Nehlen Earns Highest Honor
May 18, 2005 09:49 AM | General
May 18, 2005
For Media Use
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Don Nehlen is among a list of 11 All-American players and two legendary coaches inducted into the 2005 College Football Hall of Fame Division I-A Class, Jon F. Hanson, chairman of the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, announced today in New York City.
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| Former coach Don Nehlen becomes the ninth person with West Virginia University ties to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
WVU Sports Communications |
Nehlen was selected from a ballot of 75 candidates and a pool of hundreds of eligible nominees and is the highest award that can be achieved by a college coach. The other coach inducted was Auburn’s Pat Dye.
The 11-player hall of fame class is made up of a Who’s Who of college football, including Alabama linebacker Cornelius Bennett, Michigan defensive back Tom Curtis, USC running back Anthony Davis, Penn State offensive tackle Keith Dorney, Ohio State end Jim Houston, Notre Dame quarterback John Huarte, Texas running back Roosevelt Leaks, Pitt offensive tackle Mark May, Oklahoma running back Joe Washington, Stanford defensive tackle Paul Wiggin and Illinois wide receiver David Williams.
“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to induct another exceptional class of college football hall of famers,” said Hanson. “Each year our hard-working Honors Court, chaired by Gene Corrigan, continues to do an outstanding job in ensuring the game’s legends are duly recognized.”
Nehlen is easily West Virginia University’s most recognized football coach, having guided the Mountaineers to 13 bowl games and two bids for national titles playing Notre Dame in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl and Florida in the 1994 Sugar Bowl.
Nehlen’s 202 career victories place him 17th in NCAA history and he remains the school’s winningest football coach with a 149-93-4 record.
Nehlen took over a losing West Virginia program in 1980 and had the Mountaineers in a bowl game by 1981, beating Florida 26-6 in one of the college football’s biggest upsets of the year. Nine months later, Nehlen’s Mountaineers upset No. 9-ranked Oklahoma in Norman and his program took off.
Bowl games followed in the Gator (1982), Hall of Fame (1983) and Bluebonnet (1984). Another bowl run came in the late 1980s in the Sun (1987), Fiesta (1989) and Gator (1989).
Nehlen’s teams enjoyed outstanding success as members of the Big East football conference in the 1990s, winning the league’s first round-robin championship in 1993. Bowl game appearances came in the Sugar (1994), Carquest (1995), Gator (1997), Carquest (1997), Insight.com (1998) and Music City (2000).
He coached 15 first-team All-Americans, 82 all-conference players and 51 players that went on to play professional football. His resume included coaching stints in the Blue-Gray, 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 two-time national coach of the year in 1988 and 1993, is a member of the Mid-American Conference, Bowling Green, Gator Bowl and WVU Sports Halls of Fame.
Before arriving at West Virginia, the Canton, Ohio, native also coached at his alma mater, Bowling Green, from 1968-76 and earned the title “Master of the Upset” for beating teams like Syracuse, Purdue and BYU.
He was a three-year letterman playing quarterback at Bowling Green from 1955-57, helping the Falcons to a 21-2-4 record and a Mid-American Conference championship in 1956.
Nehlen becomes the ninth inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame with West Virginia University ties, joining Bruce Bosley, Sam Huff, Coach Earle “Greasy” Neale, Ira Errett Rodgers, Coach Ben Schwartzwalder, Coach Clarence Spears, Joe Stydahar and Coach Fielding Yost.
Only 781 players and 166 coaches have been inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame from more than 4.4 million that played and coached the game during the past 137 years.
The 2005 College Football Hall of Fame Division I-A Class will be inducted at the 48th annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 6, 2005, at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. The group will be officially enshrined at the Hall in South Bend, Ind., during ceremonies in August of 2006.
