UP FRONT

A long-overdue honor was celebrated at the recent Marshall-Western Kentucky men’s basketball game as a model of a statue depicting Marshall Basketball trailblazer Hal Greer was unveiled at halftime.

The sculpture, created by Huntington sculptor Frederick Hightower, shows Greer in the midst of launching his typical one-handed jumper.

The finished statue will stand over seven feet tall and will be placed adjacent to the Henderson Center near the corner of 3rd Avenue and 18th Street.

Greer, who has a Huntington street named for him, might be called the “Jackie Robinson” of college athletics in West Virginia as he came out of Huntington’s Douglass High School and became the mountain state’s first African-American scholarship athlete at a predominately-white school. That scholarship offer was made by legendary Marshall coach Cam Henderson, but Greer eventually played for Henderson’s successor, Jule Rivlin.

After his Marshall career, which included Marshall’s first NCAA Tournament trip in 1956, Greer entered the NBA, where he played for the Syracuse Nats, who eventually became the Philadelphia 76ers. When the NBA celebrated its 50th birthday, Greer was honored as one of the league’s 50 greatest players of all time.

He is a member of both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame.

Greer died last April at age 81.

Appropriately, Greer’s family was on hand for the unveiling of the model, including his widow, Mayme, his daughters Kelly and Cherie, son Harold Jr. and his sister Jean.

A fundraising campaign is now being spearheaded by the Big Green to pay for the Hal Greer statue. If you’d like to help, you can visit HerdZone.com or call the Big Green at 304-696-4661. The Big Green offices are located at 1900 3rd Avenue on the left side of the City National Bank building.

------------

The 2019 Marshall Football schedule has been released and it can be truly called “fan friendly”.

It’s also a high-quality schedule, as half of the teams on it took part in recent 2018 bowl games.

The slate features seven home games, starting on August 31st when the Herd hosts an old Southern Conference rival, the Keydets of VMI.

Other non-conference opponents coming to Joan C. Edwards Stadium in September are another old rival, the Ohio Bobcats, and the University of Cincinnati Bearcats, one of the top “Group of 5” conference teams from this past season. The Ohio series has been dormant for three seasons, but the Bobcats will once again be a regular part of Marshall schedules.

Conference USA opponents visiting Huntington this season include Old Dominion on October 12th, Western Kentucky on October 26th, Louisiana Tech on November 16th and FIU on November 30th.

Marshall’s lone non-conference road game will be a major test as the Herd travels west to face perennial Mountain West Conference contender Boise State on September 7th.

Conference USA road trips for Marshall this season will be to Middle Tennessee on October 5th, Florida Atlantic on October 19th, Rice on November 2nd and Charlotte on November 23rd.

The Conference USA Championship Game is scheduled for December 7th.

The slate contains two off weeks and Marshall is benefitted by not being forced to play consecutive road games.

-------------

In 2017, Marshall Head Football Coach Doc Holliday said he didn’t plan to ink many players on the first December early signing day and Holliday was true to his word, as MU announced no December signings. Marshall eventually signed 24 players in the February in a highly-touted class. Many of those signed were ignored by many schools looking to make a recruiting haul in December.

Fast forward to this past December. Marshall has seemingly become a fan of the early signing period, as the Herd signed 17 players. The group included three W.Va. standouts---George Washington quarterback/punter Grant Wells, Morgantown University wide receiver Amir Richardson and Wheeling Park offensive lineman Tristen Bittner.

The prizes of the class are highly touted linebacker Deshawn Page from Knoxville, Tennessee and junior college offensive lineman Josh Ball.

Plenty of praise to the entire Marshall football staff as they handled the business of early signing day on December 19th in Tampa, Fla., just a day before facing South Florida in the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl.

Despite the high number of December signees, Coach Holliday and his staff will sign a few more players in the February period, players who will most likely be redshirted this fall and be developed for future greatness while wearing the Kelly Green and White.