Coach Mike's a winner

Nothing new to NSU fans, except this time, we're talking about a horse.

Natchitoches resident and NSU alumnus and supporter Firal Ryder likes to name his horses after friends and especially Northwestern coaches.

When he put the name Coach Mike on a filly, it seemed funny, but over the last couple of years, it's been very profitable. Again, Saturday, Coach Mike won, on the opening day of racing at Louisiana Downs, with assistant basketball coach Mark Slessinger among those rooting home the horse, which paid about $10 on a $3 ticket to win.

Coach Mike - the man - is head Demon basketball coach Mike McConathy, who often joins Mr. Ryder at the races watching the filly perform.

Last hint!

We already have five winning entries. Now you can join the party by e-mailing the names of the people in the photo below to ireland@nsula.edu by Saturday at noon. A drawing will be held, with our buddy Coach Black reaching into a hat to pick the winner of a new Demon T-shirt.

Your last hint: both people pictured have been head coaches of NSU track and field. Both coached more than one track star who went on to become pro football legends.

Hint 2

Hint No. 2 in the contest to ID the vintage photo above with two NSU track icons featured:

The older one is still around NSU, and has a presence on campus that will never change.

The younger one was back at NSU for Homecoming 2006, celebrating the 25th anniversary of his greatest coaching accomplishment with three of the four athletes involved; one came from Canada and another from South Korea. That achievement is also commemorated on campus and that will never change.

Hint 2-A - One was nicknamed Cajun, another picked up the nickname Ace from his athletes.

Some of you already have half the puzzle solved. This ought to tip the apple cart for you, and perhaps others. Tomorrow's hint is the final clue!

Hint 1

There's been a little coaching done by both fellows in the photo above. Who are they, when was this photo taken, what was being presented, and do you want to win a prize? If so e-mail answers to ireland@nsula.edu

For more on this contest, read below!

Name these guys, win a prize

Let's see if you can win a T-shirt with the new NSU Demons logo by e-mailing the names of the NSU track icons in the photo below to ireland@nsula.edu this week.

All correct answers will be entered into a drawing for the prizes and all winners will be recognized here on the Daily Demon. If we need to provide hints, we'll do so starting Wednesday afternoon.

Any correct answers received by noon Tuesday get 3 entries in the drawing. Correct answers between Tuesday noon and Wednesday noon get 2 entries in the drawing. Then when we start providing clues, it's just one entry per correct answer.

Anybody who can not only identify the people pictured, but when and why they posed for the picture, automatically gets a free cap with the new NSU Demons logo.

Another Demon in the big leagues

http://bigleaguehair.mlblogs.com/

It's not how Ryan Appleton dreamed of making it into major league baseball, but with his blogsite being part of the http://www.mlb.com/ network and this weekend's featured blog, you have to admit he's hit the bigs.

Appleton, ironically, was the catcher for the greatest Demon pitching staff ever.

Four pitchers off the 1998 Southland Conference championship team were drafted: Brandon Emanuel, Brian Lawrence, Alan Davis and Chris Brown.

Three of them - Emanuel, Lawrence and Davis - were pitching for pay last season.

Lawrence, in July, was pitching for the New York Mets in Shea Stadium on national TV. Emanuel was ending his last year in pro ball in Triple A in Portland and Davis was finishing his final season in Class AA with the Phillies' Reading team.

Lawrence continues pitching, trying to make it back to the bigs, in the Rockies organization. I think it would be poetic justice if somehow the Rangers traded for him and Brian became the subject of his former receiver's latest blog entry.

If you're a baseball fan, check out the blog. It is exceptional. You don't need to be a Rangers fan to appreciate the depth of knowledge and the entertaining perspectives. If you are a Rangers fan, it's nirvana.

There's also an update on what Ryan's doing. It has nothing to do with hair, BTW!

Doug Ireland, SID