By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations
NATCHITOCHES – A quartet of All-American football players, a Southland Conference women’s basketball Player of the Year and a trailblazing basketball team highlight the Northwestern State N-Club Hall of Fame Class of 2023.
The 12-member group will be inducted and honored at 9 a.m. on Nov. 6 ahead of the Demons’ Homecoming football game against Houston Christian. Kickoff for the game is set for 2 p.m.
For the first time since 2017, all inductees came from the competitive portion of the ballot, headlined by the selection of four football All-Americans.
Linebacker Andre Carron (1991), offensive lineman William Broussard (1998, 1999), offensive lineman Gene Tennison (2001) and defensive end Ahmad Willis (2001) combined for five All-American honors in their NSU careers and will head into the Hall of Fame together.
Joining them in the induction class are Angela Davidson, the 2001-02 Southland Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Year and a three-time All-Southland selection, softball’s Annie Johnston, a first-team Academic All-American, the 2001 Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year and 2002 Southland Conference Player and Hitter of the Year, three-time All-Southland Conference baseball second baseman Brandon Morgan, three-time NCAA Championships qualifier Jacqueline Canton, Southland Conference Soccer Players of the Year Erin Hebert and Britiany Cargill, two-time first-team All-Southland third baseman Matt Donner and the 2000-01 men’s basketball team, who authored the first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, winning the inaugural play-in game against Winthrop.
A center from Crowley, Broussard defined the term “student-athlete” during his four-year NSU football career. In addition to earning Walter Camp I-AA first-team All-American honors as a senior and second-team All-American honors from the Sports Network as a junior, Broussard also was one of 15 National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete winners in 1999 as well as the winner of the Joe Delaney Memorial Leadership Award that season. A Rhodes Scholar candidate, Broussard was one of 20 Division I-AA players chosen as a Burger King Scholar-Athlete after his senior season. A Southland Conference 1990s All-Decade Team member, Broussard was the fulcrum of a Demon offensive line that helped NSU reach the Division I-AA national semifinals and finished with a No. 3 ranking in 1998. A starter in 29 of his 47 career games, Broussard was named to the Top 100 Demon Players of All-Time as part of the 2007 NSU football centennial celebration and was “Mr. NSU” and Homecoming King during his playing days.
Like Broussard, Tennison earned All-American honors along the Northwestern State offensive line. A 2001 All-American, Tennison was a two-sport standout who also won the 2001 Southland Conference shot put title at the indoor championships, helping the Demons win the team title. A three-year starter who broke into the lineup in the final six games of the 1998 season that ended in the Division I-AA semifinals, Tennison played tackle and guard – as well as tight end – while helping running back Tony Taylor become NSU’s all-time leading rusher. A two-time Academic All-District selection, Tennison earned a pair of All-Southland honors, including first-team acclaim as a senior, and was a pivotal part of the Demons’ 27-24 win at TCU in the first game following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. Following his career, Tennison received an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
Carron’s All-American career predated Tennison’s by nearly a decade as the tackling machine was a consensus All-American in 1991, coming up one vote and three points shy of being the Walter Payton Award winner as the top player in Division I-AA. Carron’s senior season produced a school-record 176 tackles, 19 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, five forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and an interception, earning him Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors and his second All-Louisiana Defensive Player of the Year award. A three-time, first-team All-Southland Conference and All-Louisiana performer, Carron finished his career with a school-record 521 tackles, 45 tackles for loss, 15.5 sacks, 11 forced fumbles and seven fumble recoveries. In addition to remaining the school’s tackles leader, his 15.5 sacks remain tied for sixth in NSU career history. Carron was chosen as one of the Top 100 Demon Players of All-Time in conjunction with NSU’s football centennial celebration in 2007.
Willis will join his fellow 2001 All-American Tennison in the Class of 2023. A posthumous inductee, Willis collected 21 career sacks – 10.5 in his junior season of 2001 – and 42.5 tackles for loss, accounting for 234 yards. Twenty of those came tackles came in 2001 and led the Southland Conference, helping Willis earn All-American honors. His 21 career sacks remain third in school history, trailing only N-Club Hall of Famers Greg Necaise (28.5) and John Kulakowski (27.5). A two-time national defensive player of the week, Willis tied the school single-game sack record of 4.5 in a win against Stephen F. Austin in 2001. A product of Quitman, Texas, Willis was named to the Top 100 Demon Players of All-Time in 2007 as part of the NSU football centennial celebration. He died Oct. 1 in a boating accident in Tennessee.
In addition to football, two other NSU sports will have multiple representatives enter the school’s athletic shrine.
Two of Northwestern State’s most productive hitters will hear their names called Nov. 4 as Morgan and Donner enter the Hall.
A two-time, first-team All-Southland Conference honoree with three overall all-conference nods, Morgan ranks first or second in eight offensive categories and is in the top 10 in 12 different offensive career marks. Sixteen years after his career ended, Morgan remains the school leader in career hits (259), RBIs (169) and triples (17) and is second in career runs (175), doubles (59), total bases (421), walks (118) and at-bats (806). Northwestern State’s single-season leader in triples (6), Morgan established the school single-game RBI mark with eight against Southeastern on March 14, 2006, and was the starting second baseman on NSU’s 2005 Southland Conference regular-season championship team that reached the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional.
