Men's Basketball: WVU's Catlett to be Enshrined
April 16, 2006 07:36 AM | General
April 16, 2006
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| Gale Catlett |
MORGANTOWN – Gale Catlett, who distinguished himself as a collegiate basketball player and coach, has been elected to the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
The Hedgesville native will be inducted on Sunday, May 7, at the 60th annual Victory Awards Dinner at the Lakeview Golf Resort and Conference Center. He will be the 162nd member of the shrine which is located in the Charleston Civic Center.
Don Nehlen, legendary football coach whose election was announced a week ago, also will be taken in at that time. The fete honors outstanding high school and college athletes and coaches from throughout the state each year. Tickets, priced at $20, are available from West Virginia Sports Writers Association members at most state newspapers.
Catlett, 65, retired in 2002 after 24 years as head coach at West Virginia University. None of his predecessors coached or won more games in the school’s history, he having posted a 439-276 record.
Before that, he served as head coach at the University of Cincinnati, where his record was 126-44. He restored a winning tradition there, just as he went on to do at WVU. His combined all-time record is 565-320 for 30 years. Catlett, who had just three losing seasons, averaged more than 19 victories per year during his head-coaching career. He was the 45th NCAA Division I coach all-time to win 500 games and the 41st to win 400 with one school. He took 20 teams to postseason play, 11 to the NCAA tournament and nine to the National Invitation Tournament.
“This is a great honor,” Catlett said. “When told about my election, I started thinking about why I’d be getting into the West Virginia Hall of Fame. It’s because of the people that I’ve had around me and my family.
“I thought of people that worked for me, people that I’ve worked with, and obviously the many players I’ve coached. So it took me down memory lane. I guess we don’t stop and think of those things often, although we should.
“But it’s a great honor and gave me a chance to think back over the many, many nice things that have happened to me. I’ve been blessed and I also want to thank the people that voted and made this honor possible.”
Catlett, the youngest of 13 children, starred at Hedgesville High in baseball as well as basketball. He earned a scholarship to WVU and, as a player there, contributed to 24-4, 26-6 and 23-8 records and two trips to the NCAA tournament. His main role as a Mountaineer was to guard the opponent’s best scorer.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1963, Catlett served stints as an assistant coach at Richmond, Davidson, Kansas and Kentucky. Cincinnati gave him his first head job in 1972. He was considered as one of the nation’s best bench coaches. He earned respect as a motivator, a teacher and a coach who thrived in the role of underdog.
Catlett teams at WVU owned wins over nearly 150 different schools, most of them more than once. Twenty of those victories were over Top 25 teams, including 11 with Top 10 ranking.
The most memorable was an 87-78 upset of No. 1 UNLV on Feb. 27, 1983 before more than 15,000 fans at the Coliseum. Two of his teams at Cincinnati won Metro Conference championships. Seven at WVU captured Atlantic 10 regular-season or tournament titles. Catlett was named by Basketball Times as coach of the year once. He also was voted District II coach of the year, a finalist for The Associated Press national coach of the year, and two-time state coach of the year.
He and wife Anise have two grown children, Krista Neumann and Kara.
