The Marshall Thundering Herd are the intercollegiate athletic teams that collectively represent the Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Thundering Herd athletic teams compete in Conference USA, which are members of the NCAA Division I.

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Overview

There are six NCAA men's athletic teams and nine women's teams at Marshall:

Men's Sports Baseball Basketball Cross County Football Golf Soccer

Women's Sports Basketball Cross Country Golf Soccer Softball Swimming & Diving Tennis Track & Field Volleyball

Football

See also : Marshall Thundering Herd football

For next season, see: 2009 Marshall Thundering Herd football team

Marshall is a football school, with a unique and rich tradition, winning conference titles in 1925, 1928, 1931, 1937, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2002, as well as I-AA National Championships in 1992 and 1996 and I-AA finalists in 1987, 1991, 1993 and 1995.

The November 14, 1970, plane crash that killed all 75 passengers on board, including 37 members of the Thundering Herd football team, is well-documented. The event and its aftermath were depicted in the 2006 Warner Brothers motion picture, We Are Marshall, starring Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox.

NFL players Chad Pennington, Troy Brown, Randy Moss, Byron Leftwich, Chris Crocker, Steve Sciullo, Darius Watts, Chris Massey, Jason Rader, John Wade, Johnathan Goddard, and Ahmad Bradshaw all played collegiately at Marshall. Former Thundering Herd lineman Frank Gatski was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, joining Joe Namath, Roger Staubach, and Pete Rozelle in the class of inductees that year.

Gatski is the only Marshall player to have his jersey number retired and is Marshall's only player in the Professional Football Hall of Fame. The university retired Gatski's No. 72 during a halftime ceremony at Joan C. Edwards Stadium on October 15, 2005. Gatski died a month later, at age 86, and during his career with the Cleveland Browns (1946-56) and the Detroit Lions (1957) he won eight championships in 11 title game appearances. Cleveland won the All-American Football Conference four straight years, going 14-0 in 1948, before joining the NFL. The Browns won NFL titles in 1950, 1954 and 1955 and were runners-up in 1951, 1952 and 1953. Gatski's Lions beat the Browns for his final title in 1957. The 31st Street Bridge, connecting Huntington to Proctorville, Ohio, is also named in Gatki's honor, joining U.S. Senator Robert Byrd (formerly the Sixth St. Bridge) and Congressman Nick Rahall (the former 17th St. Bridge) among three structures stretching across the Ohio River from West Virginia to Ohio.

Former Thundering Herd defensive back and Ohio State defensive coordinator Mark Snyder is the current head coach. He is 12-23 through his first three seasons, trying to rebuild the program after NCAA sanctions limited scholarships. Marshall will be at the full 85 scholarships in 2008 for the first time in five seasons.

The Thundering Herd was the winningest NCAA Division I program in the 1990s, winning 114 games against 25 losses, in direct contrast to being the nation's worst football program in the 1970s. Including the year of the crash, Marshall was 23-83 from 1970-79, changing head coaches four times during that period. Marshall had a winless streak of 0-26-1 from 1965-1969, and began Southern Conference play in 1977 with the exact record through 1981, 0-26-1. Marshall tied Western Carolina on a 59-yard field goal by freshman Barry Childers in 1980, still a NCAA frosh record, and finally broke through with a 17-14 win at Appalachian State in November 1981. Marshall's first winning season since 1964 came in 1984 under first-year head coach Stan Parrish, clinched with a 31-28 win over East Tennessee State in the Bucs "Mini Dome" or Memorial Center indoor stadium.

Marshall won Division I-AA national championships in 1992 over Youngstown State (31-28) and in 1996 over Montana (49-29), as well as being national runner-up in 1987 (10-5, setting record for wins in MU single season), 1991, 1993 and 1995. The Herd won the SC in 1988 (11-2 season), 1994 (12-2) and 1996 (15-0). Marshall set a I-AA record with five straight seasons making at least the semi-finals of the I-AA Playoffs from 1991-96. The 1996 team, with Moss, Wade, Hanson, Erik Kresser, Doug Chapman and many other players who played professional football, was 15-0, had no game closer than a two touchdown win and was ranked No. 1 all-season. It is considered by many as the greatest I-AA team (now Football Championship Subdivision) of all time.

MU moved to Division I-A and the Mid-American Conference in 1997. Marshall won the MAC title five of its eight seasons (1997-98-99-2000-2002) and were runners up in 2001 in the conference before moving to Conference USA in 2005. Since moving to Division I-A, Marshall is 5-2 in bowl games and has finished in the Top 25 three times: 1999 (10th AP/10th coaches' poll), 2001 (21st coaches poll), 2002 (24th AP/19th coaches poll). Marshall fell to Ole Miss in the 1997 Motor City Bowl, 34-31, but won the next three games in Michigan's Pontiac Silverdome, beating Louisville 48-29 in 1998, beating No. 25 BYU 21-3 in 1999 to finish 13-0 and beating Cincinnati in 2000, 25-14. Marshall and East Carolina matched-up in one of college football's greatest bowl games in 2001 at the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, a 64-61 double overtime win by the Herd over the Pirates of Conference USA. It is the highest scoring bowl game of all-time, and MU rallied from an 38-8 halftime hole behind Leftwich's five touchdown passes. Marshall would fall to the Bearcats in the 2004 Plains Capital Fort Worth Bowl at TCU's Carter-Amon Stadium, 32-14, in Bob Pruett's final game as head coach.

