Class of 2005
October 15, 2005 06:02 PM | General
October 15, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Six new members of the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame were introduced Saturday afternoon at the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility prior to West Virginia’s homecoming football game against Louisville.
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| West Virginia's 15th sports hall of fame class was introduced Saturday at the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Inducted into the Hall of Fame were multi-sport athlete Charley Hockenberry, basketball standouts Roger “Shorty” Hicks, Jim McCormick and Marvin “Bucky” Bolyard, track All-American Connie Ellerbe and professional football standout Mike Compton.
Nemacolin, Pa., native Hockenberry was one of the school’s most versatile athletes, lettering in baseball (1939-41), football (1938-39) and basketball (1939) but his best sport was baseball, hitting .428 as a senior and advancing to the Triple-A level of professional baseball when there were only 12 major league teams. Hockenberry also served as the school’s baseball coach (1947) and the golf coach as well as working as a business manager and fundraiser.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a position to say anything to anybody,” laughed Hockenberry. “We’ve come a long way here as a school and I’m thankful for all of the fans here today for coming.”
Hockenberry was presented by longtime state journalist Mickey Furfari.
Roger “Shorty” Hicks distinguished himself as both a basketball player on the 1942 NIT championship team and later in combat during World War II where he lost his life serving his country in Metz, France, with the 328th Regiment, 26th Division of General George S. Patton’s Third Army in 1944. The Moundsville, W.Va., native was student body president and a tremendous campus leader.
Presenting and accepting on behalf of the Hicks family was Hugh Hicks.
“I went to the University in 1940 and Shorty had been here one year,” said Hicks. “Sixty years later I come back here to participate in this great event and I don’t know where I am? I can’t believe that this place has changed so much and it’s all for the good. Our family is delighted that Shorty is being recognized.”
Despite being blind in one eye, Marvin “Bucky” Bolyard was a tremendous basketball and baseball player for the Mountaineers in the late 1950s, helping West Virginia to the 1959 national championship game against Cal. The Aurora native earned five total letters in basketball and baseball; as a baseball pitcher he posted a 0.75 earned run average on Coach Steve Harrick’s WVU nine.
Presenting and accepting on behalf of the late Bolyard was his brother Larry.
“You called him Bucky but the family called him Buck,” said Larry Bolyard. “My mother called him Marvin. Aurora was family for nicknames but he was truly a special person and a wonderful athlete.”
New Martinsville’s Jim McCormick teamed with Rod Thorn to give West Virginia one of the nation’s strongest backcourts in 1963. McCormick helped the Mountaineers to three Southern Conference regular season titles and a pair of NCAA tournament berths during his career as a three-year starter. McCormick averaged better than 15 points per game during both his junior and senior seasons, helping WVU to a combined 70-18 record.
“I want to thank the committee and the University for selecting me for this honor,” McCormick said. “My fondest memories are the four years I spent here. We were all self-made people. I wish everybody here could experience four years of playing college basketball because there is nothing in this world that compares to it.”
Presenting McCormick was longtime friend John Mensore.
Connie Ellerbe, of Newark, Del., was the first female to earn All-America honors in women’s track, something she accomplished four times in 1988, 1989, 1991 and 1992. Ellerbe’s best finish at nationals came in 1992 when she placed second at outdoor nationals in the 400-meter hurdles. Ellerbe was also part of the 4x100-meter relay team that won both the ECAC championships and the Millrose Games. Ellerbe was a three-time qualifier for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
“I’m honored and privileged to be here today,” said Ellerbe. “This is certainly a great pleasure and I’m privileged to be here.”
Presenting Ellerbe was her former WVU Coach Laura Nardelli.
Richlands, Va., native Mike Compton distinguished himself as the school’s sixth consensus All-American as a center on Don Nehlen’s Mountaineer football team in 1992. Compton was a finalist for the Lombardi Award as the nation’s top offensive lineman, and played in the Hula Bowl and Blue-Gray All-Star games. Compton played eight years in the NFL with the Detroit Lions, blocking for all-pro running back Barry Sanders. He later earned two super bowl rings with the New England Patriots before winding his career with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“I liked to congratulate all of the inductees it’s phenomenal listening to some of the people being inducted,” said Compton. “I was sitting up thinking about all of the people involved with my football career since I was 10 years old. That’s 25 years. There are so many coaches, teammates, teachers and professors that have had an influence and touched me that I could be here for days naming them.
“There are a select few that really stand and to be first and foremost is my mother, raising me in a small western town in Virginia; she worked two jobs and did what she could,” Compton said. “You can’t go to the K-Mart and buy clothes for a 6-foot-7, 280-pound high school kid with a size 15 shoe. That was an extra cow they had to kill to make a shoe.
“The second person I’d really like to thank is here today in Coach Don Nehlen for giving a pudgy little fat kid from Richlands, Va., a chance to play major college football,” Compton said. “Coach I owe you everything for that. I listened and learned and took all of the things he said to his football team to heart.
“Unfortunately you can’t play football forever,” Compton said. “I can’t think of no other way to finish off a lifetime of athletics than to be inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame.”
Presenting Compton was his 16-year-old daughter Jessica Compton.
MSN’s Tony Caridi served as master of ceremonies and Varsity Club president Buddy Quertinmont presented each inductee with a medallion.
