NATCHITOCHES – The numbers Sam Goodwin compiled walking the sidelines as Northwestern State's football coach speak for themselves.
 
The 102 wins, the four conference championships, the 22 All-Americans he coached are impressive, but they fail to encapsulate what Goodwin meant to the legion of Demon players who flourished on and off the field under his tutelage.
 
"Coach was just a great human being, a great person," said wide receiver Pat Palmer, a 2016 N-Club Hall of Fame inductee and a member of the Top 100 Demon Players of All-Time. "He loved his players. He proved that year after year. I gave coach a few problems during my time, but he loved me regardless. He was always there for me no matter what the situation. He influenced a lot of boys to be men."
 
Such is the totality of the man who helped take Northwestern to some of its highest football moments who will be honored at 10 a.m. Saturday inside Turpin Stadium where Goodwin will be honored with a celebration of life.
 
In 17 seasons as Northwestern's head coach, Goodwin took the Demons to three Southland Conference championships and a Gulf Star Conference title.
 
Palmer was a key member of Northwestern's 1997 SLC title team before playing professionally in the NFL (2000-02) and the CFL. He credited Goodwin's influence for helping shape him as a player and as a person.
 
"I was leaving school one weekend, going home and got pulled over," Palmer said. "I kind of got into a little debacle. Coach Goodwin didn't have to do this, but coach came to court with me. Even though nothing came of it, it was the idea he showed up. He didn't have to do that. He could have said, 'I'm done with this player.' He literally showed up.
 
"He would show up for you, no matter what it was. It wasn't just about football. He was genuinely a good man."
 
Goodwin's impact was not limited to just his players or how it affected them in their playing career.
 
Former Northwestern head coach Brad Laird both played and coached for Goodwin as part of his Demon journey. Long before he set the school's since-broken all-time passing yardage mark, Laird was a down-the-depth-chart option who was forced into his first start as a freshman at then-Southwest Texas State.
 
After an inauspicious beginning – Laird threw three interceptions in the first quarter – the quarterback learned what kind of man his head coach was.
 
"This is a memory I won't forget," said Laird, now the head coach at Natchitoches Central High School. "We're sitting on the bus waiting for the long ride home. The last one to walk from the locker room to the bus was coach Goodwin. I vividly remember him walking to the bus and when he got on the bus it was like he had more confidence in me then he did prior to the game. That's how I felt. That's how he made people feel. That's why he had the success he did. He turned those situations into opportunities to be successful. Him sticking with me is probably why I am where I am today."
 
Laird, whose Demon playing career covered the 1991 through 1995 seasons, is the son of a football coach, but it wasn't clear he would follow his father's footsteps into the family business.
 
Goodwin helped see that the Laird coaching tree grew another branch.
 
"There are a few coaches that, outside of my mom and dad, had a big impact on my career, and Sam Goodwin is on top of that list," said Laird, who served as a graduate assistant under Goodwin in 1996. "At that time, I didn't know it, but looking back, he definitely saw something in me, not just as a player but also as a coach before anybody else did. That belief in me really changed the trajectory of my career. My first year playing football at Northwestern, I wasn't going toward being a coach. I was going in a different direction. As I watched the way he impacted us, that was the biggest influence on where I am today."
 
Goodwin's final season at the helm of Northwestern was in 1999 – one year after taking the Demons to the FCS semifinals and a school-record-tying 11-win season.
 
Nearly three decades later, he could still be found around the Donald G. Kelly Athletic Complex, lending an open ear or an encouraging word for current Demon head coach Blaine McCorkle.
 
Much like Laird, McCorkle is the son of a football coach, having grown up around the game.
 
Upon Goodwin's passing, McCorkle posted a moving tribute on social media focused on the encouragement Goodwin gave to the man who now occupies his former office, coaching until the very end.
 
"The origin of the word coach is a Hungarian term for a carriage that takes you somewhere you can't go by yourself," McCorkle said. "That's what we need coaches for. That's why I needed him. I couldn't start the first two years without knowing he was in my corner. So, wherever we go in the future, it's going to be because he helped carry me and our staff there to get us started.
 
"He is Northwestern State football. He did it as well as anybody here. He is the standard. I get the unique privilege to stand on the shoulders of a giant, and I don't take that lightly."