Marshall plays at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, which seats 38,019. The stadium, which opened for the 1991 season as Marshall University Stadium with a Marshall record crowd of 33,133 for a 24-23 win over New Hampshire, hosted a record crowd of 40,383 on September 8, 2007, when the Thundering Herd played the in-state rival West Virginia Mountaineers in Huntington for the first time in 92 years. On a facade on the stadium's west side is a bronze memorial dedicated to the plane-crash victims. Edwards Stadium is the only Division I field named for a woman, and Mrs. Edwards husband, James F. Edwards, has his name on the actual playing field.

Marshall has three players in the College Football Hall of Fame, starting with Harry "Cy" Young, who starred in football and baseball at Marshall College (University status in 1961) from 1910-1912. Young then left Marshall, a normal school at that time (two-year program for educating secondary teachers - Marshall began granting four-year degrees in 1920) and was a two-sport All-American at Washington & Lee. He is a member of the W&L HOF, MU HOF, WV Sportswriters HOF and Virginia Sports HOF besides the College FB HOF. Mike Barber (1985-88) was a record-setting receiver for Marshall who helped lead the Herd to its first I-AA title game in 1987 and its first Southern Conference title in 1988. He still holds the receiving yardage record at MU with over 4,200 yards and was a two-time All-American before he was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the fourth round in 1989. Barber also played for the Arizona Cardinals and Cincinnati Bengals. Jackie Hunt (1939-41) set a national scoring record in 1940 with 27 touchdowns in a ten-game season. He rushed for nearly 4,000 yards for Thundering Herd, a hometown star for the Huntington High Pony Express before joining Marshall. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears and was a two-time All-American, playing in the Blue-Gray Game following his career. There is a plaque at the College Football Hall of Fame in honor of those lost in the 1970 crash, and assistant coach of that MU team, Frank Loria, is in the Hall of Fame for his career at Virginia Tech. One other member of the Hall has a Marshall connection. John Maulbetsch was an All-American at Michigan, but coached at Marshall from 1929-1930 and posted an 8-8-2 record including a win and tie with Louisville.

Men's Basketball

See also : Marshall Thundering Herd Men's Basketball

The current head coach of the men's basketball team is Donnie Jones, who led Marshall to a 16-14 record in his first season of 2007-08. It was Marshall's first winning season since 2000-01.

The legendary coach of the Thundering Herd was Cam Henderson. Henderson, acknowledged as the creator of the modern fast-break and zone defense, won 358 games against just 158 losses between 1935-1955. Henderson led Marshall to three consecutive Buckeye Conference titles from 1936-39, but his greatest team was the 1946-47 team. They set a Marshall school record with 32 wins in a season; a 17-0 start to the season; a 35-game home winning streak; and won the National Championship in the National Association for Intercollegiate Basketball (today's NAIA) in Kansas City in 1947, sweeping five games in six days. Marshall also played in the NAIB Tournament in 1938 and 1948, losing in the quarterfinals. His 1947-48 team won the Helms Foundation Los Angeles Invitational with a 46-44 win over Syracuse, the same year Henderson coached the Marshall football team to the second-ever Tangerine Bowl.

Andy Tonkovich, who played on that team, was the First Draft pick of the 1948 NBA Draft by Providence. Center Charlie Slack set a still NCAA record of 25.6 rebounds per game for Henderson's final team in 1954-55. Tonkovich, Gene "Goose" James, Bill Hall were First Team NAIB All-Americans in 1947, joined by Bill Toothman on the second team and Marvin Gutshall on honorable mention, meaning all five starters were on the All-American team. Tonkovich repeated on the second team in 1948. Walt Walowac was a first team Helms Foundation Small College All-American for Henderson in 1953, and was third team on the Helms squad in 1954.

Henderson recorded wins over such marquee programs as Syracuse, Virginia, Memphis, Virginia Tech, Pepperdine, Xavier, Dayton, Louisville (No. 19 in the nation in 1950, a 96-72 Marshall win), Indiana State (Henderson was 2-1 versus John Wooden, when the UCLA legend was coaching the Sycamores), BYU, Idaho, Hawaii, Cincinnati, Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Loyola, Maryland, Miami-Fla., Denver, St. Francis, Wichita State, Colorado, Cal, CCNY, Long Island Univ., South Carolina and St. Louis. His 1954-55 team was second in the Mid-American Conference, but was denied a berth in the NIT by the league (in the wake of the cheating scandals in New York and other college spots in the early 1950s.

