A little over a year has passed since the loss of former Ragin’ Cajuns Baseball Coach Tony Robichaux. Coach Robichaux was one special guy and his legacy has been living on since.

Following his passing, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette released a special line of No. 36 merchandise: commemorating Robichaux by using his old jersey number. Along with UL Lafayette, a group of former and current baseball players decided to get No. 36 tattoos in his honor as well.

Former Ragin’ Cajun Caleb Armstrong expressed his personal reason for getting the tattoo.

“So I had Tommy John surgery twice and it leaves a big scar on your elbow. So I was going to get baseball seams that cover my scar. And then my girlfriend actually came up with the idea to put the little 36 there next to it,” said Armstrong.

He said he loved the tattoo idea his girlfriend had and the tattoo artist was able to put the 36 by the baseball seams.

Armstrong said the tattoo means a lot to him.

“In high school, I didn’t know anything about UL at all really,” he said. “I was pretty dead set on going to LSU. I just kind of went on my visit for the heck of it, and then I met Coach Robe and I had to commit before I left. There was no one else I wanted to play for.”

Armstrong said he will remember Robichaux forever.

“He was really the only thing I knew about UL whenever I decided to go there, and it was all I needed to know. Just the man he was and his legacy will carry on forever. And you know that’s why I decided to put it on my skin because he’ll be with me forever,” he said.

One special memory Armstrong had with Coach Robichaux was during his first visit to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

“The first time I ever met him, we were sitting in his office with my family and he kind of just told us about the program he runs. And I committed right there on the spot and we shook hands, and he and my mother were talking, and she asked where’s a good place down here to get some Ragin’ Cajun gear, and he said well I’ll just hop in the car with y’all and show you,” he said.

He then got in the car with Armstrong’s family and rode to the red zone shop with them.

Two current players, Connor Cooke and Austin Perrin also decided to get tattoos in Robichaux’s honor.

Perrin said he got his tattoo because of the impact Robichaux had on his life.

“He just changed my life and my perspective of life. He really taught something other than baseball,” he said.

During his freshman year, Perrin remembers a fond memory with Coach Robichaux.

“I was pitching in a ball game and I gave up six runs. He asked me where I went to high school and I told him Hahnville, and he looked at me and said, ‘I don’t care where you went to high school, you’re a freshman and you’ve got a lot to learn,’” Perrin said.

“I have a bunch of tattoos, but I don’t just get anything. I like to get tattoos that mean something to me. I got it right on my chest so I can see it every day when I wake up,” he said.

Cooke reflected back to who had the original idea for the tattoos.

“Me and Austin (Perrin) were about to go to one of the football games over here and we had time to kill before. We had been talking about the Robe tattoos, so we just did it spur of the moment,” he said.

“When I was 16, my dad passed away and I have a tattoo with his initials on my arm, and you know my freshman year at UL, one of the first things Robe told me was we know your father passed away, and we just want to be that father figure for you if you ever need it. I thought it was only right to put the tattoo above the one of my dad,” he said.

Cooke explained that Wisdom Wednesdays was one of his favorite memories from Robichaux.

“The wisdom he talked to us about. I mean we’d go in there for an hour, an hour and a half every Wednesday and couldn’t talk about baseball, it was just about life,” Cooke said. “He’d want to be remembered more along the lines of how he tried to make us better men and not just better baseball players.”