By T. SCOTT BOATRIGHT, Lincoln Parish Journal
GRAMBLING — Seven of the greatest athletes to ever walk the campus at Grambling State University will be honored as the Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame inducts its 17th class at 6 p.m. Saturday inside the Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center.
The Class of 2025 includes track and field Olympian Cynthia Green; basketball’s Martin Lemelle, Sr.; Cedric Shaw of the Tigers’ baseball program; football players Jerry Gordon, Calvin Spears, and two-time Pro Bowler Bennie Thompson; and Randy Hymes, who played both football and basketball and lined up for the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings.
Green came to Grambling from Jamaica to run for coach Ed Stephens’ Lady Tigers. She won the 1985 500-meter run at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships in a time of 1:10.46 before competing for her native country in the 400m run at the 1984 Olympic Games.
Green was part of a 1,600m relay team that put Grambling in contention to capture a 1984 national championship. But a teammate’s pulled hamstring during the first leg of that race limited Grambling to a fifth-place finish.
The father of Grambling’s current president, Martin Lemelle Sr. came to GSU from the small town of Sunset to play for Fred Hobdy. A 6-1 point guard who played in 81 games for Hobdy’s Tigers basketball team, Lemelle averaged 12.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game from 1977-80. He was an eighth-round selection by the Philadelphia 76ers during the 1980 NBA Draft.
Lemelle was an assistant coach during Hobdy’s last seasons as coach.
A southpaw pitcher, Shaw was a Brusly product who went 14-9 with a 4.03 earned run average, completing 13 games and striking out 139 batters through 145.1 innings pitched.
Shaw was a 12th round MLB Draft pick by the Texas Rangers and played in the minors from 1988-95, reaching Class AAA. He was the opening day starter for Double-A Tulsa in 1990, where he pitched the first seven innings in a 1991 no-hitter for the Drillers.
Gordon was a standout receiver for coach Eddie Robinson’s Tigers, averaging 15 yards per catch in 1981 as a senior with 711 receiving yards as he earned first-team All-Southwestern Athletic Conference honors. He was a second-team pick as a junior for a SWAC championship team.
The Alabama native played in the USFL in 1984-85 for the San Antonio Gunslingers, catching 89 passes for 1,341 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Spears, a defensive back from Baton Rouge, earned All-SWAC honors four straight times. He had a solid pro career playing Arena Football.
Thompson, a New Orleans product, played defensive back at Grambling from 1981-84, earning team MVP honors as a senior after picking off seven passes and making 133 tackles.
He also earned first-team All-SWAC honors and honorable mention All-American recognition during his 1984 senior season. He was undrafted by the NFL but helped the Winnipeg Blue Bombers win a Grey Cup championship in 1988.
That propelled him to the New Orleans Saints, where he earned a 1991 Pro Bowl spot as a special teams player. He made another Pro Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens in 1998.
Hymes was a fine basketball player but the Texan shined as a quarterback, passing for more than 4,400 yards and 33 touchdowns (seventh all time at Grambling) and leading the Tigers to SWAC and HBCU football championships in both 2000 and 2001.
He was the SWAC Player of the Year as a senior, when he earned the Eddie Robinson Award and HBCU National Offensive Player of the Year honors.
As a pro, he moved to wide receiver and spent three seasons (2002, 2004-05) with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, catching 43 passes for 578 yards and four touchdowns. Hymes played for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars (2006) and Minnesota Vikings (2007) before moving on to a standout career on the Arena Football circuit, including the 2010 season with the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings.
Contact Scott at tscottboatright@gmail.com