Written by T. Scott Boatright
At 6 p.m. on July 12, the 17th Class of the Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame will be inducted into the Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center, honoring seven of the best athletes to ever set foot on the Grambling State University campus.
Cynthia Green is a track and field representative, Martin Lemelle, Sr. is a basketball player, Cedric Shaw is a baseball player, Jerry Gordon, Calvin Spears, and Bennie Thompson are football players, and Randy Hymes is a basketball and football player in the Grambling Legends Class of 2025.
The induction ceremony will take place the following evening, with an introductory press conference scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on July 11.
Cynthia Green
Green traveled from Jamaica to Grambling to compete for the Lady Tigers Track and Field team, which is coached by Ed Stephens.
She went on to represent her home nation in the 400-meter run at the 1984 Summer Olympics after winning the 500-meter race in 1:10.46 at the 1985 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Green was also a member of the 1,600-meter relay squad that helped Grambling win a national title in 1984.
However, Grambling finished in fifth place, 10 points behind Florida State, the national winner, after a teammate pulled a hamstring during the first leg of that race.
Lemelle, Martin Sr.
Martin Lemelle, the current president of Grambling State University, was born in Sunset, Louisiana, and moved to GSU with his father.
Lemelle Sr. was a 6-1 point guard who played in 81 games for the Hobdy’s Tigers basketball team. During his G-Man career, which lasted from 1977 to 1980, he averaged 12.9 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 7.0 assists per game, scoring 1,048 points in all.
In the 1980 NBA Draft, the Philadelphia 76ers selected him in the eighth round.
Later, during Hobdy’s final seasons as head coach of Grambling’s men’s basketball team, Lemelle, Sr. rejoined the GSU basketball program as an assistant coach.
Shaw, Cedric
Shaw, a southpaw pitcher who was recruited to Grambling from Brusly (Louisiana) High School, finished 13 games with a 4.03 earned run average, 14-9 on the mound, 97 runs allowed (only 67 of which were earned), and 139 strikeouts in 145.1 innings pitched.
Shaw started his professional career in the Rookie League with the Butte (Montana) Copper Kings after being selected in the 12th round by Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers. After making 12 starts and going 5-2 with a 3.99 ERA, he advanced to single-A Charlotte in 1989 and a portion of 1990.
Shaw had a 2.72 ERA and a 10-6 record in 1989.
He earned his team’s first-day start on the mound at AA Tulsa in the 1990 season.
Shaw pitched 12 starts for Tulsa that season and went 4-5 with a 6.86 ERA before returning to Charlotte to end the season 5-3 with a 1.59 ERA.
For the 1991 season, he went back to Tulsa and finished 9-8 with a 4.06 ERA. Shaw pitched seven innings of no-hit ball in April of that year, and his relievers completed the job for a total of zero hits.
Shaw pitched 2-6 for the 89ers in 1993 with a 7.91 ERA, earning AAA status in Oklahoma City for half of 1992 and the entire 1993 season.
In 1995, he made his last five appearances for AA Harrisburg.
Gordon, Jerry
The wide receiver, who came to Grambling from Huntsville, Alabama’s J.O. Johnson High School, averaged 15 yards per catch during his senior year in 1981, hauling in 711 yards of receptions and earning a spot on the Southwestern Athletic Conference first team.
That came after the then-junior was named to the second team in 1980 after helping Grambling win a conference championship.
Gordon played with the San Antonio Gunslingers of the US Football League in 1984 and 1985. During those two seasons, he caught 89 receptions for 1,341 yards and 11 receiving touchdowns, and he also added 14 carries for 96 yards on the ground.
In 1987, he transferred to the Canadian Football League (CFL) to play with the Calgary Stampeders, where he recorded three receptions for forty-four yards.
Spears, Calvin
The defensive back, who was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and attended Istrouma High School, quickly made an impression on the Grambling football program, winning four consecutive All-SWAC awards.
Spears signed a free agent contract with the Cleveland Browns despite not being selected by the NFL, but he was cut before the 2002 regular season started.
Unfazed, Spears switched to the CFL and joined the Montreal Alouettes in 2002.
After that, Spears changed teams once more, traveling abroad to play for the NFL Europe’s Frankfort Galaxy in the spring of 2003 before joining the New York Giants and once more being a preseason NFL release.
However, Spears persisted and went on to play Arena Football for a long time.
Spears joined the original New Orleans VooDoo team in 2004 and participated in 12 games that season. He then continued to play in 15 games during the team’s 200th season.
Next came Katrina, a cyclone that devastated New Orleans.
In 2006, the VooDoo ceased operations because, like the nearby Superdome, the New Orleans Arena (now the Smoothie King Center) sustained significant hurricane-related damage.
But even though there were still obstacles to overcome, Spears persisted and remained resolute.
When the VooDoo started up again in 2007, Spears returned to New Orleans after signing a one-year contract with the Kansas Brigade for the 2006 season.
However, Spears’ season was cut short by a damaged Achilles tendon, and he returned to the VooDoo for his final professional season in 2008.
Thomspon, Bennie
The New Orleans product From 1981 to 1984, John McDonough of New Orleans High School played four seasons for Grambling, winning team MVP as a senior after recording 133 tackles and seven interceptions.
During his senior year in 1984, he was also named to the First Team All-SWAC and honorable mention All-American.
Before being cut, Thompson, who was not selected in the NFL draft, signed with the Kansas City Chiefs. He then made his impact in the CFL as a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, which helped them win a Grey Cup championship in 1988.
Following his return to the NFL in 1989, Thompson played for the New Orleans Saints for three seasons before qualifying for the Pro Bowl in 1991 as a Special Teams defender.
Before spending the 1993–94 season in Cleveland, when he tied for the Browns lead in special teams tackles with 21 in 94, he moved on to Kansas City, where he recorded a career-high four interceptions during the 1992 Chiefs season.
After that, Thompson relocated to Baltimore, where he played his final four seasons as a Raven. In 1998, he was chosen for the Pro Bowl once again as a special team player.
Hymes, Randy
The Hitchcock (Texas) High School alumnus immediately made an impression on Grambling State athletics with his remarkable athleticism. He was a standout on the football field as well as the basketball court, passing for over 4,400 yards and 33 touchdowns (seventh all-time at Grambling) and leading the G-Men to a SWAC and National Black football championship in 2000 and 2001. As a senior, he was named the conference Player of the Year.
In 2001, he was also named the National Offensive Player of the Year and received the Eddie Robinson Award.
Hymes’s other highlights from 2001 included winning the Bayou Classic MVP award in a 30–20 victory over Southern and making a blind quarterback bootleg to the end zone on the game’s final play from scrimmage, which resulted in a 30-29 landslide victory at Portland State after Brian Morgan’s extra-point goal.
Hymes had a strong basketball career as a Tiger, averaging 7.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in 47 games, which helped him balance his pigskin numbers.
After that, he transferred his high-flying shooting skills to the NFL and played wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens for three seasons (2002, 2004–05), hauling in 43 receptions for 578 yards and four touchdowns.
Before beginning a stellar career in Arena Football with the Cleveland Gladiators in 2008, Hymes had played for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars (2006) and Minnesota Vikings (2007).
Hymes demonstrated his receiving prowess with the Abilene Ruff Riders (2009), Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings (2010), Spokane Shock (2011), and Pittsburgh Power (2012) before everything was said and done.
