Retired NSU Football Coach Elected to the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame

LITTLE ROCK - Longtime Northwestern State football coach Sam Goodwin will join All-Pro football star Willie Roaf and world boxing champion Jermaine Taylor among 11 people who will be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame next February, according to an announcement Tuesday. "This is a great honor and I am speechless," said Goodwin, coach of the Demons from 1983-1999 after winning five state titles as coach at Little Rock-Parkview High School. "I was not expecting this. There are so many great people that are deserving. You dream of its happening some day, but you never think you are deserving of the honor." Also in the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fames 2007 induction class are football standout Rod Smith and baseballs Tom Pagnozzi. Goodwin, a native of Pineville and a Pineville High School graduate, and the other inductees will be honored next Feb. 23 in Little Rock. "I cant think of anybody who could possibly be more deserving for what hes meant to the game of football and to so many of us who played and coached for him," said current Demons head coach Scott Stoker, a walk-on who became a school-record setting passer and championship-winning quarterback under Goodwin from 1986-89. "When I think of what Coach Goodwin has meant to me, theres him and my dad - those are the men who helped me the most, who taught me the most, who inspired me the most and who I try to be like the most," said Stoker, who got his coaching career started working for Goodwin from 1990-93. For the last six years, Goodwin has served as athletic director at Henderson State, where he was an NAIA All-America offensive guard in 1965, after retiring from his coaching post at NSU in June 2000. Winning 102 games in 17 seasons with the Demons, Goodwin was enshrined in Northwesterns Graduate N Club Hall of Fame in 1999, and in 2001 was inducted into the Southland Conference Hall of Honor. Goodwin won 111 collegiate games, including a school record 102 at Northwestern. He broke the Southland Conferences all-time wins record and was a two-time winner of the leagues coach of the year award. Goodwins Northwestern teams won four conference titles, the 1984 Gulf Star Conference championship, and Southland Conference championships in 1988, 1997 and 1998. Goodwin guided the Demons to three NCAA Division I-AA playoff appearances, highlighted by the 1998 season in which Northwestern reached the semifinal round of the I-AA playoffs. That team tied the school record with 11 wins. His 1988 team, which advanced to the I-AA quarterfinals with Stoker at quarterback, won 10 games. Goodwin coached 22 All-Americans, two Verizon Academic All-Americans, a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete, 42 first team All-Southland selections, and had 38 of his players go on to the NFL. Prior to coaching at Northwestern, Goodwin spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Arkansas, where he coached running backs and quarterbacks under Lou Holtz. Goodwin helped the Razorbacks make appearances in the Gator Bowl and the Bluebonnet Bowl. Goodwin was the head coach at Southern Arkansas in 1979 and 1980. He earned a place in Arkansas sports history as head coach at Parkview High School in Little Rock from 1970-78, capturing five state championships and winning 72 percent of his games with the Patriots. Goodwin attended Pineville High School and played on the 1960 state championship football team. In his senior year, he was named team captain and played offensive guard and defensive end while weighing only 160 pounds. He only played in two games during his senior year - the first one and the last one - because of a broken ankle. Goodwin came to Henderson State as a walk-on who developed into an All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference player on offense and defense. He earned NAIA All-America honors as a guard in 1965, and he was included in the AICs All-Decade team by Dave Campbells Arkansas Football Magazine. Goodwin was also a three-time AIC champion in the discus, setting a conference record in 1965.