Murray Cook
A native of Salem, VA and graduate of Salem High School, Murray Cook has played a role in baseball field design and development around the globe. He began his career in field management in his hometown at Billy Sample Field…
Tom Yeager
Tom Yeager served as the only commissioner in Colonial Athletic Association history from the conference’s inception in 1985 through his retirement in 2016. Over the course of 31 years as head of the CAA, he established the conference as one…
Charles H. Williams
Charles Holston Williams is credited with being one of the original founders of the present Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA). Williams and his colleagues from Shaw, Lincoln, Virginia Union, and Howard University put together the CIAA, which was the Black…
Dr. Jim Jarrett
Dr. Jim Jarrett joined the Old Dominion University staff in 1967 as Associate Professor of Health and Physical Education and took over the Athletic Director position in 1970, where he remained until his retirement in 2010. During his 43-year career…
Frank Summers
Frank Summers, a native of Alexandria, graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1922 as second ranking officer in the Cadet Corps. He was the first man in Virginia Military Institute history to win letters in football, baseball, basketball, and track…
Taylor Sanford
Sanford graduated from the University of Richmond in 1929, having earned letters in football, basketball, baseball and track—thirteen in all. He set records in the shot put and discus, later broken by his brother, Jack. He captained All-State teams in…
Julius Conn
If any man has ever truly been a living legend it is Julius Conn, Virginia’s premier track and basketball coach at Newport News High School for over 40 years. A native of Newport News and one of seven children, Julie…
Melvin Blassingham
Known as the “Father of the Oyster Bowl”, Blassingham conceived the idea of the game to raise funds for the Shriner’s Hospital while in the hospital himself, recovering from a heart attack in 1936. The Oyster Bowl began to truly…