Marshall Thundering Herd

Marshall Thundering Herd
University Marshall University
Conference Conference USA
NCAA Division I
Athletic director Mike Hamrick
Location Huntington, West Virginia
Varsity teams 15
Football stadium Joan C. Edwards Stadium
Basketball arena Cam Henderson Center
Baseball stadium Appalachian Power Park
Soccer stadium Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex
Mascot Marco the Buffalo
Nickname Thundering Herd
Fight song Sons of Marshall
Colors Green and White[1]
         
Website www.herdzone.com

The Marshall Thundering Herd are the intercollegiate athletic teams that collectively represent the Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Thundering Herd athletic teams compete in Conference USA, which are members of the NCAA Division I. Sports at the school include women's softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and volleyball; men's baseball and football; and teams for both genders in basketball, cross country, golf, and soccer.

Teams

A member of Conference USA, Marshall sponsors teams in six men's and ten women's NCAA sanctioned sports:[2]

Football

The Thundering Herd football team is led by head coach Doc Holliday.

Crash

The November 14, 1970, plane crash that killed all 75 passengers on board, including 37 members of the Thundering Herd football team, is well documented. The event and its aftermath were depicted in the 2006 Warner Brothers motion picture, We Are Marshall, starring Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox.

Men's basketball

Marshall Thundering Herd men's basketball team is led by head coach Dan D'Antoni.

Baseball

Baseball at Marshall has long been handicapped by a lack of facilities, being the only sport at the university without a proper facility on or near campus. However, the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft brought significant notoriety to the Marshall Thundering Herd baseball team as Aaron Blair, a 6' 5", 230 right handed pitcher became the highest player ever drafted out of Marshall when the Arizona Diamondbacks selected Blair with the 36th pick of the 1st round on June 6, 2013. .[3]

Club sports

Marshall also fields club teams, not affiliated with the Athletic Department, in rugby union for both women and men, men's ice hockey, and a men's lacrosse team.

Rivalries

Marshall's biggest rivalries are out of conference with Ohio University, Miami University. East Carolina University and University of Central Florida.

Facilities

Joan C. Edwards Stadium

Joan C. Edwards Stadium

Marshall plays football at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, which seats 38,019. The stadium, which opened for the 1991 season as Marshall University Stadium with a then-record crowd of 33,116 for a 24–23 win over New Hampshire, hosted a record crowd of 41,382 on September 10, 2010, when the Thundering Herd played the in-state rival West Virginia Mountaineers. On a facade on the stadium's west side is a bronze memorial dedicated to the 1970 plane-crash victims.

In 2003, Marshall renamed its stadium, honoring a major donor, Joan C. Edwards to the university and its athletic program. The facility became the first football stadium in Division I-A to be named after a woman; Mrs. Edwards husband, James F. Edwards, has his name on the actual playing field.

Also in 2003, Marshall University, under much scrutiny, disbanded its men's track & field program, expressing financial concerns with the school's 2005 move from MAC to Conference USA. Since that time it has been demonstrated that men's track paid for itself due to the students paying for the majority of their schooling. In May 2007, the track on campus was closed to make way for the new recreation center, and since that time the women's track and field team has trained and competed without a track of its own.[4]

Cam Henderson Center

The Cam Henderson Center

Both men's and women's basketball are played at the 9,048-seat Cam Henderson Center, named for the innovative coach who guided the school's basketball team from 1935 to 1955 and football from 1935–49. Henderson is the coach who developed the fast break, the zone defense and even the "King Drill" warm-up made famous by the Harlem Globetrotters. Henderson won 358 games against just 158 losses as basketball coach. Henderson's 1946-47 team finished that season with a school-record 32-5 mark, and captured the 1947 NAIB (today's NAIA) National Championship in Kansas City, Kansas. In football, he coached the Herd to the Buckeye Conference title in 1937 and then to the second-ever Tangerine Bowl on Jan. 1, 1948, falling to Catawba College 7–0. Henderson won 68 games as football coach.

2012 expansion project

In 2012 MU announced a multi-step expansion project, contingent on fund raising. MU accepted ownership of the Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse located five blocks from campus. The facility was demolished and replaced by the Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex, a soccer specific stadium which opened in August 2013. MU's former soccer facility next to Joan C. Edwards Stadium, Sam Hood Field, was replaced by the Chris Cline Athletic Complex, a $25 million indoor football practice facility, track, and physical therapy research center that opened in September 2014. MU legends Chad Pennington and Mike D'Antoni are heading up fund raising for the effort.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Electronic Branding Standards Manual – Marshall University". Retrieved 2016-03-24.
  2. ↑ "M The Herd". CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Blair Selected with 36th pick by Diamondbacks". Herdzone.com. June 6, 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Marshall University Board of Governors votes unanimously to approve construction of student recreation center and two new residence halls", 2007, accessed February 02, 2011.
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