Henderson's first basketball All-American, Jule Rivlin, led the 1955-56 Herd to its only MAC title and first-ever NCAA Tournament. Rivlin's 1958 Herd led the nation in scoring, with Hal Greer and Leo Byrd, scoring 88.1 points per game and topping the Jerry West-led Mountaineers of West Virginia University who averaged 88.0 points per game. Byrd was an All-American in 1959, first team on the Chuck Taylor/Converse team and second team on UPI and Helms Foundation. Henderson and Tonkovich are both members of the Helms Foundation NAIA Hall of Fame.

Marshall was coached to the NIT by Ellis Johnson (the first All-American for legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp) in 1967, advancing to the Final Four thanks in part to George Stone scoring 46 points versus Nebraska before his five-years in the ABA, and back in 1968 behind point guard Danny D'Antoni.

Carl Tacy coached the Herd to a 23-4 season in 1971-72, losing to Southwest Louisiana, 112-101 in the NCAA Tournament. Marshall was ranked at high at No. 8 in the nation that season, and finished 12th in the nation. Russell Lee was a Converse All-American in 1972, and was selected in the first round of the ABA Draft and second round by the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA, playing for that team for a couple of seasons.

Bob Daniels was the Herd coach beginning in the 1972-73 season for the NIT appearance. Mike D'Antoni was the point guard for the NCAA Tournament team in 1972 and the NIT team in 1973, and was a CoSIDA Academic All-American both seasons and awarded an NCAA post-graduate scholarship. He was drafted by the Royals, played four seasons in the NBA before moving to greater glory in the Italian League, winning titles as a player and coach. Kobe Bryant wore No. 8 his first few seasons in the NBA because that's the number D'Antoni wore when he played with Kobe's father in Italy.

Rick Huckabay led Marshall to four Southern Conference titles, three NCAA Tournaments and an NIT berth from 1983-89. John Taft and Skip Henderson were both recruited by Huckabay and are one-two in scoring at Marshall all-time.

Marshall has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1987, and is 0-5 all-time in "The Big Dance." The Thundering Herd last played in the NIT in 1988, but is 2-5 all-time in NIT games in 1967-1068-1973-1988. Marshall won the NAIA title in 1947, and is 7-2 all-time in the first collegiate basketball tournament, one year older than the NIT and four years older than the NCAA Tournament.

Notable former Marshall basketball players include Hall of Famer Hal Greer and Mike D'Antoni, formerly of the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns (NBA Coach of the Year for 2004-05) and now the new head coach of the New York Knicks. Greer was named NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1968, one year after leading the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA title.

University of Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan coached the Thundering Herd from 1994-96. West Virginia native Jason Williams started his college career at Marshall after originally signing with Providence, being part of the Herd basketball team for two seasons (sitting out one as a transfer) for the Thundering Herd before transferring to Florida to play a season for Donovan. Donnie Jones was an assistant for first Dwight Freeman, then Donovan at Marshall and followed Donovan to UF as an assistant until taking the Marshall job in 2007 after the Gators won back-to-back NCAA Titles. Other assistants from the Florida/Marshall pipeline included Anthony Grant, who is head coach at VCU, and John Pelphrey, formerly head coach of South Alabama and current second-year head coach at Arkansas.

Keith Veney set an NCAA record with 15 three-pointers in Marshall's Henderson Center arena against Morehead State University on December 14, 1996, for new head coach Greg White, who was Marshall's point guard from 1977-81. White followed in the great Marshall tradition of outstanding players from the Mullens, W.Va., area including both Mike and Danny D'Antoni and their uncle, Andy D'Antoni, a Marshall quarterback for Henderson in 1938-40.

White's freshman team advanced to the school's first conference title game in 1978, falling to Furman in the title game under charismatic coach Stu Aberdeen. Bob Zuffelato took the Herd to the SC finals in 1979-80, falling again to Furman, after Aberdeen died during the summer of 1979 while on vacation. White's senior season saw Marshall post its first-ever win over West Virginia University at the Coliseum in Morgantown, W.Va. Marshall won the first game played in Huntington in 1982-83 and was 5-0 versus the Mountaineers in Huntington before the series moved permanently to the Charleston Civic Center in the state capital.

White coached his first Marshall team to its final SC Tournament title game in 1996-97, falling to UT-Chattanooga on a last-second stick-back. Marshall joined the Mid-American Conference for the second time in 1997-98, and the Herd was 21-9 in 1999-2000 under White, falling the MAC semi-finals to Miami, Ohio. Ron Jirsa coached Marshall from 2003-07 after White stepped down to become head coach at Division II University of Charleston (W.Va.), as well as a special assistant to the President of UC. He is currently overseeing a new basketball building for the Golden Eagles.