Hall of Famers ...150 Consensus All-Americans
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Hall of Famers ................................................................ 150 Consensus All-Americans ............................................... 152 All-Americans ................................................................. 153 Top Plays ........................................................................ 155 Top Games ..................................................................... 156 Top Seasons ................................................................... 157 Top Careers ..................................................................... 160 Class Rankings ................................................................ 162 Individual Records .......................................................... 164 Defensive Records .......................................................... 166 Team Records ................................................................. 168 Coaching Records ........................................................... 169 Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium Records ............................................................ 170 Year-by-Year Results ...................................................... 172 All-Time Scores .............................................................. 174 Series Records ................................................................ 182 Bowl Recaps ................................................................... 183 All-Time Lettermen ......................................................... 189 Mountaineers in the Pros ............................................... 197 WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY NATIONAL HALL OF FAME SELECTIONS for 20 touchdowns that season, while earning ECAC Player of the Year honors and finishing fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting. During his junior BRUCE LEE campaign, Harris threw for 17 touchdowns and ran for six, while setting BOSLEY school records for most total offense and quarterback rushing yards. COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME / He was a voted first-team All-America, named the ECAC Player of the INDUCTED: 1982 AS A PLAYER Year and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting. Drafted by the Los Angeles Raiders in the 1990 NFL Draft, Harris spent several seasons West Virginia’s second-ever consensus All-American playing in the Canadian Football League, Arena Football League and in 1955, Bruce Bosley was inducted into the College other semi-pro leagues. In 1999, he was inducted into the WVU Sports Football Hall of Fame in 1982. A native of Fresno, Hall of Fame. Calif., who grew up in Green Bank, W.Va., Bosley played on the 1954 Sugar Bowl team for the Mountaineers. That squad finished as the 10th- ranked team in the nation. He went on to a long and prosperous NFL career with the San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons for 13 seasons. ROBERT LEE A four-time Pro Bowl pick in 1960, 1965, 1966 and 1967, Bosley is a member of the San Francisco 49ers all-time team. The 6-2, 240-lb., “SAM” HUFF center retired in 1969. He died April 25, 1995, in San Francisco, Calif. PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME / INDUCTED: 1982 AS A PLAYER COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME / INDUCTED: 1980 AS A PLAYER A name synonymous with West Virginia football, ROBERT CLECKER Robert Lee “Sam” Huff ranks among the all-time “BOBBY” BOWDEN great NFL linebackers. At West Virginia, Huff was a 6-1, 230-lb. tackle COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME / before being drafted in the third round by the New York Giants in 1956. INDUCTED: 2006 AS A COACH Shortly thereafter, the Farmington, W.Va., native became one of the greatest and most publicized linebackers in pro football history and the Bobby Bowden, the No. 2 all-time win leader first defensive football player to make the cover of Time magazine. CBS among college football coaches had an impressive produced a half-hour pro football documentary entitled “The Violent 44-year coaching career which included two World of Sam Huff.” A fierce competitor and a great rival of Green Bay national championship. He served as head coach at West Virginia Packers linebacker Ray Nitsche, Huff earned Pro Bowl status five times, University from 1970-75, compiling a record of 42-26 with two Peach first as a Giant, and then as a Washington Redskin, where he finished his RECORD BOOK Bowl appearances. The Birmingham, Ala., native graduated from Howard career in 1969. