NATCHITOCHES — Time catches up with us all, even the biggest little boys like Sam Goodwin.
He knew that. It was frustrating enough that as he approached 82 years old, not only was his over-used, frequently surgically-repaired body creaking, but it was constricting. He grudgingly gave in to using a cane, then a walker, even though until a few weeks back, he did dozens of daily knuckle pushups. He kept getting around town, to church and ballgames and such. Like the lyric in the fight song he loved to lead, he refused to yield.
But that beautiful mind – his constantly joyful recall of people, of moments, of plays and play-calls – was not cooperating, either. During the holidays, he and son Jay decided to convene one final huddle, inviting his former Northwestern State football players, and coaches, staff colleagues, friends and anyone who might want to come on Friday afternoon, March 20, to Merci Beaucoup Restaurant in the heart of downtown Natchitoches, to visit and gently say thanks, and in most cases, farewell.
Some didn’t wait until then, including his predecessor in the Demons’ head coaching office, 92-year-old A.L. Williams, who traveled an hour-and-half from Ruston.
Goodwin didn’t realize he was out of timeouts. Not long after his January birthday, the slide toward home steepened, and Jay painfully posted on Facebook saying he and his dad realized the March get-together was asking too much for the coach to manage.
That was true. Last Friday evening, March 20, back home from a hospital in Shreveport, he crossed the greatest goalline.
Probably not coincidence that he made it to that date, more than two weeks after things suddenly went from weak to worst. Hanging in for 16 days, after being resuscitated three times, was his final flash of Goodwin grit.
It’s generational. His granddaughter, Jaydyn “Shorty” Goodwin, is an All-SEC outfielder at Georgia, and one of the best players in the college game. Her Poppy loved traveling to watch her play just as he had followed her big sister Jaycee at Georgia State. When he was stricken after an outpatient procedure in Shreveport on March 4, the next day Shorty went 3-for-3 with a home run. Last Saturday, after Poppy passed away the night before, she ripped her sixth homer this season. She’s batting .344.
Their dad, Jay, has become a very successful Kentucky racehorse breeder at Good Win Farm outside of Paris in the Bluegrass State. He was in the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs in May 2023 celebrating with his friend Ramiro Restrepo, proud owner of Mage, surprise champion of the 149th Kentucky Derby.
Jay’s career traces back to many father-son trips up I-49 to Louisiana Downs in the 1990s, then over to Oaklawn Park when they moved to Arkadelphia in 2000. Jay was never going to be a college athlete, or a coach, like his dad, but he has that same competitive fire. So did middle daughter Angie, a guard on Natchitoches Central’s 1986 national championship team who played at NSU and Texas State. His oldest girl, Robbie, helped out in Goodwin’s football office.
As a teenager, their dad had rapidly returned from a broken ankle at the start of his junior season and led a 1960 state championship football team at Pineville High School. He walked on in football and track at Henderson State, and became one of the Reddies’ greatest and a three-time conference discus champion.
He started coaching junior high sports in Arkansas and only a few years later got hired as head coach of a start-up inner city program at Little Rock-Parkview. The Patriots won five state titles in his nine seasons, dynasty stuff. Several years later, a Little Rock sportswriter began a profile of an undersized but over-performing player this way: “When Sam Goodwin had his Little Rock-Parkview teams dominating Arkansas high school football, he did it with players like ….” The underlying fact: if you knew ANYTHING about Arkansas High school football, you knew who Goodwin was, and how powerful his Patriots were.
Beginning in 1983, for 17 years he was head coach at Northwestern, again defying the odds. His resume sparkles even more brightly 26 years after he left the Demons’ football offices in mid-summer to become AD at his college alma mater. He loved to lead the Demon fight song for his teams – especially in the locker room after his 102 wins – and at gatherings of NSU fans. It didn’t take much to coax him into a rendition of “Gimme That Old Reddie Spirit,” either.
Into his 50s, he’d head out to the Walter P. Ledet Track Complex across from his office in the Northwestern Athletic Fieldhouse, and practice throwing the discus. There were many years of staff shirts-and-skins basketball games. Nobody wanted to rebound against him. He coached youth league sports. He fed pitching machines, and put the ball on batting tees. He umpired little kids’ baseball and softball games because somebody had to, and because he loved doing it.
He was in the stands for every other Northwestern sport year after year, including this winter. While he was coaching, he and his late wife Janet made it to plays and concerts by NSU’s outstanding performing arts students. Goodwin and another NSU legend, band director Bill Brent, became fast friends and collaborators, doing a lot with not much at all in the 1980s.
Ten years apart, at the end of Southland Conference championship victories at Stephen F. Austin in 1988 and 1998, his players carried him out to midfield. They did it again when he won his 100th game at Texas State in 1999. Try to recall the last time you saw a college team – any team – give their head coach a ride of love and respect.
After leaving NSU, Goodwin was proud and productive in his years as athletic director at Henderson, but soon ached to coach football again. He moved back to Natchitoches in 2009 and before long was volunteering as an assistant to his former player Robbie Martin at Pineville High School. In 2014, Alexandria Senior High had its third head coaching vacancy in four years, and Goodwin took the job at age 70. He had young Thomas Bachman as his offensive coordinator, and when Sam stepped aside after two seasons, the Trojans were back in the playoffs with a winning record. They’ve been a powerhouse under Bachman since.
Still, he loved being at practice, in games, and working with kids. He helped out, gratis, in stints at nearby Lakeview, St. Mary’s and Natchitoches Central until 2020. Biggest little boy as you’ve ever seen.
Hundreds of memories will be shared between now and his April 25 memorial celebration at Turpin Stadium. Goodwin’s coaching tree is full of branches to pro football, to Super Bowls, to LSU’s 2019 national championship, and much more football accomplishment – but it shines brightest with his lessons by example, master classes in yes, football strategy and technique, but most of all, integrity, sportsmanship, character, compassion, motivation, inspiration, modesty, gratitude, and fundamentally, faith – in the people around him, and the Lord he loved.
Let me offer one snapshot from a countless collection I have from serving Goodwin as his publicist at NSU from 1989 until his 2000 departure. It was the distressing finish of the biggest home game he ever coached, the 1998 Division I-AA semifinals. His Demons led 24-21 going to the fourth quarter, but U-Mass turned the outcome north in the last eight minutes. In the waning moments, the visitors were running out the clock with an insurmountable lead.
Bucking the mood, the Spirit of Northwestern band began playing. The student section, still brimming behind the Demon bench, started cheering, and came to their feet, applauding their coach and his men for what they had accomplished, how hard they competed, and how they represented their school.
Sam Goodwin turned around, on behalf of his Demons, and tipped his cap to the crowd.
Then his players applauded HIM as the clock wound away.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com
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