March 15, 2006

Time was - about 30 years ago - when former McNeese State baseball players Johnnie Thibodeaux and Mike Fontenot didn't sit too close to each other in the Cowboy dugout.

"I was a little freshman and he was an upperclassman," Fontenot said. "All of us freshmen were scared to death of the juniors and seniors, especially Johnnie after he beat up a water cooler at the end of the dugout one game."

"I must have fouled one off or had one of my few strikeouts or something," Thibodeaux recalled.

The two played together on McNeese baseball squads of 1975 and 1976 which were coached by Hubert Boales. Those was "Tib's" final athletic seasons with the Cowboys while Fontenot, or "Rooster" as he was called back then, went on to play two more seasons.

Now the two share the same bench in the bleachers as they cheer on McNeese State's 2006 baseball team. Both have sons on the squad, outfielders James Thibodeaux and Chris Fontenot.

"We're just enjoying watching baseball, mainly McNeese baseball," Thibodeaux said during one recent Cowboy game.

The two have actually been tracing footsteps for many years because of family.

"Our daughters played against each other in sports," Thibodeaux said, "and our other sons (Johnnie and Mike) played on LSU's national championship teams."

Fontenot said that his family and Thibodeaux' family made the world series highlight film from back when LSU won the title in 2000.

"Our families were sitting right behind Brad Cresse's family when he got the hit that won the game and we're in the highlight film they show every year."

Thibodeaux and Fontenot came as students and athletes to McNeese for different reasons.

"I wanted to play both football and baseball and mainly came to McNeese because of that," Thibodeaux said, adding that he was recruited out of New Iberia by Tucker Debetaz.

Fontenot, who grew up in Lake Charles, came because he wanted to play baseball and McNeese offered that opportunity to him.

"I remember that I was playing American Legion ball and after one game someone came up to me and said that Coach Boales wanted to know if I wanted to play baseball for McNeese," he said.

Thibodeaux went on to become a standout on the football field for the Cowboys at quarterback. Twice he was named to the all-Southland Conference team and twice he was named the school's most valuable player.

He continues to rank sixth on the all-time McNeese passing chart after having completed 207 of 455 passes for 3,416 yards and 24 touchdowns. He played on four consecutive winning teams, those squads winning 28 games over that span.

Thibodeaux competed in baseball for three seasons, compiling a .293 career batting average, with marks of .301 in 1975 and .300 in 1974.

He was inducted into the McNeese Hall of Fame in 1997.

Fontenot played four years for the Cowboys and posted a .270 career batting average with his top season coming in 1978 when he batted .315.

Their athletic involvement didn't stop once they graduated from college. Both went on to coach their children from tee-ball on up.

Thibodeaux also spent a period of time as a high school coach and is now the outside salesman for Athlete's Corner and lives in Lake Charles. Fontenot is a petroleum engineer with Chevron in Lafayette.

They have a fond rememberance of their coach.

"We loved Coach Boales," Thibodeaux said. "He coached baseball just like he coached football - tough. I have a lot of good memories about him. He would sit down at the end of the dugout and smoke those cigarettes. Every year he would tell us, I was going to quit this year but you guys are driving me crazy and I just can't stop smoking."

(Editor's note: Coach Boales has now been smokeless since Sept. 23, 2005 at 4:35 p.m.)