RELEASE
The Marshall University Athletics Hall of Fame Committee has announced the 2013 induction class for the Hall of Fame.
“This class represents some of the finest student-athletes in school history,” Marshall Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick said. “The contributions of these fine men and women are truly appreciated by everyone in the Marshall Athletics family.”
This year’s class (alphabetical order by last names):
Casey Batey – Men’s Track and Field, 1999-2002
George Chaump – Football Coach, 1986-89
Erin Compton – Women’s Track and Field, 2000-03
Chris Crocker – Football, 1999-2002
Cecil Fletcher – Football, 1984-87
Buddy Graham – Men’s Golf Coach/Assistant Athletic Director, 1956-59 & 1962-69
Glenn Hartway – Men’s Swimming/Diving, 1979-83
Sheila Johnson – Women’s Basketball, 1987-91
Jill Mussman O’Brien – Volleyball, 1981-82 & 1984-85
The annual dinner is scheduled Friday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m., in the Don Morris Room of the Marshall University Memorial Student Center.
Tickets are $30 each and are available through the Marshall University Ticket Office (in the lobby of the Cam Henderson Center on Third Avenue), at HerdZone.com or by calling 1-800-THE HERD.
The HOF members will be guests of the Marshall M Club at the club’s tailgate at the southwest corner of Joan C. Edwards Stadium, prior the Thundering Herd’s Sept. 7 football game versus Gardner-Webb. The class will be introduced to the stadium crowd in a pregame ceremony.
Tickets to the game also are available through the MU ticket office at the numbers or website listed above for banquet tickets.
The biographies on honorees in the Class of 2013, in alphabetical order:
Casey Batey, Track and Field (1999-2002)
Batey won All-American and All-Mid-American Conference honors in 2002, then won the Ed Starling Award as the Outstanding Male Athlete of the Year at MU. He was All-MAC in 2001. Batey, a Milton, W.Va., native and Cabell Midland High School graduate, won two Class AAA titles (800 and 1,600) at the 1997 state track meet. He still holds the Marshall record for the distance medley relay team (9:55.24) from 1999 and was a two-time MAC champion, winning the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 2001, finishing second in 2002, and winning the 1,500-meter run in 2002. He won the Ogden Mile in Wheeling in May 2003 and won the September Stride 5K in Morgantown that same year, then won the mile run at the State Farm Games and the ‘Burg run in track at Pittsburgh.
George Chaump, Football Coach (1986-89)
Chaump posted a 33-16-1 overall record in his four years at head coach and led Marshall to its first NCAA Division I-AA national championship game appearance in 1987. The Scranton, Pa., native guided the Thundering Herd to its first Southern Conference championship and its first No. 1 regular-season national ranking in football in 1988, when Marshall finished 11-2, a school record for wins at that time. Chaump, 77, retired from the sideline after last season at Central Dauphin East High School in Harrisburg, Pa. In 23 seasons at four schools as a high school coach, Chaump was 190-66. His first head coaching job was at Shamokin (Pa.) High in 1961. He came to Marshall after four years as head coach at Indiana (Pa.) University, and went to Navy for five seasons following his stint at Marshall. Chaump also was the quarterbacks coach from 1968-78 at Ohio State under legendary Coach Woody Hayes and was an assistant coach from 1979-81 with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Chaump is a 1958 graduate of Bloomsburg (Pa.) University, where he lettered in football and wrestling.
Erin Compton, Women’s Track and Field (2000-03)
Compton was the Herd’s first female All-American, placing eighth in the discus at the 2003 NCAA Outdoor Championships, the highest finish in NCAA competition for a Herd track athlete. She set three school records (that still stand) in throws in 2003. She threw the 20-pound indoor weight 59 feet, 1.25 inches, then followed up by setting MU records outdoors in the discus, with a throw of 171-0, and the hammer with a throw of 181-11. She was a two-time All-Mid-American Conference champion, winning the discus throw in 2001 and 2003 in the outdoor meet. An Oak Hill, W.Va. native, Compton became the first Marshall student-athlete to win an event at the historic Penn Relays. Her 2003 season had a string of highlights that started at the Ohio Early Bird Invitational, as she broke a still-standing discus record for the facility. That season, she won 7-of-10 discus championships in events for MU and took back her Mid-American Conference discus title. At the NCAA qualifier, her throw of 52.12 meters (171 feet) was only 3.02 meters behind the regional champion. She finished with 11 career discus victories and 17 overall victories.
Chris Crocker, Football (1999-2002)
Crocker was All-Mid-American Conference first team in 2001 and second team in 2002, and the hard-hitting safety for the Herd is preparing for his 11th year in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2003 NFL Draft, staying there through 2005. He moved next to the Atlanta Falcons for 2006-07; the Miami Dolphins in 2008; and started for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2009-12. He was second on the MU team in tackles as a senior with 126 stops and broke up ten passes, had 5.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. He was third on the Herd with 88 tackles in 2001 and led the team with 10 passes broken up. He helped the Herd win MAC titles in 1999, 2000 and 2002 and bowl victories in 1999 (13-0, No. 10 in nation) over No. 25 BYU; over Cincinnati in the Motor City Bowl in 2000; and GMAC Bowls over East Carolina and Louisville in 2001 and 2002, respectively. He started the last seven games in 2000 and played in all 13, recording 56 tackles. As a freshman, he played on special teams in all 13 wins and had seven tackles. For his college career, he amassed 277 total tackles, 24 pass breakups and four interceptions. A native of Chesapeake, Va., Crocker has nearly 400 tackles, 13 sacks, 13 interceptions and seven forced fumbles over the course of this NFL career.
