NATCHITOCHES -- Words of gratitude flowed from the nine Northwestern State N-Club Hall of Fame honorees Saturday as they received the university's highest athletics distinction.
 
But football cornerback Jermaine Jones wanted to offer two important coaches more than just words.
 
He presented two game balls to then-NSU head football coach Sam Goodwin and secondary coach Darryl Toussaint, balls he received when he returned two interceptions for touchdowns in the same game as a member of the Arena Football League's Dallas Desperados.
 
"I played just one season of high school football because I was a basketball player, but (Goodwin) saw the athlete in me and brought me in as a running back," said Jones, a 1998 All-American cornerback who spent time with six NFL teams before making his mark in the AFL. "Then I was a receiver, and finally I was a defensive back.
 
"(Toussaint) worked with me after practice and taught me everything I know."
 
Jones, the 1998 Southland and Louisiana Defensive Player of the Year, shares the NSU record for pass breakups (44) before intercepting 29 passes and scoring seven touchdowns in the AFL.
 
Jones was joined by fellow inductees Latrell Frederick (track and field), Larry Terry (basketball), Barbara Tons (tennis), Floyd Turner (football), Rickey McCalister (softball and volleyball coach) and Ed Evans (athletics trainer).
 
Dr. Chris Rich received the Distinguished Service Award and Jerry Pierce received the N-Club Leadership Award.
 
The football Demons are celebrating the anniversaries of Southland Conference championships from 1988 and 1998, and stud receiver Floyd Turner is representing the 1988 squad in this year's class.
 
Turner, a former walk-on from Mansfield who played nine NFL seasons, said he felt like he was destined to join this exclusive club even before he set foot in Natchitoches.
 
"I was injury-prone at Mansfield High, and I had to have knee surgery," Turner recalls. "The doctor said he could get me in in October, but I told him I play football at Northwestern State.
 
"He got me in the next week for surgery. NSU is about family, and as much as I tried to go off by myself, they kept reeling me back in."
 
Turner, who set NSU's career receptions mark (105) before totaling nearly 4,000 receiving yards and 31 touchdowns in the NFL, credits track and field coach Leon Johnson with shaving nearly three-tenths off his 40-yard dash time (4.38) that helped changed his career.
 
Javelin thrower Latrell Frederick also thanked Johnson, saying the wise coach yelled 'think yellow' to him before he placed fourth at the Pan American Junior Games.
 
"(Johnson) thinks outside of the box, and he said thinking about bright colors raised energy levels," said Frederick, a former walk-on who won three conference titles and was a three-time All-American (2000-03). "I battled through two major injuries in my career, but God used those to make me stronger.
 
"I also have to thank coach Mike Heimerman. I was his first javelin thrower that he coached, and he would give me the shirt off his back."
 
Frederick still holds the NSU record in the modern javelin (261-3) and finished in the top 12 at the NCAA Championships three times, twice in fifth-place.
 
"He probably would have won an individual national championship if he hadn't had those injuries," Heimerman said. "I knew nothing about the javelin when I started, and he convinced me to keep him at javelin when I wanted to move him to the discus."
 
Basketball forward Larry Terry did lead his team to a national championship of sorts. The 1991-92 Demons won a scoring championship, and Terry played a key role in his team averaging 94.5 points per game.
 
Terry ranks 15^th all-time at NSU with 1,342 career points and ninth with 91 blocks, which helped him to professional career overseas.
 
"I grew from 5-foot-9 to 6-foot-4 in one summer, but I had the toughness and skill set of a small player," Terry said. "That's when I started to have fun.
 
"I was a young boy from a small town (Pontchatoula) with big dreams, and if you put God into the equation and apply yourself, you can do anything. Because of a round ball, I was able to see parts of the world I could only imagine."
 
Terry spoke a few French words to tennis player Barbara Tons, a German native who lives in the European Union capital of Brussels and speaks five languages as an international businesswoman.
 
Tons, who stands fourth at NSU in career doubles winning percentage (.814), eighth in doubles wins (57) and eighth in singles winning percentage (.676), said the international flavor of coach Johnnie Emmons' teams in the late 1980s pushed her on her career path.
 
"I didn't understand half of what (Emmons) was saying when he picked me up in Cadillac in Shreveport," Tons said when she first arrived. "Tennis is an individual sport, but he built a great team from places like South Africa, Great Britain, Brazil, Colombia and Yugoslavia.
 
"That sparked my interest in the international stage, and I manage diverse teams in my profession now. I credit NSU with learning go to work within a dynamic team."
 
Tons, whose career has taken to all corners of the Earth, flew in to Natchitoches this weekend from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
 
Rickey McCalister has chosen to spend most of his adult life in Natchitoches after leading the softball and volleyball teams to new heights in the 1980s and 1990s.
 
McCallister left as the school's all-time softball record holder with 245 career wins, including an SLC title in 1991.
 
"I'm so proud to say that my players brought positive recognition to NSU," McCalister said. "I wanted to give every player an opportunity to succeed.
 
"Even though (Rhonda Rube Baird) and (Ginger Craig) back there might have thought I'd have a stroke when we lost, I really lived to see the excitement on my players' faces."
 
Rube Baird and Craig, the first an All-American and both Louisiana Players of the Year, stood as the only NSU softball players to have their jerseys retired.
 
More than 25 former NSU student-athletes stood in a crowd of about 250 when asked if they had ever been treated by NSU athletics trainer Ed Evans.
 
Evans was the head trainer from 1989-2012 who was enshrined in the LATA Hall of Fame in 2000 and in 2004 was named the College Athletic Trainer of the Year in the southeastern region.
 
"It's not really about what any of us have done, it's about who we surround ourselves with," Evans said. "My undergrad students and graduate assistants and eventually full-time assistants deserve a lot of credit.
 
"Dr. Chris Rich (team physician) gave me access to him 24-7, even driving an hour to our training room. I also have to thank my family for allowing me to do my job, which caused me to miss a lot of my sons' growing up."
 
Rich said Evans was a mentor as their tenures overlapped nearly exactly with Rich serving as a team physician from 1990-2010.
 
Rich played served as NSU's Director of Sports Medicine and the head physician while playing a key role in the stewardship of financial resources.
 
"I considered Ed a mentor of mine and a medical peer, and I learned a lot about college athletics from him," Rich said. "I'm deeply honored and blessed to be up here today.
"A couple of things I always practiced by is to be available and stand your ground. We were there to protect student-athletes -- sometimes from coaches, from parents and even from themselves."
 
Many inductees induced tears with their remarks, but N-Club Leadership Award recipient Jerry Pierce elicited the most laughs.
 
Sports information director Doug Ireland donned a fireman helmet to signify one of Pierce's many roles in his NSU tenure.
 
"I'm the only person up here that nobody's ever heard of," said Pierce, a longtime administrator who has forged countless bonds in his 51 years on NSU's campus. "I have a deep love for this university, and I could tell this was a special place the first time I stepped on to campus."