WVU adds 7 members to Hall of Fame

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. —  Seven contributors to Mountaineers athletics make up the 23rd class of honorees in the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame, announced Sunday by athletics director Oliver Luck.

The 2013 class includes basketball stars Dale Blaney and Olivia Bradley, NCAA wrestling champion Dean Morrison, former major-leaguer Paul Popovich, NFL Pro-Bowler Tom Woodeshick, longtime gymnastics coach Linda Burdette-Good and Olympic rifle champion Dr. Ed Etzel.

Induction ceremonies will take place Saturday, Sept. 14 before the West Virginia-Georgia State football game. This class brings the total number of inductees to 148.

The biographies of the 2013 class:

Dale Blaney

Dale Blaney

Dale Blaney, who helped West Virginia to three men’s basketball NCAA tournaments and one NIT from 1983-86, started 110 games as a Mountaineer. He helped WVU to four 20-win seasons.

The Hartford, Ohio, native finished his career with 1,522 points, which currently ranks 18th in school history. At the time, Blaney was the 23rd player to record 1,000 career points at WVU. He ranks 16th in career assists (331), 10th in career double-figure games (80), 10th in career free throws made (376) and 10th in career free-throw percentage (.813).

Blaney averaged 17.0 points as a senior and finished with a 12.3 average for his career. A four-year letterwinner and two-time team captain, Blaney had a career-high 29 points against George Mason on Jan. 9, 1986.

Blaney was named Atlantic 10 All-Conference  in 1986 and the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team in 1983. He was named to the Atlantic 10 all-tournament teams in 1984 and 1986. Blaney was named a member of the 1986-95 all-time basketball team at WVU. In high school, he was a two-time Ohio Class A all-state player.

He was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the fourth round of the 1986 NBA Draft. Blaney played parts of two seasons in the Continental Basketball Association with Tampa Bay and Charleston.

Since then, he has made a career in auto racing. Blaney was named World of Outlaws Rookie of the Year in 1998, National Sprint Car Rookie of the Year in 1990, Bush Points Champion in 1991 and the All-Star Series Points Champion in 1995, 1996 and 2008.

Blaney has two daughters, Ashley and Leah. His brother, Dave, currently drives car No. 7 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.


Olivia Bradley

Olivia Bradley

Late women’s basketball standout Olivia Bradley set the all-time Mountaineer record with 1,484 rebounds in 1985, a record that tops men’s basketball legend and hall of famer Jerry West’s 1,240 career rebounds and still stands today. Standing 6-foot-1, Bradley’s rebounding total tops any other WVU women’s player by more than 400 rebounds, and she is one of only three players in WVU women’s basketball history to record more than 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career. Bradley was a four-time All-America honoree and three time all-conference selection.

In her freshman season when WVU was not yet affiliated with a conference, she averaged 12.7 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, leading WVU to its first 20-win season, earning American Women’s Sports Federation Freshman All-America Team honors in the process.

As a sophomore, Bradley averaged 12.8 rebounds and 12.6 points per game en route to becoming the program’s first all-conference honoree as she was named to the 1983 All-Atlantic 10 Second Team. The power forward recorded 358 rebounds and set a single-game school record with 27 rebounds in a win at George Washington on Jan. 21, 1983, a record she would later break her senior season. For her efforts, Bradley earned 1983 honorable mention All-America honors by the AWSF, a feat she repeated for each remaining year of her career.

Bradley went on to improve her averages to 14.2 points and 13.3 rebounds per game as a junior, earning all conference first-team honors. As a senior team captain, Bradley broke her previous pair of rebounding records in a single game as she pulled down 28 boards in an overtime win against Temple. Each year she increased her season rebounding total, finishing her senior season with a career-best 458 rebounds. The Bradenton, Fla., native closed out her career, averaging 12.7 rebounds per game, which is the 16th-highest average in the NCAA record book today. During Bradley’s time, the Mountaineers recorded a 74-45 record and advanced to the Women’s NIT her senior year – a program first for postseason play.

Following graduation, Bradley moved overseas where she played basketball in Europe. After four seasons, she returned to Bradenton and taught third grade. Bradley began to coach as an assistant at Southeast High and eventually left her elementary teaching position for a job as the head girl’s basketball coach at Manatee High. In 2000, Bradley passed away unexpectedly at the age of 36, leaving behind husband Tony Reddick and three daughters, Deandre Houston (18) and Toni (14) and Danielle Reddick (12).

