Hall of Fame
These seven players and Coach Rick Tolley were part of Ferrum's undefeated (10-0) team that won the 1968 National Junior College Athletic Association football national championship: Thomas Wayne Brown, David Dearing Griffith, Patrick Jay Norrell, James Robert Patterson, Arthur Kirk Shannon, Jerry Dodson Stainback, Jr., Thomas Jonathan Zborill, Coach Rick D. Tolley.
The Ferrum College Alumni Sports Hall of Fame, in recognition of the ideals of character, achievement, and competitive spirit, offered a memorial tribute in its inaugural year to these men whose lives ended when the plane carrying the 1970 Marshall University football team went down over Huntington, West Virginia, in November 1970.
Each year Ferrum College awards in their memory The Big Green Award, which goes to a member of the Panther football team who best displays leadership qualities of “courage, hustle, and desire.”
