Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2016
- Class:
- 1978
The mid-1970s Marshall defenses were on the field a lot, and they would have been on the field a lot more if it weren’t for Bill Yanossy. Recruited to Marshall by Jack Lengyel’s staff out of Bradenville, Pa, Yanossy had been an all-conference performer in both football and track & field at Derry Area High School, where he set the Pennsylvania state record with a javelin throw of 195 feet, 3 inches.
After amassing 49 tackles during his freshman season as an undersized defensive end, the 6-foot, 215-pound Yanossy moved to linebacker and logged 157 tackles as a sophomore, 148 as a junior and another 117 as a senior captain for the 1976 Thundering Herd. That ’76 team registered one of the biggest wins in Marshall history when it knocked off No. 20 Miami (Ohio), 21-16, giving the Thundering Herd its first victory over the Redskins since Cam Henderson’s 1939 team had beaten Miami. His 471 career tackles remained the Marshall career record until 1994 and are still No. 2 in school history.
A double major with degrees in Mathematics and Spanish, Yanossy did not throw the javelin in the springs of 1976 and 1977 because of injuries, but then set the all-time Marshall record and won the Southern Conference championship in the spring of 1978 with a throw of 226 feet, 0.5 inches, helping the Herd to a third-place finish at the conference meet. After graduating from Marshall he became a teacher and school administrator in Madison County, Fla. Yanossy was inducted into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016.