 

 

Linda Burdette-Good

Linda Burdette-Good

Linda Burdette-Good took over a year-old WVU gymnastics program in 1975 and coached for 37 seasons (1975-2011). leading the Mountaineers to four national championship appearances, 10 conference titles and a 644-263-4 record.

The only WVU coach to earn 600 career wins with a Mountaineer team, Burdette-Good eclipsed the benchmark on Jan. 31, 2009, with victories over George Washington and Rutgers at the WVU Coliseum. She compiled 35 winning seasons, including 14 years with 20-or-more wins, and none of her teams that followed in 1981 posted a losing record.

In addition to her 10 conference championships, six in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) and four in the Atlantic 10, Burdette-Good led the Mountaineers to 33 regional championships, three NCAA Championships and the 1982 AIAW National Championships.

Led by freshman Shari Retton, WVU’s first female sport All-American and a WVU Sports Hall of Fame member, the Mountaineers finished third at the AIAW meet, the University’s first-ever national championships trip, behind first-place Florida and runner-up Alabama, and ahead of national powers Georgia, Ohio State and BYU, among others. Following the championships, Burdette-Good was named the EAIAW Coach of the Year. Each of Burdette-Good’s NCAA Championships teams (1995, 1999, 2000) placed 12th overall.

Prior to her AIAW National Championships appearance, Burdette-Good, a five-time conference coach of the year, was named the 1981 and 1982 regional AIAW Coach of the Year. She also was named the 1995 NCAA Southeast Regional Coach of the Year.

Burdette-Good coached 12 outstanding senior gymnasts and 12 conference gymnasts of the year honorees. She also coached 17 NCAA individual qualifiers, 13 All-Americans and eight NCAA Regional event champions. She produced 56 conference champions and 126 all-conference selections.

Several seasons stand out in Burdette-Good’s storied career, including 2001, when three different Mountaineers scored perfect 10s and the 17th-ranked squad reclaimed the EAGL championship after a two-year drought. The 1999 season also was memorable, as the Mountaineers advanced to their second national championships in four years after compiling a 19-7 record and finishing sixth at the EAGL championship. The next year, despite the WVU Coliseum being closed for asbestos abatement and injuries to key contributors, Burdette-Good led the Mountaineers to two of the top-10 team scores in school history at Morgantown High, and WVU advanced to the NCAA championships for the second straight season.

Burdette-Good mentored the best gymnast in school history, Kristin Quackenbush, also a WVU Sports Hall of Fame member, who became the school’s only AAI American Award winner and a six-time NCAA All-American. She holds or shares school records on vault and floor, and scored five career perfect 10s.

Burdette-Good also stressed excellence in the classroom throughout her career and coached 86 NACGC/W Scholastic All-Americans. Additionally, she coached five CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, and 66 Mountaineers earned 644 EAGL All-Academic recognitions under her guidance.

Burdette-Good’s influence spanned the athletic and academic realms. She served on the six member NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Committee and was the chair of the NCAA Regional Advisory Committee. Additionally, Burdette-Good was the driving force behind the foundation of the EAGL and was that league’s first chair.

A native of Parkersburg, W.Va., Burdette-Good joined the Mountaineer athletic department following a one-year coaching stint at Fairmont State. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from West Virginia University and spent several years as an assistant professor in WVU’s College of Physical Activity and Sport Science (CPASS).     

Burdette-Good and her husband, Lee Good, reside in Uniontown, Ohio. Her daughter, Anna Burdette is a WVU graduate, and she has one grandson, Ashton.

 

 

Ed Etzel

Dr. Ed Etzel

The first coach to win an NCAA Championship with a Mountaineer squad, Dr. Ed. Etzel coached the WVU rifle team from 1977-89, compiling a record of 101-5 (.952) with four national titles.

A native of North Haven, Conn., Etzel’s Mountaineer teams were among the most dominant in NCAA history, as WVU never finished worse than second place at the NCAA Championships. Etzel coached six individual champions, 33 All-Americans and several Olympians.

