Charlie Slack (1985) - Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame

Charlie Slack

Induction:
1985
Class:
1956

Recruited to Marshall by football Coach Pete Pederson after Cam Henderson gave up his gridiron duties, Charlie Slack was injured during the fall of 1952 and Henderson suggested that the Pomeroy, Ohio, native give basketball a try – and a star was born. A 6-foot-5 forward, Slack not only led Marshall in rebounding all four years he played from 1952-56, but his four single-season rebounding averages are the four best in school history. Slack averaged 16.3 rebounds per game as a freshman, 22.1 as a sophomore, and then set the still-standing NCAA record as he pulled down 25.6 per game as a junior in the 1954-55 campaign. As a senior, Slack helped rookie Coach Jule Rivlin and Marshall win the Mid-American Conference championship and receive the school’s first NCAA Tournament berth as he averaged 23.6 rebounds per game.

Slack won first team All-MAC honors as a junior and senior, and his career total of 1,916 rebounds remains the third-best total in NCAA history, while his career average of 21.8 per game is the best for any four-year player in college history. His 43 rebounds in a win over Morris Harvey College on Jan. 12, 1954, is still the second-best mark in NCAA history. Slack wasn’t just a rebounder – he also scored 1,551 points for Marshall, which was the third-best total in school history at the conclusion of his career, and led the team as a senior with an average of 22.5 points per game.

Slack was chosen by the Fort Wayne Pistons with the 22nd overall selection of the 1956 NBA Draft, but chose instead to play with the Goodyear Akron Wingfoots in the National Industrial Basketball League, a team for which he played several seasons and helped to the 1964 AAU National Championship. He was an AAU All-American in 1960 and named to the league All-Star Team three times. He was an alternate for the 1960 U.S. Olympic Team. Slack was enshrined in the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and his No. 17 jersey was retired by Marshall in 2000. He was inducted into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985.