Six more names were added to Utah State’s Athletics Hall of Fame in February 2007, the second induction ceremony since 1995.

Sprinter Ladonna Antoine-Watkins ’98

Two-time Olympian and three-time world championship team member Ladonna Antonie left her native country of Canada to attend USU on an athletic scholarship. Her specialty: the 200 and 400 meters. She won a total of five Canadian titles in those two events. Her performances for USU’s track and field team earned her the university’s Female Athlete of the Year and Big West Track & Field Women’s Athlete of the Year honors. After graduating from USU, she eventually settled in California to train and compete on the international circuit. Not long after her second Olympics in 2000, in which she finished 11th overall in the 400 meters, Antoine traded in her racing spikes for marriage and then motherhood. Today she lives in Sherman Oaks, California, with husband Thane Watkins and daughter Sonja.

Wrestler Robert Broughton ’65 ’69MS

Robert Broughton excelled in wrestling and football at USU. The Montrose, Colorado, farm boy played guard and linebacker for coaches John Ralston and Tony Knapp, “an unbeatable combination.” Ralston had a genius for firing up the players he recruited, Knapp was the tactician who built one of the best defenses in USU history. Under their leadership, the team claimed a conference championship in Broughton’s senior year, the same year he was named an All-American. Because of his football weight, Broughton had to compete as a heavyweight wrestler even though he was “a relative midget” for that classification. Outweighed in most matches by 40 to 50 pounds, he beat two-time national champion and all-pro Curly Culp. Despite the lack of a wrestling coach his senior year, he finished third at the 1965 NCAA Wrestling Championships. After graduating,he played in the East Coast’s Continental Football League for several years. On his return to USU for his master’s degree, he used Ralston as a model for his thesis on the psychology of coachs’ speeches. He was a fruit and lumber broker in Texas for many years. Now retired, he lives on a farm near Grand Junction, Colorado, and raises pears.

Football Defensive Lineman Rulon Jones ’87

Countless hours of hiking and following his wildlife photographer father in the mountains around their home in Liberty, Utah, conditioned Jones for a successful football career. At USU, he was named an All-American in 1979 and was a two-time All-Conference (Pacific Coast) selection. The Denver Broncos drafted him in 1980 and their investment paid off. He was UPI’s 1986 AFC Defensive Player of the Year, setting the team record with 13 1/2 sacks. He also earned the right to play in the NFL Pro Bowl twice—in 1985 and 1986, the same year the Broncos went to the Super Bowl. Throughout his college and pro football career, Jones longed for his native mountains, and he eventually returned home to start a private hunting preserve near Eden, Utah, and a fitness and health center in Ogden. His induction into the Hall of Fame follows his naming to the university’s All-Century Team in 1993, the centennial of USU football.

Football Coach John Ralston

The California native and two-time Rose Bowl veteran launched his head football coaching career at Utah State University in 1959. His 31-11-1 record over four years and two Skyline Conference championships caught the attention of Stanford, where he helped revive a sagging program. In his last two seasons there his teams claimed two Pacific 8 titles and Rose Bowl victories over Ohio State and Michigan, and quarterback Jim Plunkett won the Hesiman Trophy. In 1972 Ralston was recruited by the Denver Broncos, and one year later UPI named him AFC Coach of the Year for reversing the team’s losing streak. Three of his five seasons with the Broncos were winners, a turning point in the franchise’s precarious history. After leaving Denver, he took the first of several assistant coaching jobs with teams in the National Football League and Canada. His coaching career concluded in Europe, where his Dutch Lions won the bronze medal in the European Championships in 1991. Today he is a special assistant for the athletics director at San Jose State University in his native state.

All-Around Athlete Jay Van Noy ’50

Cache Valley native Jay Van Noy was such a multi-talented athlete in high school that Notre Dame, the Naval Academy and half-a-dozen other schools recruited him. But it was USU, the university on the hill, that benefited from his prowess in football and baseball. Although basketball was his best sport, he had to quit the team in order to keep playing football. He played both offense and defense and in two bowl games—the Raisin Bowl in 1946 and the Grape Bowl in 1947, earning All-Conference first-team selection both seasons. His 242 rushing yards are ranked eighth in school history. After graduating, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams. Pro baseball was a bigger sport in those days so the St. Louis Cardinals offer proved more tempting. He played two seasons for them. As head baseball coach at BYU, he won back-to-back Coach of the Year honors for his two conference championships. He also assisted the head coaches of the football and basketball teams. As superintendent of Logan’s Parks and Recreations Department for 16 years, he led the charge for a public recreation center and golf course. The Utah Sports Hall of Fame named him the best all-around athlete in state history. At age 78, he still attends every Aggie home basketball and football game.

Basketball Scoring Machine Nate Williams ’72Att

Williams may have played only two seasons at Utah State before leaving school early to play for the NBA’s Cincinnati Royals in 1971, but he definitely left his mark in his brief career. The 6’-5” forward from Oakland, California, had the ability to score and score quickly. He scored 1,080 points in just two seasons, and his 608 points in 1970 were the 10th most for a single season in school history. He owns the fifth-best scoring game in USU history with 45 points. He produced three 40-point games during his USU career, and in one contest against New Mexico State, he scored 21 consecutive points. In another game, he grabbed 22 rebounds. A sophomore All-American after the 1970 season, he was invited to the 1972 Olympic game tryouts. He went on to play 642 games in the NBA and averaged 12 points and nearly four rebounds in his professional career. He worked for Shell Oil in California for 18 years until his retirement in 2006. Daughter Natalie played on the U.S. gold-medal winning team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and was one of the top rebounders in the early years of the WNBA.