, three months after Nattin's death, the Palmetto closed its doors because of declining business prospects.^[5]

Horseshoe Casino offers gambling entertainment in the Shreveport-Bossier City metro area. It was opened by the late George Nattin Jr., who became its first president.

Business ventures

After LSU, Nattin considered law school but was drafted in 1962 by the New York Knicks. When he learned his wife was pregnant with their oldest daughter, Melanie, now Melaine Horner, Nattin decided to leave basketball.^[4] He entered not law school but the gaming business as a dealer at the Fremont Hotel and Casino, The Stardust, and The Sands in Las Vega, Nevada. He subsequently became an executive at Caesar's Palace and the former Caesars World.^[1] He returned to Bossier City to open the Horseshoe Casino, of which he was the first president, a position enabled by his friendship with influential Governor Edwin Edwards.^[4]

In 1973, Nattin and his father, former Mayor Nattin, faced charges of bribery pushed by then District Attorney Charles A. Marvin of the Louisiana 26th Judicial District Court regarding incidents stemming from the senior Nattin's tenure as mayor. Indictments were also returned against Waylan Ross Nattin Sr. (1923–2011), the brother of Mayor Nattin and uncle of Nattin Jr., assistant police chief Sam Carley Atwood "Sammy" Teutsch Jr. (1929-1997),^[6] and police major Robert D. Methvin (1930-1994),^[7] the then director of the Bossier City vice squad.

Bossier Parish Sheriff Willie Waggonner showed his disdain for the indictments by declining to fingerprint the men or to take their mug shots. Nattin and his son were charged with one count of public contract fraud. Waylan Nattin, also an agent, subsequently suspended, of the Louisiana Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, was accused of three counts of public bribery. The indictments claimed that the Nattins accepted between $100 and $300 weekly from a night club operator on The Bossier Strip to allow that business to remain open after hours and to permit illegal gambling on the premises. The Nattins were also accused of having accepted $1,500 from the same club operator in 1968 and $700 in 1970.^[8][9] The Nattins were ultimately acquitted on two remaining counts, and a third charge was dropped.^[10]

Family and death

In his later years, Nattin resided on Cypress Lake in Benton, the Bossier Parish seat of government, and had taken up fishing as a pastime when he could no longer play golf. Prior to his death at the age of seventy-four at his home, he had been hospitalized for five weeks because of several health issues, including a staphylococcus infection.^[4] Nattin was predeceased by his father, his mother Ava Vernon Nattin (1920-2002), daughter Melinda Nattin, and granddaughter Stephanie Brascia. His three surviving daughters are Melanie Nattin Horner and husband, Scott, of Las Vegas; Meschell Nattin Brascia and husband Peter of Washington D.C., and Monique Rowell and husband, Chris, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi.^[1]

Nattin is interred alongside his parents at Hill Crest Memorial Park in Haughton in Bossier Parish.^[1]

References