Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1985
- Class:
- 1942
Few, if any, have provided Marshall University with more years of distinguished and varied service than Dr. Sam Clagg. A Huntington High School product, Clagg was a lineman – along with his brother Harry – for Coach Cam Henderson’s football teams that went 8-2 in 1940 – leading the nation in scoring at 33.4 points per game – and 7-1 in 1941, a year that included a 16-6 upset of Wake Forest University at Fairfield Stadium. Clagg then served as a team captain for Henderson as a senior in 1942.
Clagg then served as a first lieutenant for the U.S. Marines in the Pacific theater and China during World War II before becoming an assistant coach for Coach Eddie King at Morris Harvey College and then Bear Bryant at the University of Kentucky before returning to Marshall to assist Henderson. Clagg earned a master’s degree at Marshall and a doctorate from Kentucky, kept working as an assistant football coach and restarted and coached the Marshall wrestling program, and eventually stopped coaching to concentrate on his duties as a professor of geography at the school.
Dr. Clagg was the chairman of the geography department from 1961 until his retirement in 1986, served for 16 years as chairman of the University Council – the most influential faculty group on campus – and was Marshall’s interim president for nearly a year in 1983-84. Along with former Marshall Athletic Director Whitey Wilson, Clagg co-founded the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984 and served as a member of the Hall of Fame Committee until his death in 2014. Clagg’s honors include an honorary Doctor of Pedagogy degree from Marshall, an outstanding faculty award from the West Virginia legislature and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Marshall Alumni Association. He authored several books including The Cam Henderson Story and large portions of the West Virginia Atlas and the West Virginia Historical Almanac. Clagg was inducted into the Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame in 1985.
