By JASON PUGH, Northwestern State Sports Information Director
NATCHITOCHES – Alexandria native and ASH alumnus Carlos Treadway is among 16 top sports figures in Northwestern State’s history who will join the school’s N-Club Hall of Fame in October.
A two-time All-Southland Conference tight end, Treadway will receive the N-Club’s prestigious Distinguished Service Award. He has carried the NSU brand worldwide in his position as the Executive Vice President of Ford Credit and CEO of Ford Credit Europe.
Also entering the Hall on homecoming day Oct. 26 are a pair of track and field All-Americans, a two-time All-American linebacker and Southland Conference champions across a range of sports.
Linebacker Jamall Johnson is the seventh of nine Demon football players to earn multiple All-American honors, doing so in 2003 and 2004. He is joined in the induction class by fellow linebacker Kurt Rodriguez, who owns the school freshman record in tackles (111) and topped the 400-tackle mark in a three-time All-Southland Conference career.
Sprinter Edgar Cooper helped lead Northwestern State to a pair of conference championships and earned All-American honors in 1987 as part of NSU’s 4×100 meter relay team. He is one of two track and field All-Americans entering the hall, joined by javelin standout Samantha Ford Hatten, a 2003 All-American who twice qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Inductees who captured Southland Conference team championships during their NSU careers are tennis’ Olga Bazhanova Moore, football wide receiver Nathan Black, men’s basketball’s Michael Byars-Dawson, women’s basketball’s Diamond Cosby, soccer’s Hillarie Marshall Coleman, softball’s Shannon Straty and baseball’s Troy Conkle and Brad Hanson. High jumper Janice Miller Moore, an individual Southland champion in her signature event, rounds out the 2024 competitive-ballot inductees.
Joining them for the induction are 2023 electees Gene Tennison (football) and Matt Donner (baseball).
Treadway will be the first Distinguished Service Award winner enshrined since 2020. He earned first-team All-Southland Conference and All-Louisiana honors as a senior and played seven games as a true freshman for the 1988 Southland Conference champions. He played in the Blue-Gray All-Star Game after his senior season in 1991.
Treadway caught 44 passes for 575 yards and four touchdowns in 39 career games and was named one of the 13 honorary captains on the 2007 All-Century Team.
Treadway, who resides in London with his wife and son, will be the first Distinguished Service Award winner enshrined since 2020. He was inducted two years ago in the university’s Long Purple Line Alumni Hall of Distinction.
Johnson earned consecutive All-American honors in 2003 and 2004, collecting Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Year accolades as a senior in 2004 when the Demons captured the conference championship. He played 10 seasons in the Canadian Football League after signing a free-agent contract with the Cleveland Browns in 2005.
A four-year letterman who made started all 46 of his career games from 1999-2002, Rodriguez is the program’s third-leading tackler with 408 career stops and earned All-Southland Conference and All-Louisiana honors six times in his career.
Black, a two-time All-SLC pick, helped the Demons reach the FCS Playoff semifinals in 1998 and another playoff berth in 2001 while leaving as the school’s leader in career receptions with 109, a mark that remains sixth in program history. His 944 receiving yards during his senior year of 2001 stood as a school record for 17 years.
Cooper was a four-time all-conference sprinter who helped the Demon 4×100 relay team earn All-American honors in 1987. He also helped the Demons capture the 1985 Gulf Star Conference and 1987 Southland Conference team championships.
Hatten added to the lore of NSU throwers by qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships on two occasions in the javelin, earning All-American honors in 2003. She also competed in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, finishing 11th in her signature event.
Competing between that All-American pair, the then-Janice Miller was a decorated high jumper who nabbed the 1992 Southland Conference Outdoor high jump championship after a pair of runner-up finishes in 1989 and 1991.
Bazhanova Moore was a dominant piece of the NSU tennis program, captaining the team as a senior in 2012. A two-time All-Southland doubles player, Moore and her partner Adna Curukovic helped lead the Lady Demons to the 2010 Southland Conference regular-season and tournament championships and the first NCAA Tournament berth in program history.
Conkle was first-team all-conference in 1992 and 1993, hitting .343 with 11 doubles and 41 RBIs as the Demons captured the 1993 Southland Conference crown as part of a 40-14 season.
A career .374 hitter, which ranks second in school history, Hanson earned consecutive all-conference selections as an outfielder who also ranks fifth in school history with a .591 slugging percentage. After hitting .381 as a junior, Hanson batted .368 with seven home runs and 46 RBIs as a senior, helping NSU win the 2002 Southland Conference regular-season title.
Byars-Dawson earned All-Southland Conference honors in each of his two seasons at Northwestern State and was a leader on the 2000-01 Demon team that earned the school’s first NCAA Tournament berth. The Southland Conference Tournament MVP that year, Byars-Dawson led the Demons in scoring in both of his seasons, including a 15.8 points per game average in 2000-021.
Cosby, a Doyline product, was a two-time All-Southland selection, nabbing first-team honors in 2004-05, following a second-team berth for the 2003-04 league champions. A prolific shooter who remains seventh in program history with 174 career 3-pointers, Cosby left as NSU’s all-time leader in free-throw percentage (82.3) – a mark that was sixth in SLC history and remains seventh currently.
Coleman was a four-time All-Southland Conference soccer selection, including three straight first-team nods to start her career. Straty was the backstop and backbone of three straight Southland Conference softball championship teams in her final three seasons at NSU. A three-time All-Southland pick – first-team in 1999 – Straty batted .302 for her career, which placed her fourth in school history at the end of her career.
Contact Jason at pughj@nsula.edu