A trio of West Virginia’s top offensive skill position players from recent memory highlight the Mountaineers’ 2022 West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame class, announced Saturday by Director of Athletics Shane Lyons.
Wide receivers Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey and quarterback Geno Smith make up three of the eight members in a class that will be inducted before West Virginia’s football game against Towson on September 17.
Other members of the class include: former men’s basketball star Kevin Jones, Donna Abbott (women’s basketball), Marie-Louise Asselin (cross country/track), Marsha Beasley (rifle) and Marilee Hohmann (rifle).
Austin, on a short list of the Mountaineers’ most talented football players in program history, finished as WVU’s career leader in all-purpose yards with 7,286. He was the first player in NCAA history to record 3,000 receiving yards and 1,000 rushing yards.
Austin is the only player in NCAA history to score a touchdown four different ways in one season — by catch, rush, kick and punt return. He passed Jock Sanders to establish WVU’s career reception record at 288 and passed David Saunders to become WVU’s career receiving yards leader with 3,413 yards.
Austin set WVU’s single-game record with 14 catches against Baylor and shattered WVU’s single-game all-purpose yards record with a 572-yard performance vs. Oklahoma (the previous record was Garrett Ford Sr. with 356 yards vs. Pitt in 1965). His 572-yard showing was the best performance in the FBS in 2012 and six yards short of the single-game record. Austin and Bailey set WVU’s single-season record for pass receptions with 114.
Bailey earned All-America honors in 2012 and was a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award that year. In his final season, he was named a first team All-American by the Football Writers’ Association of America, CBSSports.com, Phil Steele and SI.com.
With 25 touchdown receptions in 2012, Bailey is tied for second all-time in FBS history with Randy Moss. At the end of his career, he owned the school record for consecutive 100-yard receiving games (five) and most career 100-yard receiving games (14).
Bailey set the WVU career touchdown reception record (41) with five against Baylor and set the Big 12 season record with 25. He finished with a career-best 303 yards receiving in that Baylor contest, including a career-long 87-yard touchdown reception.
Smith set 33 WVU game, season, class and career records as a quarterback from 2009-12.
As a senior, Smith was a finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award and the Maxwell Award. Smith was named to the All-Big 12 Conference Second Team.
In addition to his 33 school records, Smith set six Milan Puskar Stadium records and established the NCAA season record for the most pass attempts without an interception at 272. Smith recorded the nation’s best passing completion percentage mark since 2000 with a 95.8 percent (23-of-24) showing in a win over Kansas in 2012. He also set a WVU record with 21 straight completions. He finished his career with a school-record 98 passing touchdowns.
Smith set the WVU season records for passing yards (4,385) and touchdowns (42) and career records for total offense (12,004), passing yards (11,662) and pass attempts (1,465). He set WVU records with 45 pass completions for 656 yards and eight touchdowns in the 2012 Baylor win. His passing yards total was the NCAA’s top single-game performance of the year.
Jones is one of two WVU men’s basketball players to score at least 1,800 career points and grab 1,000 rebounds, with Jerry West being the other. Jones was named to the John Wooden All-America Team in 2012 and earned second team consensus All-America honors.
During his career from 2009-12, Jones scored in double figures in 95 career games and had 33 double-doubles for his career. Starting every game his final three seasons, Jones finished fifth in school history with 1,822 career points and was fourth in career rebounds with 1,048.
As a senior, he averaged 19.9 points and 10.9 rebounds per game, while shooting 50.9 percent from the field. Jones became just the third player in Big East history to lead the league in scoring and rebounding in all games. Jones scored double figures in every game as a senior. He finished 11th in Big East history with 560 career rebounds.
Jones was also a key component of WVU’s Final Four team in 2010 as a sophomore, while the forward was instrumental in the Mountaineers winning the Big East Championship that season as well.
Highlights from the other four inductees include:
— Abbott was a standout on the women’s basketball team from 1989-1992. She is one of three players in school history to finish her career with 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
A native of Huntington, Abbott scored 1,656 points during her career, ranking ninth all-time in school history.
— Asselin earned seven All-America honors (three in cross country and four in track and field) during her decorated running career from 2006-10.
— Beasley was head coach of the rifle team for 16 seasons from 1990 and 2006 and led the squad to eight NCAA titles. She registered 14 winning seasons in her first 14 years with the Mountaineers, including nine undefeated campaigns. Her record after 14 seasons was 146-8.
Under her guidance, WVU won eight NCAA titles, posted one second-place finish and two third-place finishes at the NCAA Championships.
— Hohmann, of Fairmont, was the first female athlete to compete on any WVU athletic team in 1961 — 11 years prior to Title IX becoming a federal law.
She competed on the WVU rifle team from 1961-62. Hohmann was the first woman to compete in an athletic competition at the United States Military Academy at West Point. At the time, the Academy was an all-male institution and a special dressing room arrangement had to be made.