Happy occasion in Hawaii

HONOLULU – How could you NOT have a happy occasion in Paradise?

It’s hard for the NSU basketball team to imagine, other than the sting of a couple of bitter losses in last year’s Rainbow Classic. They’ll get a chance to walk off the court happier Saturday night.

But before we even landed in Honolulu Thursday evening, we learned of a happy event for one NSU alumnus today. At the Houston airport, we met the Maxfield family from Tyler, Texas, whose son Ryan is a very proud 2004 NSU graduate now pursuing his doctoral degree in international relations and political economics at Cal-Irvine.

Ryan was a four-year member of the Spirit of Northwestern Marching Band and the Purple Haze pep band. His parents, Preston and Jacqueline, are big Demon sports fans like their son, who treasures the memory of playing in Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium when the Lady Demon basketball team went to the 2004 NCAA Tournament.

Preston sat in a parking lot in Tyler last March and listened to the Demons beat Iowa in the men’s NCAA Tournament.

What brought them to Hawaii was the Friday wedding of their daughter, Amber, to Carl Nona. They work at the same large Houston-based law firm, and the couple and Amber’s parents had the same flight to Honolulu that the Demons did.

Ryan was flying separately from Los Angeles. The family was planning a fun-filled weekend, and the father of the bride, the groom and the brother of the bride made a late add to their itinerary: they asked for tickets to Saturday evening’s basketball game!

Carl and Amber have dated for four years and have been engaged for the last two.

As for Ryan, he graduated from NSU with honors with a double major of political science and music performance.

… On the eight-hour flight from Houston, many of the NSU players and coaches were enthralled by the in-flight movie “Invincible,” the story of a blue-collar bartender who defied the odds to try out and make the Philadelphia Eagles’ roster in the late 1970s.

“If that doesn’t get your heart thumpin’, nothing will,” said head coach Mike McConathy, who gives the movie a big pair of thumbs up.

Reading on the flight: while I polished off “Thunderstruck,” the dual story of Marconi’s development of wireless communications and a riveting murder case in London before World War II, coach McConathy was reading an updated version of the Bible.


--Doug Ireland

Demons enjoy Saints win over Cowboys

Former Demon and Former Saint Bobby Hebert as Grand Marshall of the 2006 Natchitoches Christmas Festival of Lights.

It’s easy to figure former Saints quarterback and NSU graduate Bobby Hebert thoroughly enjoyed New Orleans’ rout of Dallas in NFL action Sunday night.

The excitement in his voice was obvious listening to his post-game radio show on 870 -AM WWL – even though he had picked Dallas to win. “Hey, you gotta be objective! The Saints had a lot to overcome in this game, but this is definitely one time I’m really happy to be wrong,” he told one caller.

Bobby (shown above throwing candy as grand marshal of the 80th Annual Natchitoches Christmas Festival parade Dec. 2) was speaking for a legion of Saints fans thrilled with their team’s blowout of their next-door neighbors. The match-up is always fun to watch, as much as for the fan enthusiasm as for any other reason.

It extended all the way to the NSU Cheerleaders. Sitting next to each other at a local Chili’s restaurant Sunday night were Afton Brunett, a freshman education major from New Orleans, and Stephanie Farish, a junior psychology major from Irving, Texas.

As you might guess, Afton was wearing Saints gear – a No. 87 Joe Horn jersey and a black and gold Santa hat with “Saints” in gold lettering – and Stephanie had on a No. 81 Cowboys jersey. “I know, it’s T.O., but I couldn’t get a Tony Romo jersey,” she sheepishly explained after No. 81 dropped yet another catchable pass. “I’ve got to have my Cowboys jersey on for the games.”

The cheerleaders were quite well versed on their teams and avidly watched every play, and yes, cheering. They agreed on one thing – “Sean Payton is really good looking,” said Afton. And give Stephanie credit, when things turned sour, she didn’t quit rooting openly and ardently for her team.

The crowd at Chili’s was pretty evenly split between the rivals, but late in the game most Cowboys fans headed home early and some Saints fans, like avid NSU supporter and professor Dr. Ron McBride, dropped by to enjoy the waning moments. Ron donned his No. 25 Reggie Bush Saints jersey, his Saints cap and his Saints warm-ups for the occasion. He has the equivalent, of course, in purple and white Demons gear.I