— Story courtesy of Marshall Athletics
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The Marshall University Athletics Hall of Fame Committee has announced the 2020 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):
— Karla May, Basketball (1982-86)
— Albert McClellan, Football (2005-09)
— Bill Noe, Swimming (1982-86)
— Sam O’Dell, Golf (1997-2000)
— Dave Ramella, Baseball (1976-79)
— Jalicia Ross, Volleyball (2004-08)
— Kellie Schmitt, Tennis (2005-09)
— Steve Sciullo, Football (1999-2002)
— Trusty Tallman, Football/Baseball (1916-19, 1925-28)
The annual Hall of Fame dinner is scheduled Friday, Sept. 11 at 6:30 p.m., in the Don Morris Room of the Marshall University Memorial Student Center.
Tickets are $35 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. Tickets purchased after September 2 will be $45.
The Hall 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. 12 football game versus Pittsburgh. The class will be introduced to the stadium crowd in a pregame ceremony. Kickoff time is still to be determined.
Tickets to the game also are available through the MU ticket office at the numbers or website listed above for banquet tickets.
Karla May, Basketball, 1982-86
May was a four-year letterwinner for Marshall and helped the Herd win the Southern Conference regular season titles as a junior and senior, when she also earned all-conference honors and all-tournament honors in 1986. May is Marshall’s all-time leader with 751 career assists and that total stands second all-time in the SoCon’s record book. May also owns four of the program’s top five single-season assist totals, including a school-record 215 during the 1982-83 season. Her 266 steals are third in Marshall’s career records and her 537 made field goals are tied for sixth with Hall of Fame member Sikeetha Shepard-Hall. She also finished her career with 1,216 points, good for ninth in the school’s records.
Albert McClellan, Football, 2005-09
McClellan, who is in the process of carving out a decade-long career in the NFL after his outstanding accomplishments at Marshall, finished seventh in the program’s records with 20 sacks and ninth with 39 tackles for loss. He was named to Conference USA’s All-Freshman team in 2005, the league’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2006, first-team all-conference in 2006 and 2008 and second-team all-league in 2009. McClellan, who has gone on to win Super Bowls with the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots, currently plays for the New York Jets with fellow Marshall alums Neville Hewitt and Darryl Roberts. He was named first-team All-Pro by Pro Football Focus in 2014 and 2018 for his play on special teams.
Bill Noe, Swimming, 1982-86
Noe was a three-year letterman and three-time All-Southern Conference selection. He won more than 10 conference titles and set several school and conference records throughout the course of his career. As a freshman, Noe broke records in the Henderson Center pool in the Southern Conference Championships, leading the Herd to a fifth-straight league title by winning the 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly and 200 IM. In that meet, he set three Marshall records, three league records and three pool records, along with three other victories. For his efforts, he was named the meet’s MVP.
Sam O’Dell, Golf, 1997-2000
O’Dell was a first-team Academic All-American as a senior, one of only two Marshall players to win the award. That season, he was named first-team all-district and was the third consecutive season that he led the team in stroke average. His 74.3 mark in 1997 was by a Thundering Herd freshman record and his 75.4 career average was good for fifth in Marshall’s records. Since finishing at Marshall, O’Dell won the West Virginia Amateur in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018 and has posted several top ten finishes in the tournament. He was named the West Virginia Golf Association’s Player of the Year in three consecutive seasons (2013, 2014, 2015).
Dave Ramella, Baseball, 1976-79
Ramella played third base for the 1978 Southern Conference championship team that advanced to Marshall’s second NCAA Tournament, beating Clemson and Florida State in the process. That Herd team went 11-1 in the SoCon and was ranked 17th in the final Collegiate Baseball newspaper. Ramella played in 136 career games and finished with 76 runs, 111 hits, 146 total bases and a career batting average of .275. He finished his career tied for the school’s all-time lead with 24 doubles to go with four triples, one home run, 48 RBI, 15 stolen bases, 74 walks and 10 sacrifice flies or hits. For his career, Ramella’s four teams won 88 games, including 29 in league play.
Jalicia Ross, Volleyball, 2004-08
Ross helped Marshall to win the Conference USA title in 2005 (26-6, 15-1) and a regular season crown in 2007 (23-9, 15-1). She was also named a 2008 American Volleyball Coaches Association honorable mention All-American and to the AVCA’s All-Midwest Region squad that season, after garnering first-team all-league honors. That season, she finished sixth in the nation in hitting percentage (.413) and finished as Marshall’s all-time leader in that category with a four-year mark of .378. She led the Thundering Herd as a senior with 294 kills and had a team-best 91 blocks. As a junior, she was named second-team All-Conference USA after recording 296 kills and 94 blocks.
Kellie Schmitt, Tennis, 2005-09
Schmitt, who also served as an assistant coach for the Thundering Herd, is Marshall’s all-time leader in career combined wins (singles and doubles) with 236. She was named Conference USA’s Player of the Year three times (2007, 2008 and 2009) after earning the league’s Freshman of the Year honor in 2006. A four-time all-conference performer in singles, she teamed with Lynzee Keever to win the C-USA doubles championship in 2006 and 2007 and was first-team all-league in doubles with Karolina Soor in 2009. Schmitt teamed with Soor in 2008 to win the ITA Atlantic Region doubles title. Schmitt twice won the Dr. Dorothy Hicks Award as Marshall’s female student-athlete of the year (2008 and 2009). Schmitt is also Marshall’s all-time leader in singles wins (127), single-season victories (35 in 2007), singles winning percentage (77.9) and is second only to Dominika Zaprazna in career doubles wins with 109.
Steve Sciullo, Footballl, 1999-2002
Sciullo was a 6-foot-6, 325-pound offensive lineman who blocked for both Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich and was part of the 13-0, No. 10 in the nation 1999 team that beat No. 25 BYU in the Motor City Bowl. Sciullo appeared in four Mid-American Conference championship games, winning three, with four consecutive bowl victories. Following his Marshall career, he was selected in the fourth round of the 2003 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts, starting part of that season at guard. He later played for the Philadelphia Eagles, Carolina Panthers and in NFL Europe with the Hamburg (Germany) Sea Devils.
Trusty Tallman, Football/Baseball, 1916-19, 1925-28
Tallman, who was selected as the Hall of Fame’s Legends inductee, became a regular at tackle for Marshall’s 1916 football team, leading the squad to a 7-2-1 record. As a senior, he helped power the 1919 football team to a 8-0 mark, outscoring its opponents by a margin of 302-13, after the program was dropped a year earlier. In 1926, he was named head coach and won the league title in the inaugural season of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Tallman’s teams won 10 games the next two seasons, culminating with another WVIAC title in 1928 (8-1-1). Tallman’s four Marshall teams amassed a record of 22-9-7. He also served as the school’s head men’s basketball coach for the 1925-26 season, leading the team to a 10-7 mark.