Etzel led the Mountaineers to their first national championship in 1983. Dave Johnson won the NCAA smallbore title, the Mountaineers’ first NCAA win in the discipline, and WVU finished the season12-1. The Mountaineers went undefeated and won their second straight title in 1984, and Bob Broughton returned the smallbore NCAA title to Morgantown.

After a second-place finish in 1985, the Mountaineers went undefeated again in 1986 (9-0) and won their third NCAA title. Mike Anti also won the smallbore national championship.

Following a sabbatical in 1988, the same season the Mountaineers won the national title under coach Greg Perrine, Etzel led the Mountaineers to an 8-0 record and another NCAA title in 1989.

Etzel’s student-athletes earned 80 first team All-America honors, 49 second-team recognitions and nine honorable mention distinctions. Seven individual national champions were crowned during his tenure, and his squads posted seven undefeated seasons.

Etzel began his shooting career at age 10 in Boy Scouts. He attended Tennessee Tech on a rifle scholarship, where he won three All-America honors, served as a two-time team captain and won two National Collegiate Rifle Team Championships. While serving as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserves, he competed at the 1978 World Championships and 1979 Pan American Games and won Gold team medals in men’s 50m 3×40 and standing. Etzel competed for Team USA at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics and won the Gold medal in men’s 50m free rifle prone event, tying a then-Olympic record with a near-perfect 599 score. That same year, Etzel was elected to the Tennessee Tech Sports Hall of Fame.

Listed on the U.S. Olympic Committee Sport Psychology Registry, Etzel earned his bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Tennessee Tech in 1974, his master’s in physical education from WVU in 1979 and his doctorate in counseling psychology from WVU in 1989.

Etzel is a tenured professor in the WVU College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences (CPASS). He has been the lead editor and published three books on counseling and psychological services for college student-athletes, authored more than 20 book chapters, published more than 25 refereed journal articles and made 90 conference presentations. Etzel’s areas of specialty are counseling athletes, alcohol and substance abuse, grief counseling/psychotherapy with college students, coping with athletic injury, eating disorders in athletics, ethics and legal issues in sport psychology, peak performance enhancement development, retirement from sport and stress management.

Etzel has served as Chair of the Association and Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) Ethics Committee and as a reviewer for the Academic Athletic Journal and the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology. Etzel is the Chair of the APA Division 47’s Education Committee and won the APA Division 47 award for distinguished contributions to education and training in sport and exercise psychology. He is a licensed psychologist in West Virginia, and he currently serves as the liaison between WellWVU’s Carruth Center for Counseling and Psychiatric Services and the WVU athletic department.

Etzel and his wife, G. Anne Cather, M.D., reside in Morgantown.

 

Dean Morrison

Dean Morrison

A native of Amityville, N.Y., who competed for the Mountaineers from 1990-94, Morrison produced the WVU wrestling program’s second individual national title at the 1994 NCAA championships.

Morrison accumulated 103 wins during the course of his career, the sixth most in WVU history, became the first wrestler in program history to win three consecutive Eastern Wrestling League titles and qualified for the NCAA Championships three times.

During Morrison’s run to the national title, he notched 33 victories, which stands as the 10th–most in a season by a WVU grappler, second-most at 177/184 pounds and fifth-most by a senior.

At the 1994 NCAA championships, Morrison entered his bracket as the No. 2 seed and defeated three ranked opponents to reach the finals. In the championship match, Morrison beat Wyoming’s Reese Andy 3-2 to cap a season that saw him win 22 of his final 23 matches and earn his second straight season of 30 wins or more.

Morrison previously qualified for the NCAA championships in 1992  recorded 25 total victories.

Morrison had yet another solid campaign in 1993 when he put his name in the WVU record books, recording his first of two 30-plus win seasons. Morrison’s 32 wins during the 1993 season stand as the third-most by an individual at 177/184 pounds and seventh-most by a junior.

Following his career with WVU, Morrison competed for USA Wrestling, where he held a national ranking as high as No. 2 in the 96 kg/211.5 lbs weight class.

Among his achievements at the professional level are a 1995 University Nationals championship, a 2003 Pan American Games championship and a gold medal at the 2003 world team trials.

After completing his career in 2004 as a resident athlete at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., Morrison went to work with Beat the Streets Wrestling Inc., and has launched his own non-profit organization called Prodigal Sport.

