Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2003
- Class:
- 1901
When Marshall decided to get serious about its athletic program, the school hired alumnus Boyd Chambers to organize and run the fledgling operation. A Huntington native, Chambers had played football and baseball as a student from 1900-02. In 1908 he was hired by Marshall as the school’s first paid athletic director and coach, taking over the football, basketball and baseball teams. Chambers led Marshall from the era of playing area high school teams to competing only against intercollegiate competition and spearheaded a federation of state colleges in an attempt to set standardized scheduling and eligibility rules, a group that was a forerunner to what eventually became the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. He created a fenced-in field on campus, with seating for approximately 1,000 fans, began charging admission fees to Marshall events, and in 1916 put numbers on the team uniforms to help fans identify the players.
Nicknamed “Fox,” Chambers famously invented the trick play known as the “Tower Pass” to score an unlikely touchdown against heavily favored West Virginia University in 1915. After leaving Marshall, Chambers became the athletic director, head football and head basketball coach at the University of Cincinnati and later owned a sporting goods store, officiated college football games and became a scout for the Cincinnati Reds. Chambers was inducted into the Cincinnati Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977 and the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.
