Longtime New Orleans sportswriter Bill Bumgarner , remembered not only for his careful attention to detail on the preps beat but also for his innovative coverage of college recruiting back before there were multiple websites devoted to that very thing, died Sunday after a brief illness. He was 76.

A Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductee in 2012 for his distinguished service in sports journalism, Bumgarner was hired at the old New Orleans States-Item on a six-month trial basis in 1972 and remained there through the 1980 merger with The Times-Picayune until his retirement in 2009.

Bumgarner created the blue-chip prep football recruiting list for the first time in 1975 and frequently was the first to report college commitments back before that became commonplace on social media and throu

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