Courtesy: Marshall Athletics
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The Marshall University Athletics Hall of Fame Committee has announced the 2019 induction class for the Hall of Fame.
“This class represents some of the finest student-athletes in school history,” Marshall Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick said. “The contributions of these fine men and women are truly appreciated by everyone in the Marshall Athletics family.”
The group also includes Milla Kuurto, who was elected last spring, but unable to attend the induction weekend in the fall.
This year’s class (alphabetical order by last names):
John Brannen, Men’s Basketball (1995-97)
Nichole Corrigan, Softball (1999-2002)
Rachel Folden, Softball (2005-08)
Tom Kuempel, Baseball (1995-98)
Milla Kuurto, Women’s Swimming and Diving (2002-06)
Giradie Mercer, Football (1996-99)
Hugh Reynolds, Baseball (1958-60)
Mark Sheridan, Men’s Swimming and Diving (1977-81)
Jamie Wilson, Football (1993-96)
Max Yates, Football (1998-2001)
The annual Hall of Fame dinner is scheduled Friday, Sept. 13 at 6:30 p.m., in the Don Morris Room of the Marshall University Memorial Student Center.
Tickets are $35 each and are available through the Marshall University Ticket Office (in the lobby of the Cam Henderson Center on Third Avenue), at HerdZone.com or by calling 1-800-THE-HERD. Tickets purchased after August 30 will be $45.
The Hall members will be guests of the Marshall M Club at the club’s tailgate at the southwest corner of Joan C. Edwards Stadium, prior the Thundering Herd’s Sept. 14 football game versus Ohio. The class will be introduced to the stadium crowd in a pregame ceremony. Kickoff time is still to be determined.
Tickets to the game also are available through the MU ticket office at the numbers or website listed above for banquet tickets.
John Brannen, Men’s Basketball, 1995-97
Brannen was named first-team All-Southern Conference in 1996-97(coaches and media teams) and was selected as the All So-Con Tournament MVP for in 1997, a year that saw the program win the league’s North Division title under first-year head coach Greg White. Brannen is still 14th in 3-pointers made (135) and 3-point shooting percentage at 38.6% for his career. He is 12th in free throw percentage with 77.7% for his career (181-233) and his 605 points as a senior is also 12th best in a single season. His scoring average of 20.9 points per game in 1996-97 led the Herd and is still 23rd all-time. After finishing a two-year career in pro basketball in the First Division of Belgium, he moved into coaching at the University of Charleston (W.Va.) as an assistant in 1999-2000. He later moved on to assistant stops at EKU (2000-2003), St. Bonaventure (2003-06), VCU (2006-09), Alabama (2009-15) before being named Northern Kentucky’s head coach in April of 2015.
Nichole Corrigan, Softball, 1999-2002
Corrigan was a three-time All-Mid-American Conference player, who was a first-team selection in 2001 and at-large selection in 2000 and 2002 as second baseman. She was also a National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Mideast Region first-team selection in 2001 and voted to the second team in 2002. She was a member of the MAC Academic Honor Roll as a junior and senior. She finished her career as the single-season record-holder for at-bats with 193 in 2001 and was fourth in the career numbers with 654. In 2001, she had 16 doubles (fourth-most in season at the time) and 68 hits (fifth-most). She finished tied for fifth all-time with 26 doubles and five triples during her career. She helped the Herd to win the MAC East title as a sophomore and 35 wins in 2001, tying the most in school history at that time. Her four years saw the Herd win 102 games.
Rachel Folden, Softball, 2005-08
One of the program’s greatest players in its history, Folden was a four-time NFCA/Louisville Slugger All-American for the Thundering Herd and still holds 15 of the program’s single-season or career records. She began winning awards in the Mid-American Conference and continued as the Marshall moved to Conference USA when she joined the program from Baldwin Park, California. She was named first-team All-MAC as a freshman in 2005 and was tabbed both the MAC Freshman of the Year and to the league’s All-Tournament team. Marshall won the MAC regular season title, finished the season 38-20, and was 20-4 in the league for the second year in a row. She was honored as Conference USA’s Player of the Year as a sophomore and again in 2008. She was a first-team All-C-USA pick as a sophomore and repeated on the first team in 2007 and 2008. She was selected to the league’s All-Tournament team in both 2006 and 2007. Winning honors became a trademark of Folden, who was named to the NFCA Midwest All-Region first team and the C-USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll three times apiece. As a senior, she was a Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award finalist and picked for the ESPN/CoSIDA Academic All-District squad.
Tom Kuempel, Baseball, 1995-98
A first baseman for Marshall, Kuempel won the Mid-American Conference Triple Crown and received the league’s Player of the Year honors as a senior. The Port Orange, Florida native became Marshall’s starting first baseman as a junior, when he led the team with a .331 batting average, 14 home runs, and 39 RBI. He slugged his way to a .435 batting average during his senior campaign, with 20 home runs and 60 runs batted in, leading the league in each category and being voted conference player of the year. At the time, his 20 home runs were five more than anyone had hit in a single season in Marshall history, and his 60 runs batted in were 17 more than anyone else had managed. The .435 batting average was, and remains, fourth all-time at Marshall. His 156 total bases and .848 slugging percentage are still Marshall’s single-season records, and his .718 career slugging percentage is second in school history. Despite only two seasons as a regular in the Marshall lineup, he closed his career as the Herd’s career leader with 34 home runs (still fourth in the Marshall record book), and his .370 career batting average stands fifth in school history. Following his time at Marshall, he played two seasons of professional baseball in the Frontier League. Based on available statistics, he is the only Marshall player to win his league’s Triple Crown, and no player since Kuempel has won the Mid-American Conference triple crown.
