The way has been cleared for the White Castle High School stadium will be named for the late Iberville Parish Councilman Milton R. “Rocky” Ourso Jr., a White Castle athlete and a member of the school's hall of fame.
The Iberville Parish School Board last fall approved naming the stadium for Ourso on a motion from Board Member Bryan S. Willis of Plaquemine. Ourso's sister, School Board Member Darlene Ourso, asked for the announcement to be delayed since there was a question of whether the stadium had been named earlier for someone else.
A search of School Board records showed that only the press booth had previously been dedicated, clearing the way for Rocky Ourso's name to go on the stadium. Darlene Ourso said the official dedication is expected at a football game in October.
According to Willis and the Ourso family, Rocky Ourso started school at White Castle High as a freshman in 1969, and won numerous honors in football, basketball and track and field, earning a place in the White Castle High School Hall of Fame in 1987.
At the time, the school did not have a baseball program, but Ourso played on the local American Legion team and later played semi-pro ball.
He had worked on the family farm since age five.
“It was nothing to see him driving a tractor where he could hardly see over the steering wheel,” Willis read from a family account of Ourso's life.
After graduation, he worked at the family full time and eventually became its president. The Ourso's farm grew from 500 acres to 5,500 acres of sugarcane, soybeans, crawfish and a precision grading company.
“Rocky's work ethic and sense of competitiveness learned while competing at White Castle High provided what he needed to become a successful businessman,” the account said.
“Hard work and helping his fellow man was what he believed in. From playing fullback, where he blocked for a teammate, setting a screen for a post player or handing off the baton on the relay team, he helped his fellow man. These lessons learned transformed into later giving his neighbors a hand and a boost in whatever way needed.
“He loved White Castle and its athletic program. He was proud to say he graduated from White Castle High School, and each year an athletic scholarship is awarded in his honor.”
Rocky Ourso had served for 18 and a half years as an Iberville Parish police juror and parish councilman, and was in his fifth term in office when he drowned, at age 52, after a boating accident in the Intracoastal Waterway in June 2006.
“With the naming of this stadium, his memory will live forever,” his family said.
