Fay “T-Model” Thurman and Margaret “Maggie” Romero, who led their programs to multiple state championships in the 1970s, and Dr. Brian Brown, a former basketball and track standout, were inducted into the NISH Athletics Hall of Fame, the third such class to be honored.
“It was an absolute surprise,” said Brown, who said he hadn’t known before he was notified of the honor that NISH had started an athletic Hall of Fame program. “One of the things I was excited about was they had made some amazing inductions before.”
  
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A committee of former coaches who worked at least five years at NISH selects nominees for the Hall of Fame and votes on them each year.
Brian Brown
Brown serves as director of the Drake Relays, a prestigious track and field meet at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa that celebrated its 100th year this April. Brown said he hopes the fact that he went on to earn a doctoral degree encourages students from New Iberia to strive to achieve their goals.
“I’m proud to be from New Iberia, Louisiana,” said Brown, who flew in to Louisiana a few days early so he could visit family and friends. “I will always be a Yellow Jacket. One thing I will always carry is I was blessed with some great coaches, great friends and teachers who challenged me.”
Brown attended Southeastern Louisiana University after graduating from NISH. Though he won the state high jump title in 1983 and 1984, his first love, athletically, was basketball, and he was in the right place at the right time when one of the players selected for the annual high school All-Star game had to withdraw because of sickness.
Brown was his replacement for the game being played at SLU, and he made a couple of spectacular reverse dunks that impressed the Southeastern basketball coach enough that he recruited Brown for his team.
But SLU dropped its basketball program a couple of years later, and Brown transferred to Northwestern State. Eventually he realized track would be a better sport for him, and once he concentrated on that, Brown excelled at it. He went on to win a bronze medal at the 1988 Goodwill Games, was the 1989 U.S. outdoor champion and won the 1990 NCAA indoor championship. He also won the high jump at the 1997 Milrose Games and was the 1998 U.S. indoor runner-up.
But his proudest moment was when he received his doctoral degree from the University of Missouri in 2005. His mother had told him she hoped for one of two things for Brown “ to live long enough to see him turn 30, or to see him get a doctorate.
“After years of pursuit, to see her sitting in the audience when they hooded me and presented my doctorate, that surpassed even all the championships,” said Brown, whose father had died by the time he earned his degree. “That was the high point, other than my marriage and my kids.”
Margaret Romero
Romero, a NISH graduate, began coaching at St. Martinville Senior High before moving to Massachusetts. She returned to her hometown when her father became ill, and became head volleyball coach at New Iberia.
She coached at the school from 1969-81, leading the Lady Jackets to a state basketball championship in 1980, a runner-up finish in 1975 and to the semifinals in 1974, ’76, ’77 and ’78. She was named state Coach of the Year in 1980.
In volleyball, Romero led New Iberia to six district championships and to the Final Four in 12 of her 13 seasons, including state titles in 1971 and 1973. She was state Coach of the Year in 1973.
Support from the administration and the community as a whole was key to the success the ladies’ programs had in the 1970s, she said.
“We had great, great support,” said Romero, the first female inductee in the NISH Hall of Fame. “I think the key was the students worked for excellence. The parents wanted their children to be successful.”
While teams have to have outstanding athletes to win championships, they also have to have a bit of luck, she said.
“You have to know what you’re doing, but the breaks have to fall your way,” said Romero. “Some of the years we were in the final Four we were lucky. But we had students who worked hard to be there.”
Romero was encouraged early to do her best athletically and in other areas. Her parents, Jeanne and Aaron Romero, stressed the need to work for excellence, she said.
“My father also but especially my mother believed that one should do his best all the time,” Romero said. “There was no excuse for not doing one’s best.”
While still in elementary school, Romero said, she knew she wanted to be a coach. Bill Wallace was an early inspiration with his physical education classes in elementary school and encouragement of girls’ participation in sports.
“Really, my passion is sports,” said Romero. “I teach English and health (at NISH), but I’m still passionate about sports. Now, I try to fish as much as I can.”
The biggest reward from her coaching days, though, is not the success of the teams, but seeing her players grow up to be good parents, successful in their jobs and just good people, said Romero.
“Most of my reward is to see how successful these people are,” she said. “That, to me, is my reward today.”
While she often sees some of those players these days, she got to spend time before Friday’s game and at a get-together afterward with many, something she was looking forward to.
Fay Thurman
“T-Model,” as Thurman is known far and wide, coached New Iberia’s baseball team to state championships in 1973 and 1975. His teams won district titles from 1971-73 and in 1975, earning him district Coach of the Year honors in those four years, and he was named Louisiana Coach of the Year in 1975. His teams went 129-25 from 1971-77.
Thurman, who coached at NISH from 1967-85 and served as the school’s athletic director from 1976-85, was inducted into the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2002.
“I’m really excited and honored that they would induct me,” said Thurman, who moved back to Monroe with his wife after 40 years in south Louisiana, including 18 years at NISH. “It’s a great honor. We had some great coaches and some great athletes at New Iberia.”
Among the coaches he remembers working with at New Iberia were football coaches Faize Mahfouz, an LHSAA Hall of Famer, Nolan Viator, Gordon King, Butsy Walet, Bobby Keasler and Mac McClelland, later principal at NISH. Margaret Romero, Sally Leslie and Jo Ann Eldridge led a great girls’ athletcs program, Thurman said, and Don Batiste and Ernie Lancon led a strong boys’ basketball team, and track coaches also were outstanding.
“It’s a great school,” said Thurman. “We won a lot of championships while I was there -“ four or five in track, four or five in baseball. In basketball we were in the Top 28 several times. We reached the finals in football in 1979. I got to work with some great people. My experience at New Iberia High School was great. It’s just a great area.”
He also recalls some great athletes he worked with, including 1973 state tournament MVP Bill Desormeaux and 1973 state MVP Eddie Gallantine, current Catholic High baseball coach Tim Comeaux, Joey Armentor and Shanie Dugas in 1975, along with Don Williamson and Russel Polk.
When Thurman stepped down as head baseball coach, Joe Jefferson took over and led New Iberia to further state titles with players like Gary Joseph and Nathaniel “Bucky” Greene.
Thurman recalls starting the baseball program at NISH in 1971 at the behest of then-principal George Crowson, a former baseball standout himself, after the LHSAA reinstated the sport in the higher divisions after it had been played only in the lower classifications for years.
They won the district title that year, and the rest, as they say, is history.
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