Milla Kuurto, Women’s Swimming and Diving (2002-06)
Kuurto was a four-time, first-team all-conference swimmer, winning three times in the Mid-American Conference and once in Conference USA. She was a six-time conference champion, as well as a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier. Kuurto was ranked in the top 20 nationally in both the 100 butterfly and the 200 butterfly during her sophomore, junior and senior years, amassing 14 school records by the end of her career. She was the 2002-03 MAC Swimmer of the Year and earned Marshall’s Dot Hicks Award for the department’s female Student-Athlete of the Year. Kuurto was a four-time conference All-Academic selection, as well.
Giradie Mercer, Football, 1996-99
Mercer was a captain in 1999 and was first-team All-MAC as a junior and senior. He was the Defensive MVP of the 1999 Motor City Bowl when Marshall knocked off 25th-ranked BYU 21-3 and led the Marshall’s defense spent much of the day in BYU’s backfield. He led the Herd in sacks as a senior with five and paced Marshall in tackles for loss in both 1998 (16.0) and 1999 (24.0). His senior-season TFL total is the second-most in Marshall’s history. The Thundering Herd won the Southern Conference and national title during his freshman season, then won the MAC in the school’s first FBS season in 1997. Marshall won the MAC again in 1998 (12-1) and won MU’s first bowl game with 48-29 victory over Louisville. He helped the team finish undefeated (13-0) as a senior, en route to a national ranking of 10th in the final poll. He helped the Thundering Herd to a 50-4 record during his four seasons in Huntington. A free-agent signee of the Carolina Panthers in 2000, Mercer played two seasons in Charlotte, two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and parts of two years with the New York Jets, retiring in 2004.
Hugh Reynolds, Baseball, 1958-60
Reynolds was a first-team All-Mid-American Conference pitcher as a senior, after earning second team honors the year before. Reynolds’ 2.82 career earned run average is tied with Marshall Hall of Fame member Tony Petersen for seventh-best in Thundering Herd history. It is the only top ten career number in either batting or pitching to still be in the record books from the Herd baseball era of 1960 and before, and is one of only three records still in the top ten from the pre-1960s era. Reynolds recorded 162 strikeouts in his career, 12th-most in the Thundering Herd’s history.
Mark Sheridan, Men’s Swimming and Diving, 1977-81
Mark helped the Herd to four consecutive Southern Conference swimming titles. As a sophomore, he won the 1,650 Freestyle and was sixth in the 500 Freestyle at the Southern Conference meet and was second to teammate Glenn Hartway in the 1,650 as a junior. That season, he also won the 500 Free conference title. Marshall was 7-3 during his senior season and he was one of three team captains, won the Southern Conference Academic Medal and was on Marshall’s Dean’s List. A veteran of service in the U.S. Army after graduation, Sheridan entered the medical profession following his days as a student-athlete for the Thundering Herd.
Jamie Wilson, Football, 1993-96
Wilson was a 6-foot-7, 283-pound offensive tackle for the Thundering Herd, who later played in the National Football League for the Carolina Panthers, Minnesota Vikings and Indianapolis Colts. In his first season at Marshall, he played extensively as a backup on the 1993 Herd, who went 11-4 and advanced to the national title game. As a sophomore, he started all 14 games at right tackle as the Herd went 12-2, winning the Southern Conference outright and falling in the semifinals of the I-AA Playoffs at Boise State. During his junior campaign, Marshall again was thwarted in the I-AA National Championship game, but Wilson started 15 games in a row (29 over two seasons), once again, at right tackle. In 1996, he started every game again at right tackle as Marshall went undefeated (15-0), en route to the I-AA national title. He was recognized on the All-Southern Conference teams (media and coaches) that season and was also named a second-team All-American by the Football Gazette.
Max Yates, Football, 1998-2001
A linebacker, Yates led the Herd in tackles as a junior with 115 (74 solo) and again with 159 as a senior (92 solo). He also led Marshall in quarterback sacks as a senior with 5.5. At Marshall, he finished with 382 total tackles in his career, a figure that is tenth all-time in the school’s records. He was a team captain in 2001, a four-year starter, who finished with 201 tackles, 182 assists, 27 tackles for loss, eight sacks, 10 pass breakups, 23 quarterback pressures, two interceptions and a fumble recovery. He was named the Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Year during his final season in Huntington and was first-team All-MAC twice after garnering second-team acclaim as a sophomore. The Herd was 12-1 in 1998, 13-0 and No. 10 in nation in 1999, 8-5 in 2000, and 11-2 in 2001, winning three Motor City Bowls and the GMAC Bowl in 2001. The Herd won three MAC titles during his four years and had a record of 44-8 for those years, with a record of 31-5 in the MAC. Yates saw action in the NFL the San Francisco 49ers and Minnesota Vikings following his graduation from Marshall.