When Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajun basketball team found its stride in Bob Marlin’s first year at the helm, marking themselves as threats in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament despite their overall record, it was as if a light switch had been flipped. Ross Mouton could identify with the feeling.

"It’s like a higher power is involved," said Mouton, who played on a Sun Belt Conference title team with the Cajuns in 2004 during his 2003-2007 UL career. "You feel it as a team. There’s nothing like winning, so when a team comes together it’s even more enjoyable.

"I can relate to this team. I was on teams that struggled, but also on a team that made it to the NCAA Tournament. There’s definitely a world of difference."

Mouton, whose father Eddie Mouton played both basketball and baseball for the Cajuns, said the recent 100-year reunion of basketball players and coaches may have played a role in UL’s midseason resurgence.

"It’s almost like the reunion had something to do with it," Mouton said. "The players realized they had a (winning) tradition to uphold. There was something more to play for. At places like Duke, when players go there they understand tradition, and fighting for the school’s honor."

The Moutons were introduced at the reunion as the only father-son duo to have played basketball for UL.

Eddie Mouton was a practice player for coach Beryl Shipley’s basketball team in the 1960’s, but was more successful as an outfielder in baseball after a five-sport prep career at Cathedral-Carmel.

Ross Mouton, the youngest of four Mouton sons, helped lead St. Thomas More to a 32-6 record and the state basketball finals as a senior in 2003 before joining the Cajun program.

Both had the chance to play professional sports – Eddie in baseball in the Washington Senators organization and Ross in basketball for a year in Europe.

"Washington was an expansion team, so it was bottom of the barrel," said Eddie Mouton, who reached the AAA level of minor league baseball. "You had a chance to move up in the organization. I had a couple of good years, then played in the Eastern League, which was a pitchers’ league. I hit .250 and had 6 home runs, and I thought that was terrible. "They had a lot of good prospects."

Mouton returned to Lafayette and served as an interim baseball coach for one season at UL, a role he felt unsuited to perform.

"As a player, you’re trying to get to the Major Leagues," he said. "You’re concerned with how you’re playing, regardless of what the team does. But, as a coach, stuff goes down your gullet and you replay games in your mind. We had a fair season … didn’t finish last."

Some 40 years later, Ross Mouton had his own adventure in professional sports with a team in Hungary.

"My senior year (at UL), I started to do well, and agents contacted me after the season to see if I was interested in playing," Ross Mouton said. "I didn’t get a look with the NBA, but I knew overseas was always an option. It was an opportunity to travel the world and make money.

"It was a wild experience. I had never lived anywhere else, and for three months I was the only American on the team. It was culture shock. I played 10 months. We made the playoffs and lost to the eventual champion.

"I definitely grew up. Growing up in Lafayette, I knew everybody. There, I didn’t know anyone. I had a lot of time to reflect. But, I was seeing the world. I’d always thought about the western side of Europe, not the east. After a year, I decided I was happier over here."

Importantly, Mouton’s relationship with Kristen Pool weathered the ordeal, and they will be married in May.

The love of athletics came naturally for both Moutons.

"I didn’t have the foggiest idea of focusing on one sport," Eddie Mouton said. "I could walk to school. Sports was it. I played golf and American Legion baseball in the summer. My senior year (high school), I wasn’t going to play football, but the quarterback got hurt. They came across the street and got me, and I played."

Although his brothers had attended Spring Hill College, Mouton was comfortable staying in town with a books and tuition opportunity at then-SLI.

"I never regretted it," Mouton said. "I met a lot of people there (including future wife Beth Bickham)."

The Moutons had three athletic sons (Brooks, Alex, Britt), then Ross arrived 9 years later to further uphold the tradition.

"I loved playing sprts growing up," Ross Mouton said. "I was the youngest, by far, and they were all great players to look up to. I grew up in the basketball gym and at the baseball field. And, by age 5, my best friends all played. We’d play all day, every day, in the summer. It was an easy decision for me."

"They were like any other kids," Eddie Mouton said. "I put up a basketball goal in the backyard, and I introduced them to sports, but I never pushed them into playing anything."

The stories of the 2009 and 2010 honorees featured in the Spotlight on Former Athletes are still included in the News Page and may be viewed by clicking on "more news" at the bottom right of the News Box, scrolling down, clicking on the title of the story. Those spotlight features which are no longer shown in the News Page, have been moved to the Lagniappe Link of the "History of UL Athletics" located on the left side of the home page.

The 2011 feature of the Athletic Network’s "Spotlight on Former Athletes" include:
January – Ashley Rhoney and Bret Garnett 1988 Tennis
February – Craig Perks Golf 1989 & 90

March – Eddie Baseball/Basketball 60-63,Coach 67;Ross Mouton Basketball 03-07