Morrison currently resides in New York City, with his wife, Carolyn, and their children, Josiah and Aaron. The couple is expecting their third child in September.

 

Paul Popovich

Paul Popovich

Popovich, a native of Flemington, W.Va., earned a letter in men’s basketball and baseball in 1960 before embarking on an 11-year major-league baseball career.

Popovich had one of the finest seasons ever on the diamond for the Mountaineers when he batted .426, a school record at the time, with 43 hits, four home runs, 13 extra-base hits and 26 RBIs in 101 at-bats in 1960. He had five hits in a game against George Washington, and Popovich was named All-Southern Conference second baseman in 1960.

In basketball, he was a member of the 1960 NCAA tournament team that finished 26-5 overall with a Southern Conference championship. Popovich played in 26 games, averaging 3.3 points and 1.3 rebounds per contest. He was one of the top players on the WVU freshmen team in 1959.

Popovich, who signed a contract with the Chicago Cubs in 1960, was an infielder for the Cubs (1964, 1966-67 and 1969-73), Los Angeles Dodgers (1968-69) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1974-75). He was on the Pirates’ teams that won the 1974 and 1975 National League Eastern Division. Popovich was with the Dodgers during Don Drysdale’s 58-inning scoreless streak.

In 11 seasons, he played in 682 games and had 1,732 at-bats, 176 runs scored, 403 hits, 42 doubles, nine triples and 14 home runs. Popovich also logged 134 RBIs, 127 walks, four stolen bases and had a .233 batting average.

In his Major League debut during the 1964 season, he had one hit in his only at-bat.

Popovich averaged 41.3 points per game at Flemington High to set a state basketball record while earning state player of the year honors.

After retiring from baseball, he spent 10 years as an infield instructor for the Dodgers.

Popovich and his wife, Susan, have been married 42 years and reside in the Chicago area. They have two sons, Paul and Damon, and three grandchildren.

 

Tom Woodeshick

Tom Woodeshick

Tom Woodeshick, a running back and three-year letterman in football from 1960-62, played 10 seasons in the NFL from 1963-72.

As a senior at WVU playing for coach Gene Corum in 1962, he rushed for 433 yards with two touchdowns and had 141 receiving yards with one touchdown. For his WVU career, he rushed for 876 yards on 192 carries and posted 195 receiving yards on eight receptions. Woodeshick, who also had 183 yards on kickoff returns, posted four career touchdowns.

The Wilkes-Barre, Pa., native had a career-best 89 yards on 10 carries in the 15-8 win at Pitt in 1962. Woodeshick had 82 yards receiving on two receptions in a 27-25 win over George Washington on Oct. 20, 1962.

Woodeshick led WVU to an 8-2 record in 1962, one of the best WVU teams to not be selected for a bowl. That team also became the first to win at Syracuse’s Archibald Stadium, 17-6, on Nov. 24, 1962.

He was picked to play in the 1963 Senior Bowl and is a member of the 1960-69 WVU All-Time football team.

Woodeshick was selected in the fourth round by the Buffalo Bills in the 1963 AFL draft and in the eighth round by the Philadelphia Eagles in that year’s NFL draft.

As a pro, he played nine seasons with the Eagles (1963-71), and then one with the St. Louis Cardinals (1972), during which time an ankle injury forced him to retire.

Woodeshick played in 115 career games. His best year came in 1968 when he rushed for a career-best 947 yards and was named to the 1968 Pro Bowl. Woodeshick was also named to various first and second All-Pro teams in 1968-69.

For his career, he gained 3,577 yards on 836 carries, averaging 4.3 yards per carry. Woodeshick had 1,175 yards receiving on 126 receptions, an average of 9.3 yards per catch. He had 27 career touchdowns.

Woodeshick graduated with a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia in 1963 and attended graduate school at Penn and Temple.

Following his career in the NFL, Woodeshick became a restaurant owner, wrote columns for The Philadelphia Inquirer, was a color analyst for the Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League, was a stock broker and served as the football coach and intramurals athletics director at Moravian College. From 1985 until present, he has been in the casino marketing business. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.

Woodeshick and his companion, Juanita Krieger, live in the Pocano Mountains. Woodeshick has three sons – Karl, Klaus and Michael (deceased).







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