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame College (now Samford) in 1953 and began his coaching career as an in 1980 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982. assistant coach from 1954-55. He moved on to South Georgia Junior as head coach between 1956-58, before returning to his alma mater as head coach from 1959-62, posting a 31-6 record. His first stint at Florida State came in 1963 when he coached the wide receivers. He ALFRED EARLE came to Morgantown in 1966 as offensive coordinator under Jim Carlen, before becoming the head coach in 1970. He left Morgantown in 1976 “GREASY” NEALE to become the head coach at Florida State and compiled a 316-97-4 PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME / INDUCTED: 1969 AS A COACH record for an overall career mark of 389-129-4. He is the only coach in COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME / Division I-A football history to have enjoyed 14-straight 10-win seasons. INDUCTED: 1967 AS A COACH His FSU teams finished an unprecedented 14-straight seasons in the Top A noted player and coach, “Greasy” Neale’s 5 of the Associated Press College Football Poll, won the College Football affiliation with West Virginia lasted three years as National Championship in 1993 and 1999 and is 21-8-1 in bowl games. RECORD BOOK RECORD head football coach from 1931-34. Prior to his stay in Morgantown, Greasy (a nickname he had carried since childhood), was a three-sport standout at West Virginia Wesleyan before embarking on an eight-year major league baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds. While a baseball MAJOR CLAYBOURNE player, Neale also found time to play professional football in the fall. HARRIS Upon his retirement as an athlete, Neale became a college coaching COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME / gypsy, guiding some of the nation’s finest football programs before INDUCTED: 2009 AS A PLAYER taking the NFL Philadelphia Eagles coaching job in 1941. Introducing the “naked reverse”, man-to-man shifting defenses, the stutter series and A three-year starter at quarterback, the dynamic a primitive form of the 4-3 defense during his pro football coaching Major Harris became the first player in NCAA history tenure, Neale guided the Eagles to the 1949 NFL title. The Parkersburg to rush for more than 2,000 yards and pass for more native was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1967 and than 5,000 yards in his career. As a freshman, Harris led the Mountaineers the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969. He died November 2, 1973, in to the 1987 Sun Bowl. The following season, the quarterback led West Lake Worth, Fla. Virginia to an undefeated season and a match-up with Notre Dame for the national championship in the 1988 Fiesta Bowl. He accounted 150 WVUsports.com 2013 WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY // MOUNTAINEER FOOTBALL Spears was the opposite on it, evoking confrontations with sportswriters, alumni and fans alike. After his brief tenure in Morgantown where he also DONALD EUGENE doubled as a practicing medical doctor, thus earning the nickname “Doc,” Spears also coached at Minnesota and Oregon among others, until retiring in “DON” NEHLEN 1935 to devote his full time to medicine, practicing in Ypsilanti, Mich. Spears COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME / was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1955. He died February INDUCTED: 2005 AS A COACH 1, 1964, in Jupiter, Fla. The winningest coach in WVU history with a 149-93-4 Preseason notes record, Don Nehlen served as Mountaineer head man from 1980-2000. During his 21 years as head coach in JOSEPH LEE Morgantown, Nehlen guided the Mountaineers to 13 bowl games and two bids for national titles playing Notre Dame in the 1989 “JUMBO JOE” STYDAHAR Fiesta Bowl and Florida in the 1994 Sugar Bowl. He coached 15 first-team PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME / INDUCTED: 1967 AS A PLAYER All-Americans, 82 all-conference players and 51 players that went on to play COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME / professional football. His resume included coaching stints in the Blue-Gray, INDUCTED: 1956 AS A PLAYER East-West Shrine and Hula Bowl all-star games, and he served as president of the 10,000-member American Football Coaches Association in 1997. Nehlen, A brilliant, but under-recognized two-sport athlete at a two-time national coach of the year in 1988 and 1993, is a member of the West Virginia until his graduation in 1936, “Jumbo Joe” Mid-American Conference, Bowling Green, Gator Bowl, Chick-Fil-A Bowl and Stydahar lost that distinction after surprisingly being the first player taken profiles player WVU Sports Halls of Fame. He also served as head coach of his alma mater, by the Chicago Bears in the 1936 NFL draft -- the first player ever selected Bowling Green, from 1968-76, posting a 53-35-4 mark. The native of Canton, by the organization. Born in Kaylor, Pa., and later a standout at Shinnston Ohio, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005. High (W.Va.), Stydahar was a giant of a man (6-4, 245-lbs.) who became a perennial NFL all-star at tackle. A sixty-minute performer with the “Monsters of the Midway,” Stydahar played without a helmet, one of the last performers to do so. He participated on three NFL championship teams with the Bears IRA ERRETT and was named to the official all-NFL team from 1937-40. He sandwiched a