Like Morgan, Donner was a two-time, first-team All-Southland Conference selection and a member of an NCAA Regional team. One key difference is Donner accomplished those feats in a two-year career after arriving as a junior college transfer. Donner’s .366 career average remains sixth in school career history, and that production helped the Demons win consecutive Southland Conference regular-season championships under two head coaches (Jim Wells, Dave Van Horn). The 1994 Demons earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Stillwater Regional. Donner’s consecutive first-team All-Southland Conference made him just the second baseball Demon to accomplish that feat, following Kyle Shade in 1992 and 1993.
Soccer’s pair of Southland Conference Player of the Year honorees makes it the second sport to put a pair of inductees in the Class of 2023.
A three-time, first-team All-Southland Conference selection, Cargill was the 2000 Southland Player of the Year and SLC Tournament Most Valuable Player after leading the Lady Demons to the 2000 NCAA Tournament. Cargill netted 35 career goals in just three seasons, including a school single-season record 16 in 2000. Her career total stood as the school record for 22 years until it was broken this past fall. Cargill established the school single-game goal record with four against Louisiana College on Sept. 1, 1998, and her 37 points in 2000 are the school single-season record.
Hebert finished her career No. 2 in goals with 29, just behind Cargill. The 2007 Southland Conference Player of the Year, Hebert had 10-goal seasons in 2005 and 2007 as part of a three-time, first-team All-Southland Conference career. Hebert’s 23 assists remain second in school career history while her 81 points are tied for second. A talented player, Hebert was a clutch scorer, tallying a then-school career record 12 game-winning goals. A two-time, first-team All-Louisiana selection in 2006 and 2007, Hebert became just the second NSU player to make multiple All-Louisiana teams.
Like Cargill and Hebert, Davidson was the class of the Southland Conference as part of a dominant program.
An Ole Miss transfer from Leesville, Davidson was the 2001-02 Southland Conference Player of the Year after averaging a conference-best 16.2 points per game. A three-time All-Louisiana and All-Southland selection, Davidson averaged 14.3 points per game, the eighth-best mark in program history and connected on 127 3-pointers at a 38.1 percent clip. A 6-foot forward, Davidson added nearly six rebounds per game in her three seasons while collecting 1.7 steals per game. In her three seasons, the Lady Demons won 71 percent of their games (62-25) and were even better in Southland play, going 47-13 (78.3 winning percentage).
Like Donner, Annie Johnston enjoyed a stellar two-season run in a bat-and-ball sport, earning first-team Academic All-American honors off the softball diamond and Southland Conference Player and Hitter of the Year awards on it. A junior-college transfer, Johnston is one of just three first-team all-region picks in program history and owns the school career batting average mark at .376. Her .427 average ranked her 13th nationally in 2002 and remains the No. 2 mark in school single-season history, trailing N-Club Hall of Famer Ginger Craig’s .428 mark in 1987. Johnston, a center fielder by trade, is third in school history in stolen bases (85) and owns two of the top four stolen base seasons in school history (48 in 2002, No. 2 in school history, No. 3 that season in Division I; 37 in 2001, No. 4 in school history, 12th nationally). A two-time All-Louisiana selection, including a first-team nod in 2002, Johnston’s 15 triples that season ranked third nationally and is second in school history. Johnston helped drive two strong team seasons, including a school-record 45 wins in 2002.
Canton made her name on both the Southland Conference level and the national one as well.
The owner of five Southland Conference individual championships, Canton qualified for three NCAA National Championships – the 2001 indoor meet in the triple jump, the 2001 outdoor meet with a school high jump-record leap of 5-11.75 and the 2003 indoor meet in the high jump. Canton captured a pair of titles at the 2000 Southland Conference Outdoor Championships – winning the high jump (5-10.5) and the triple jump (40-1.5). She added a trio of indoor Southland high jump titles in 2000 (5-8), 2001 (5-8) and 2003 (5-10.75).
In much the same way – and on an even grander scale – the 2000-01 men’s basketball team brought the Northwestern State athletics brand to the March Madness masses. The Demons blazed through the Southland Conference Tournament, winning three straight games against teams that had swept them in the regular season, culminating with a 72-71 victory against McNeese in the title game in Bossier City. Northwestern State followed that with a 71-67 win against Winthrop in the first Opening Round game in NCAA Tournament history. The Demons pushed No. 1 seed Illinois in the first round before falling.
Coach Mike McConathy’s second NSU squad becomes just the third team inducted into the N-Club Hall of Fame and the first since 2008 when the unbeaten 1955-58 Mile Relay Team earned the honor. The other team was the 1981 NCAA champion 4×100 relay team, which featured future NFL players Joe Delaney, Mark Duper and Victor Oatis.
— Featured graphic by Brad Welborn, NSU Sports Information