Bradley Workman (2004) - Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame

Bradley Workman

Induction:
2004
Class:
1919

Known most famously as the man who threw the “Tower Pass” in 1915, Bradley Workman was one of the greatest of all Marshall athletes in the school’s early years of intercollegiate competition. One of five football-playing brothers in Huntington, including older brother Hoge, who was an All-American quarterback at Ohio State and pitched for the Boston Red Sox, Bradley stayed to play for the hometown school, also as a standout on the baseball and football fields. On Nov. 6, 1915, Marshall was such an underdog against West Virginia University that few gave Coach Boyd Chambers’ team a chance to even score. But late in the game, Marshall moved within passing distance of the end zone and Chambers, aptly nicknamed “Fox,” called for a trick play on which Workman dodged defenders to buy time while end Dayton “Runt” Carter ran into the end zone and climbed onto the shoulders of tackle Okey Taylor. Workman then lofted a pass that Carter caught high above the defenders, infuriating the Mountaineers and Coach Sol Metzger. The following season Workman set a still-standing school record by scoring six touchdowns in a 101-0 win over Kentucky Wesleyan. Marshall did not field a team in 1918 because of World War I, but Workman returned to help the team go 8-0 in 1919, a season in which Marshall outscored its opponents by a combined margin of 302-13. Workman was inducted into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.