Graduate "N" Club Hall of Fame Inductees for Fall 2004

Lewis, a Lady Demon basketball star from 1983-86, and Brown, a world class high jumper while competing for Northwestern from 1987-90, will be joined by track standout Billy Hudson, baseball great Kemp “Flash” Gordon and football all-star Butch Ballard in the 2004 induction class. Graduate N Club Hall of Fame "Lifetime Achievement" awards will be presented to longtime Demon Sports Network play by play announcer Norm Fletcher and Dr. Jesse Horner, a former Demon basketball player and a distinguished professor of industrial technology at Texas Southern.

A native of Ida in Caddo Parish, Lewis scored 1,378 points while setting a school record with 697 career assists from 1982-86, a mark that still ranks second on the Lady Demon all-time career assist list. She was a 1985 All-American second-team selection of the Women’s Basketball News Service. Her No. 25 was retired after her senior season and is one of four retired Lady Demon basketball jerseys hanging in Prather Coliseum.

She still ranks as the best free throw shooter in Lady Demon history with a career 81.3 percentage. Thomas was an All-Tournament pick in 1986 when the Lady Demons beat Tennessee Tech and Duke before falling in the Women's National Invitation Touranment championship game. She later served as an assistant coach at NSU.

Brown, a New Iberia native, is one of the most decorated athletes in school history with six track and field all-American awards (three indoor and three outdoor). He was a two-time national high jump champion, winning the 1989 USA Outdoor crown with a leap of 7-7 1/4, then taking the 1990 NCAA Indoor title with a record 7-8 mark. Brown finished fifth in the 1992 USA Olympic Trials and was seventh in the 1996 Trials.

He was also a member of the 1997 USA World Indoor and Outdoor Championship team and ranked as high as ninth in the world in 1998 when he finished third at the Goodwill Games and seventh in the World Grand Prix Final.

Brown, an assistant track coach at Drake University, is a candidate to receive a doctoral degree from the University of Missouri.

A multi-sport athlete, Hudson began his track career at NSU in 1946 after spending four years in the United States Air Force. At NSU, Hudson set school and conference records in the 440 dash that held up for 23 years. In 1946 and 1947, he was the conference champion in the 440 while playing wingback and end on the football team. In fact, during his lifetime of running the 440, Hudson was never beaten (high school, military or college career). One of his career highlights was winning the event in a dual meet with LSU in 1947.

Ballard rewrote the record book as a quarterback for the Demons from 1974-76. He earned first team All-Louisiana honors his sophomore season, beating out current Louisiana Hall of Fame member Steve Foley, who played quarterback at Tulane and became an All-Pro safety for the Denver Broncos. During that season, Ballard completed 140 passes for 1,668 yards and three touchdowns. His 140 completions currently ranks third on the NSU all-time single-season records list and was a school record at the time.

A native of Bogalusa who originally attended Mississippi State, Ballard is the only first team All-Louisiana quarterback to hail from Northwestern. Along with his All-Louisiana honor, Ballard also earned first team All-Gulf South Conference and All-American honorable mention accolades. He was also named the team captain and most valuable player during his career.

Hudson, an Army Air Force veteran during World War II, was unbeaten in the 440-yard dash at Plain Dealing High, Northwestern and in military competition. Captain of coach Walter Ledet's Demon track team in 1947-48, he won Gulf States Conference titles in the 440 in 1946-47 and set school and conference records in the event. He also was a wingback and end on the NSU football team in 1946-47.

Hudson graduated from Northwestern in 1948 and went into the coaching profession where he won several district championships at Ouachita and Haynesville High Schools. In 1970, Hudson became a supervisor with the Bossier Parish School Board until retiring in 1984.

One of the most powerful hitters in NSU baseball history, Gordon became known throughout the region for his long ball. Playing from 1956-59, Kemp once hit a home run at Louisiana-Lafayette (then USL) described as one of the longest balls ever hit in that park, traveling over the left field fence, over the track, and on top of a two-story dorm. He still holds the school record with 35 career home runs while compiling a .354 career batting average. Kemp hit .362 and .342 in his freshman and sophomore seasons with 13 total home runs. In 1957, he was part of NSU’s first ever GSC Championship team. He earned All-GSC honors his junior and senior years in 1958-59, hitting .364 as a junior with seven home runs and .346 with nine homers his senior year.

Kemp was so feared when he stepped up to the plate, pitches from Louisiana Tech and Louisiana-Monroe (NLU) admittedly walked him rather than face the wrath of his bat.

Following his days at NSU, Kemp taught school and coached for more than 20 years in the Caddo Parish school system.

Fletcher served as play-by-play announcer for NSU sports for over four decades before stepping aside to run for sheriff of Natchitoches Parish, an office he won in 1979. He helped launch the play-by-play careers of LSU's Jim Hawthorne and Lyn Rollins of Cox Sports TV, along with having tremendous influence on hundreds of NSU student-athletes and coaches.

Horner, one of the first African-American basketball players for the Demons, was the team's top defensive player and leading rebounder in 1972. A textbook author and an educational specialist for the National Association of Trade and Technical Schools, Horner earned his doctoral degree in education from the University of Houston