Glenn Hathaway is one former McNeese State football player who can appreciate the university's new Jack Doland Fieldhouse.

Hathaway wasn't a member of the original Cowboy football team, but he was close.  He joined the team one year after the school became a member of  its first conference, the Gulf States in 1952.

"It's really going to be nice," the former Cowboy said after seeing the drawings of the new fieldhouse, construction of which will begin in the next week.  "I can see that it's going to be a show place."

Hathaway is familiar with the current Cowboy fieldhouse.  The  75 year old educator is just about a daily visitor to the facility.  He began this when he was a member of the F. K. White teaching staff and would work out at times with the late Charlie Kuehn, for whom the weight room is named.

Both were regimented towards weight work.

Now, Hathaway spends about three days a week using weights for isometric exercises and two days a week he's get in walking exercises with wife of 51 years, Lady Leah.

Back in the 1950s, Hathaway played football for A. I. Ratcliff who coached the Cowboys nine years and served as athletic director for 14.

Hathaway, then 5-10 and 195 pounds, played both ways for the Cowboys.

"Most of the time you never came off the field," he said.  "It was one platoon football and you would play 55 to 60 minutes."

He was a starting center on offense and a starting defensive tackle on defense from 1953 to 1956.

"We practiced on a field right behind the arena (now the rec-complex) and our locker room was in Memorial gym," he said.  "We didn't need much room because we didn't have many players.  We all went both ways and I guess that we had maybe  40 players on the team.

"Everything was in Memorial gym...coaches offices, training room and dressing rooms.  There was no weight facility.  No one believed in lifting weights.

"You have to remember, though, back then all of what we had was pretty new.  We had metal lockers with a combination lock on them and we had good showers with hot water."

The equipment the Cowboys wore was nothing like the equipment now, but Hathaway said it was sufficient.

"We didn't have face masks or face guards so you did have a lot of busted lips and broken noses," he said.

Hathaway said he that at times he would come up with lacerations on his face but no broken nose.

"I did miss one game because of a torn off fingernail.  Couldn't snap the ball - coaches made you snap with two hands - so I had to miss a game.  Played the next one though," he said.

Cowboy games then were played at Lake Charles High's Wildcat stadium and like now, most of the games were at night.

Playing football games at Wildcat Stadium wasn't anything new to Hathaway.  He had played his entire prep career there, having been a  member of the Lake Charles High team under Jimmy Austin.

He played halfback and defensive end for the Wildcats and was recruited to McNeese by Cowboy assistant coach Al Sollay....as a guard.  He lined up there for his first practice but was soon working at center and linebacker.

"I really played out of position in high school," he said.

During his four year career with the Cowboys,  McNeese didn't win many games but the Cowboys did produce a 7-1-1 record in 1955.

Hathaway said that he didn't remember too much about any of the games but one.

"We were playing Northwestern State and I remember on one play that I broke through and hit their fullback (Charlie Tolar, who would go on to all-pro fame with the Houston Oilers).  I thought I had him for a loss until the play was over and I looked up and he had gained five yards."

Out of college, Hathaway went into the U.S. Army (airborne division) and retired after 34 years as a captain, having served both in the regular army and the national guard.

He also had a 25 year career as an educator, teaching math and algebra at F. K. White junior high.

Son Bill followed him to McNeese State on a football schoarship and is now a physician in Lake Charles.  Daughters are Heidi, Kaisler, Lady Holly and Chelsea and he and Lady Leah also have 10 grand children.

And, like all of those who have been associated with McNeese athletics over the years, he can't wait for the completion of the new Jack Doland fieldhouse.