Hall of Fame Class Enshrined Saturday
September 11, 2003 10:00 AM | General
September 11, 2003
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| Allman |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Six outstanding contributors to Mountaineer athletics will make up the 13th class of honorees inducted into the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame this Saturday.
Induction ceremonies will get underway at 10 am in the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility prior to West Virginia’s football game with Cincinnati. All Mountaineer fans are invited to attend free of charge.
The six being honored Saturday are 1953 Sugar Bowl standout Tommy Allman, long-time women’s basketball coach and athletic administrator Kittie Blakemore, West Virginia journalist and avid Mountaineer fan Tony Constantine, 1930s era four-sport letterman John Doyle, 1938 NCAA boxing champion Sam Littlepage and football coach Don Nehlen.
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| Blakemore |
The late Tommy Allman was the captain of the 1953 Mountaineer football team that posted a top 10 national ranking and played Georgia Tech in the Sugar Bowl. The fullback played in the Senior Bowl and Chicago all-star games, and was picked by the Baltimore Colts in the 1954 NFL draft.
Blakemore was the first women’s basketball coach in WVU history, and won 301 games in a coaching career covering 19 seasons.
Her two best teams came in 1989, when West Virginia captured the Atlantic 10 tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament, and her final team in 1992 that finished ranked in the top 15 and advanced to the “Sweet 16” round of the NCAA tournament. Following her retirement from coaching, Blakemore served with distinction as WVU’s assistant athletic director for sports development until her retirement in 1997.
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| Constantine |
Constantine is regarded as the most knowledgeable expert on West Virginia University athletics, having served as the team’s unofficial mascot as a boy in 1919 and then later as an editor of the Morgantown Post from 1936-72.
Constantine wrote two books on Mountaineer football and has written numerous articles for the athletic department since.
The late Dr. John Doyle lettered in four sports (football, basketball, baseball and track) from 1929-32 and served as team captain of the both the football and basketball teams as a senior in 1932. Doyle later distinguished himself as a physician in Ridgeway, Ill.
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| Doyle |
In recognition of his medical service to his community, combined with his athletic achievements, Sports Illustrated named Doyle in 1956 to its first Silver Anniversary All-America football team. Dr. Doyle died on Dec. 15, 2002, at the age of 93.
The late Sam Littlepage was one of only three boxers to win a national title at West Virginia University in the late 1930s when the sport was widely popular on collegiate campuses.
The 165-pounder captured the 1938 NCAA title and was also a two-time Eastern Intercollegiate Conference champion.
Littlepage helped West Virginia to the 1938 national boxing title, the first NCAA championship by any sport at WVU and one of just two sports in school history to claim an NCAA title (rifle being the other).
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| Littlepage |
After serving in the war as a lieutenant colonel, Littlepage practice law in Point Pleasant, W.Va., until his death at age 58 in 1974.
And Don Nehlen, the winningest coach in WVU football history, put the Mountaineer football program back on the map in the 1980s after West Virginia endured four straight losing seasons. Nehlen is one of just 17 coaches in NCAA history to have won more than 200 career football games.
One of the five winningest coaches in the nation at the time of his retirement, Nehlen's career record if 202-138-8 also includes 53 victories as head coach of Bowling Green from 1968-76.
Nehlen quarterback Bowling green to a MAC title in 1957 and began his coaching career at Mansfield High School (Ohio) a year later.
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| Nehlen |
He took WVU to 13 bowl games, coached 15 first-team All-Americans and 80 players who went on to play professional football. His two best teams came in 1988 and 1993 – the school’s only two undefeated, untied regular seasons in the history of the program.
Nehlen received national coach of the year honors in 1988 and served as president of the 10,000-member American Football Coaches Association in 1997.
Nehlen is a member of the Mid-American Conference, Bowling green and Gator Bowl halls of fame.
A total of 83 former athletes, coaches and athletic administrators have now been enshrined into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame.
