A surprise visitor Saturday night was Demon football great Floyd Turner, who drove in from his Houston-area home with his younger brother Darin to enjoy the evening.
Floyd spent nine years in the NFL and now is in sales. His bubbly personality no doubt serves him well.
He said his home wasn't damaged in Hurricane Ike.
Floyd's Demon career started with a bang. Before his redshirt freshman year, he was hit by a train. Really. He foolishly tried to beat a train to a crossing in his hometown of Mansfield, in one of those cars that we all had coming out of high school. Fortunately the train wasn't moving fast and disaster was averted, although he got bruised up pretty good.
That wasn't as big a hit as his little brother took as a Demon player in a spring scrimmage.
Playing receiver, he was the victim for maybe the biggest lick I've ever seen, from The Terminator, dynamic Demon linebacker Andre' Carron. The end zone collision left Turner unconscious.
I told him, I thought Carron had killed him. He said, laughing, that he doesn't remember that one bit but he's been told about it a lot!
Also dropping by to say hi were Erik and Maryalyce Walsh Cox, one of my favorite NSU sports couples.
Erik joined our sports information office staff as a student, got the bug, was a tremendous graduate assistant, and during those years fell for a very smart, very pretty cross country and distance star on the track team.
Maryalyce remains one of our top Lady Demon runners. She's now an attorney based in Houston. They have two kids and were happy to report, despite being in a heavily wooded neighborhood, they had no significant storm damage either.
Erik spent a few years as the assistant SID to former NSU assistant SID Daucy Crizer, who was the SID czar at his alma mater, Lamar. He does some contract work and is SuperDad for the kids.
They are good luck charms for the Demons. Erik brings the NSU men's basketball team good luck in every SLC Tournament -- at least the last two as he's silently cheered for them while working on the official stat crew. It's odd how the Demon football team seems to bring out some of its best when the Cox family visits Turpin Stadium.
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