SHREVEPORT -- The indomitable Dr. Harry Briggs,  "The Paddlin' Professor," makes his 11th annual long-distance swim Thursday morning, charting a two-mile course in Cross Lake   hoping to raise donations to support a Northwestern State women's   tennis scholarship fund in his late wife's name.
 
Briggs, 90, will make a Cross Lake swim for the fifth consecutive  year. Earlier swims have taken place in the Red River in both Shreveport and Alexandria, and in Sibley Lake and Cane River Lake in  Natchitoches.  He has gone as far as eight miles during the NSU series   of swims.
 
Briggs' 12th annual swim for Lady Demon tennis is supported by The Hilton/Shreveport as well  as Lowe/McFarlane American Legion Post 14.   He will begin at 10 a.m. at the east end of the I-220 Cross Lake Bridge and should finish the swim near the noon hour at Melvin's Landing with support from the Cross  Lake water patrol and his swim captain, John Liles.
 
Briggs will be congratulated Thursday evening from 6-8 at the NSU Victory Tour  Stop at Superior Steakhouse on Line Avenue in Shreveport. The Victory Stop is open to the public at no charge with  complimentary hors d'oeuvres.
 
Known since the 1950s as "The Paddlin' Professor," Dr. Briggs is a  political science instructor at NSU-Leesville. He has initiated  several scholarship endowments to benefit current and future students at Northwestern to support nursing and radiologic sciences programs at the NSU Cenla Center.
 
He is a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame for his  distance swimming exploits around the world as a young man, after serving as an advance scout in the Pacific Theatre with the U.S. Marines in World War II   battles at Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa. His most notable swimming feat  was becoming the first person to swim across Lake Erie, going without  aid for 35 hours, 55 minutes while covering 32 miles from Ohio to Ontario. Dr. Briggs was profiled in the New York Times, by noted author Gay Talese who created "The Paddlin' Professor" nickname, and appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in his prime.
 
He has climbed the Matterhorn and worked in Alaska as a TV sportscaster during the 1964 Anchorage earthquake.
A native New Englander, Briggs is a graduate of Tufts University, where he also has created scholarship endowments. As a sportswriter and  sportscaster, he traveled to Mexico and Puerto Rico and interviewed  sports great such as Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams and Muhammad Ali.
 
Dr. Briggs will depart the Lowe-McFarlane dock, 5315 South Lakeshore Drive, by boat to begin his swim near the east end of Cross Lake Bridge at   approximately 10 a.m.  He will end the swim at Melvin's Landing, 1550  Cross Lake Boulevard, around noon.