Cecil Fletcher, Football (1984-87)
Fletcher was an All-Southern Conference defensive end for Marshall and a member of the 1987 team that upset Louisville at Cardinal Stadium and later played for the I-AA national championship. He led the Herd in sacks and tackles for loss in 1986, recording a then-school-record 19 tackles for loss and a still school-record 17 quarterback sacks for Coach George Chaump’s first Herd team. Fletcher, a native of Bloomington, Ohio, also is tied for fourth in school history with 23 career sacks (minus-142 yards). He finished 1987 with 99 total tackles, six sacks, 11 tackles for loss, three fumble recoveries and two pass breakups. In 1986, he recorded 68 total tackles and added two forced fumbles. He was a 1987 co-captain. Fletcher finished his career with 247 tackles and was named to the East-West Shrine Game in 1987, the first Marshall student-athlete to participate in a postseason senior game since Jackie Hunt in the 1941-42 era.
Buddy Graham, Men’s Golf Player & Coach/Assistant Athletic Director (1956-59, 1962-69)
Graham, a native of Pikeville, Ky., was a Marshall golfer from 1956-59, then coached the Herd from 1962-68. He was All-MAC in 1958 and 1959 and finished each of those seasons in the top 10 in scoring in the Mid-American Conference Tournament. He served as a co-captain for the Herd in ’59. In 1961, he was named assistant golf coach at MU and the Herd won the MAC. During that year, he also recruited the Jaycees International Golf Tournament to Huntington, bringing more than 200 participants to town. He was Herd coach for 1966 MAC title and was on the NCAA All-America committee from 1965-68. He worked at various positions in the athletic department for ADs Whitey Wilson and Eddie Barrett. In 1968, he developed the first priority point system for the Big Green Scholarship Foundation as the administrative assistant AD to Barrett. After leaving Marshall, he started the first AAU Youth Basketball program in West Virginia, coaching from 1972-78. His AAU teams won the national championships in 1975 and ‘77, and he brought the AAU Tournament to Huntington in 1976 and 1977, serving as director. He graduated in 1959 from Marshall. His wife, the former Jane Gessel, also graduated from Marshall and finished her career as a high school counselor in Chesapeake, Va.
Glenn Hartway, Men’s Swimming/Diving (1979-83)
A native of Miami, Hartway set Southern Conference and Marshall records in winning the 500-yard freestyle, the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 1,650-yard freestyle in 1982 (twice). He also owns the Frederick A. “Doc” Fitch Natatorium record in the 500-yard Freestyle, set in 1982. In 1981, he won the 500 free, the 1,650 free and the 400 individual medley at the Southern Conference Championships and helped MU to the Southern Conference title for the fourth (1981) and fifth (1982) times. In 1982, he helped Marshall to its best performance in the Eastern Intercollegiate Championships with a sixth-place finish, as he was 11th in the 500 free and 10th in the 1,650 free. He was a six-time individual SoCon champion, winning three all-conference nods in each of his junior and senior seasons. In 1981, he tied for SC Swimmer of the Year, winning all three of his individual events, and was runner-up for the award the following season. He returned to the program as assistant coach during the 1983-84 season.
Sheila Johnson, Women’s Basketball (1987-91)
The No. 6 scorer in Marshall history, Johnson scored 1,326 points and was named a member of the Southern Conference’s All-Decade team. The Louisville, Ky., native still ranks in other top 10s among Marshall career leaders — 500 field goals (No. 7), 1,167 attempts (No. 6), 723 rebounds (No. 8), and 302 free throws made (No. 5). She helped the Herd win Southern Conference regular-season titles in 1988 and 1989, and was All-Southern Conference first team in 1989-90 and 1990-91. Johnson won the Donna Lawson Leadership Award in 1990-91 as the team’s MVP. Johnson had season-bests in points with 469 and 256 rebounds in 1989-90, while also recording 72 steals.
Jill Mussman O’Brien, Volleyball (1981-82, 1984-85)
Mussman O’Brien was a co-captain for Marshall from 1982, 1984-85, sticking with the program when there was no team for the 1983 season. As a senior, she helped the Herd improve to 16-15, 4-1 in the Southern Conference. She graduated with a 3.25 average in the College of Education in May 1986 and was the first recipient of the Linda Holmes Leadership Award in 1985. She has coached youth volleyball at Sports Express and started the volleyball program at DePaul Cristo Rey High School in Cincinnati, a school targeted to low-income students and funded by the Sisters of Charity in the Queen City. She coached 15 years in the Catholic Youth Organization and won five city championships. In the 80s, she played in two AVP (Association for Volleyball Professionals) beach tournaments. Her children followed in her footsteps, as son Michael and daughter Maggie played for their respective Cincinnati high schools.