A worthy choice

Pictured above is Jason O'Brien (#23) with members of the 1966 Football Team and Ms. Nellie Clayton, wife of Coach Jack Clayton.

One wonderful sidelight of the 40th anniversary reunion of the unbeaten 1966 Demons football team last weekend was the recognition of this year’s recipient of the Jack Clayton Memorial Scholarship.

Senior safety Jason O’Brien is an honor student in health and human performance. He is a four-year letterman and a three-year starter for the Demons, and nobody on the team bleeds purple more than J.O.

If you want to see raw emotion, watch him as he roars out of the tunnel and through the purple smoke before the last two home games, Oct. 28 against Texas State and Nov. 11 against McNeese. It’s nothing new – his motor has been running hot since the day he put on a Demons jersey.

He is the kind of player Coach Clayton would have loved. So it’s great that Mrs. Nellie Clayton (shown in the center in the above photo) was there as always for the pregame presentation of the Clayton Scholarship trophy, along with members of the 1966 team who were influential in creating the beautiful Clayton Plaza behind the south end zone at Turpin Stadium.

The plaza is more than a shrine. It’s a fund-raising mechanism. Many NSU supporters have contributed to the scholarship in return for having their names on bricks in the plaza. Several of coach Clayton’s players are among the kindest donors.

Demon stars in Tigertown

The phone rang Tuesday morning and it was an LSU campus number I didn’t recognize, but the voice was very distinctive.

“Who’s your favorite Demon baseball player of all time, Doug?” he asked.

“Do batgirls count?” I replied, thinking back to my days as a student, when Yvette and Collette Coburn, the beautiful and charming twins from Anacoco, were good reason to take in games at Brown-Stroud Field.

After he stopped laughing, Terry Joseph said hello.

Joseph, the three-time first-team All-SLC centerfielder, a two-time Academic All-American and the 1995 SLC Player of the Year, is coaching at LSU.

No, not on the Tigers’ new baseball staff. He’s coaching football.

And so is another former Demon and SLC Player of the Year, Tony Joe Maranto. T.J. and Tony Joe are on Les Miles’ staff. Maranto was the 1997 SLC Defensive Player of the Year and an All-America safety for the Demons coached by Sam Goodwin.

It was great to hear from them, if only for a moment.

“After the Florida debacle,” said Terry, referring to LSU’s loss to the Gators last week, “we all have a lot to do.”

They will be in Baton Rouge this weekend when LSU entertains Kentucky, and hope to cross paths with Demons heading through town on their way to Hammond for Saturday night’s football game at Southeastern.