Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2017
Bob Gray retired in November of 2016 after 22 seasons as the Marshall head coach. He finished as the third-winningest active college coach in the nation with a record of 445-268-60 (.614), with 190 of those victories coming with the Thundering Herd. At the conclusion of Gray’s career, only 22 college head coaches had ever amassed more victories – and only 10 of those had coached at the NCAA Division I level. In his time at Marshall, 79 of Gray’s players received all-conference honors and six players received conference specialty awards, including 2012 Conference USA Player of the Year Daniel Withrow and two-time (2000 and 2002) Mid-American Conference Player of the Year Byron Carmichael.
His players also excelled in the classroom, racking up 156 selections on the Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll for a GPA of 3.0 or better during an academic year, and 31 C-USA Academic Medalists for a GPA of 3.75 or higher during an academic year. Gray has also been very involved in youth soccer, serving as director of the West Virginia Rowdies organization, which won several state championships. In 2004, he was appointed to the United State Soccer Federation national instructional staff.
As a student-athlete at Alderson Broaddus, the New Jersey native played both soccer and baseball.
Gray is a member of the Alderson Broaddus Athletic Hall of Fame (1993), the NAIA Hall of Fame (1998) and the West Virginia Soccer Association Hall of Fame (2015). He was named his conference’s coach of the year eight times, including three at Marshall (2000 in the Mid-American Conference and 2005 and 2009 in Conference USA). His teams reached the Conference USA championship match in 2009 and 2015.
Gray served as President of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, and while coaching at Mobile was named the 1991 NAIA National Coach of the Year.
Gray was inducted into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017.
