Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1986
- Class:
- 1950
When Bob Koontz’s career came to a close in 1951, he was the second-leading scorer in the history of Marshall basketball. Recruited by Cam Henderson out of Huntington East High School, where he received West Virginia All-State honors in football, basketball and baseball, he played all three sports at Marshall but stood out most on the basketball court, where he received All-Ohio Valley Conference recognition. As a freshman, Koontz began his career as a starting end for Henderson’s football team that garnered the school’s first bowl invitation when it went 9-2 and played in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla. But Henderson had committed his basketball team – which had won the previous year’s NAIB National Championship – to play in a basketball tournament in Los Angeles at the same time as the bowl game. Henderson, Koontz and another football starter, Norm Willey, went to California for the basketball tournament and the football team, coached by assistant Roy Straight, lost the bowl game to Catawba College, 7-0.
Koontz played two seasons of football and one year for the Marshall baseball team, but the basketball court became his main stage. Koontz helped the Herd return to the NAIB National Tournament as a freshman and over the course of his career helped the team to a 66-47 record as the team’s top scoring threat. He finished his career with 1,453 points, at that time second only to Andy Tonkavich on the Marshall charts. In his senior season Koontz helped Marshall open the new Veterans Memorial Field House with a team-high 24 points in an 84-34 win over Fairmont State. After graduating from Marshall, Koontz became the basketball coach at Vinson High School and later a school superintendent in Melbourne, Fla. Koontz was inducted into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986.
