Photo IDs – (Left to right) 2017 N-Club Hall of Fame inductees Tony Joe Maranto, Marlene Garner Gipson, Brian Lawrence, Eric Kubel, Ronnie Powell and Stephanie Shaw Locke pose Saturday morning after receiving Northwestern State's highest athletic honor.
 
Story by Matt Vines, Assistant Director of Communications
 
NATCHITOCHES -- Pitcher Brian Lawrence cooly stared down the best hitters in Major League Baseball in front of 40,000 raucous fans many times while collecting 50 wins in his seven-year big league career.
 
Barry Bonds and company didn't phase Lawrence. But Saturday morning at the Magale Recital Hall, as he and six others were inducted in Northwestern State's N-Club Hall of Fame, Lawrence was admittedly shaken when he spoke to his wife and parents, former teammates, fellow NSU athletic alumni and a couple hundred more people.
 
Lawrence looked around the audience, took an emotional pause, and admitted the moment "scares the hell out of me."
 
Lawrence was one of four inductees who earned Southland Conference Player of the Year honors, including All-Americans Tony Joe Maranto (football) and Ronnie Powell (track/football).
 
"Northwestern State was the last place baseball was fun for me, because in the pros, everybody is gunning for your job," said Lawrence, who pitched 14 total seasons in professional baseball (six with the San Diego Padres) and is now the pitching coach for the Class-A South Bend Cubs. "When I made the drive onto NSU's campus for the first time, I knew this was the place for me.
 
"My father would tell me what I did wrong and how to fix it after games, and my mom told me I was the best ever. Both of them molded me into who I am today."
 
Lawrence's 1998 Southland Conference Pitcher of the Year award highlighted a two-year college career in which he won 17 games and helped the Demons to two conference titles.
 
But Lawrence was far from the only gem in the 2017 N-Club class, despite accomplished college coach Rob Childress (head coach Texas A&M, who was NSU's pitching coach in 1997) saying Lawrence was one of only two players he'd ever offered a full scholarship (the other was Dodgers ace and three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw).
 
Like Lawrence, former football and track standout Ronnie Powell shed tears when thinking about his days as a Demon as he accumulated three All-American honors as a sprinter.
 
Powell, an Arkansas native, drove to NSU's campus in search of then-head football coach Sam Goodwin. The coach he found first was legendary track coach Leon Johnson, who offered Powell a scholarship when Goodwin didn't have one left.
 
"My Mama was talking with (Johnson) and told him that I could beat one of his sprinters," Powell recalls. "Mama, I hadn't run track in three years.
 
"I have to thank her because without her, I'd have given up a long time ago. The other thing that comes to mind is the people. I'd never had cooking like they do for the football tailgates, and they would welcome you, feed you and then cheer you on all on the same day."
 
Powell, a Southland Conference 1990s Team of the Decade member in both football and track, set NSU's 100 meters mark (10.13) and finished third in the 1998 NCAA Indoors 55 meters (6.22). He won the 1998 SLC Indoor and Outdoor Athlete of the Year as NSU won the league indoor title.
 
The running back, whom Goodwin originally thought would make a great cornerback, ran for 2,076 yards and 15 touchdowns en route to NSU capturing consecutive conference titles and making playoff appearances in 1997-98.
 
Underrated Lady Demon basketball point guard Stephanie Shaw Locke also spoke of the NSU folks that made her time special when she channeled her inner James Smith -- "The bricks won't love you back, but the people will."
 
Smith, the longtime NSU women's basketball coach, was the only one to offer Locke a scholarship out of Central of Grand Cane in nearby DeSoto Parish.
 
Locke was a two-time, second-team All-SLC performer who ranked fourth in career assists (578), fifth in career steals (254 ) and scored 1,309 career points despite playing with prolific scorers and fellow N-Club Hall of Famers Joskeen Garner and Angela Simpson.
 
"Coach Smith was a second daddy to all of us," said Locke, a Mansfield native who is now coaching at North DeSoto High. "I had a second father-daughter dance at my wedding, and that was for Coach Smith.
 
"I am nothing without the love and support of family, and Northwestern State was so much a part of that extended family."
 
She proudly pointed out the Lady Demons were 88-33 in her four seasons, along with and twice finishing in the top five at the WNIT, reaching the finals in 1995.
 
Smith called Locke the "heart" of that team. NSU President Dr. Chris Maggio called sprinter Marlene Garner Gipson the "start" of an outstanding women's sprint tradition at NSU.
 
Maggio recruited Gipson sort of by accident, and Gipson won two SLC 100 meter titles, set the program record with an 11.47 and was the first Lady Demon to qualify for the USA Olympic Trials (1992) and the NCAA Outdoor Championships (1993).
 
"I found out about her from a girl's dad, and that girl ended up going to LSU," Maggio said. "Marlene was a Baton Rouge native who was at a community college in California, and she wanted to get back to her home state.
 
"She's the most pleasant person I've ever met, but she's an exceptional athlete who was also one of the most  fierce competitors I'd ever coached. Her competitive spirit is why she won conference titles."
 
Men's basketball player Eric Kubel didn't have immediate success at NSU, unlike most of the class.
 
But Kubel practiced in Prather Coliseum past midnight most nights, giving rise to an outstanding final two seasons that culminated in the 1994 Southland Conference Player of the Year award.
 
His 24.3 points and 13.1 rebounds per game in 1993-94 was the first time an SLC player had averaged a double-double since the late 1970s.
 
"I could stand up here and just smile for five minutes," said Kubel, who traveled the world as a professional basketball player overseas. "I remember I was in Austria in 1999, and I wanted to visit the Alps.
 
"We were in a trolley car, and it was storming with four feet of snow on the ground. But when the trolley climbed through the clouds, you could see the sunshine and the peaks of the mountains. That's what my NSU career was like."
 
Basketball predecessor Terrance "Bo" Rayford joined Kubel after averaging 20.4 points per game as a senior, including contributing 21 points and 11 rebounds to an 85-82 upset of Kentucky in 1988.
 
Rayford, who was unable to attend Saturday, was NSU's first two-time All-SLC pick. He played overseas for more than a decade.
 
Like Kubel, football safety Tony Joe Maranto told of sacrifices he made to maximize his potential, including working out with his parents instead of attending high school parties.
 
The Port Allen High product was unsigned on National Signing Day, but the following week received a partial scholarship from Goodwin with the promise of a full ride if he lived up to his potential.
 
"I won't let you down," Maranto said he told Goodwin.
 
Maranto switched from quarterback to safety, rising to become the 1997 SLC Defensive Player of the Year before playing professionally with the New Orleans Saints, the Cleveland Browns and in NFL Europe.
 
A member of the Southland 1990's Team of the Decade, he made more than 100 tackles in each of his final two seasons, snagging six interceptions as a senior.
 
"I was devastated that I didn't get any offers on Signing Day, but (Goodwin) saw something in me that nobody else did," Maranto said. "He took a chance on a country boy from the sugar cane fields, and I played with a chip on my shoulder.
 
"I was an average player who would run through a wall, and I wanted to physically rearrange the insides of the player in front of me."
 
Maranto and Powell were teammates on the Demons' 1997 Southland Conference football championship team. Several members of that squad were at Saturday's ceremony with a full team reunion set for Saturday night's Homecoming football game at Turpin Stadium.