Inaugural Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame class announced

Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke unveiled the inaugural class of the Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame on Thursday, and the 16 inductees include some of the all-time greats from the university’s football, basketball, baseball, track and field, swimming, and gymnastics teams.

“I love to remind people that Pitt could have its own wing in so many different halls of fame,” Lyke said in a statement. “Our athletic history is that rich and accomplished. I certainly tasked the selection committee with a huge challenge in trying to pare down 150 years of history for this inaugural class. In looking at our many deserving candidates, it is obvious that this 2018 group will be the first of many legendary Hall of Fame classes at Pitt.”

The football team was best represented, with eight inductees. The track and field team came in second in terms of representation, with four. Meanwhile, the men’s basketball team saw a low total of three players inducted, despite its status as one of the school’s most visible programs.

The full list of inductees organized by sport can be seen below:

Football

• Henry Clifford “Doc” Carlson
• Mike Ditka
• Tony Dorsett
• Bill Fralic
• Marshall Goldberg
• Hugh Green
• Dan Marino
• John Bain “Jock” Sutherland

Track and Field

• Herb Douglas
• Trecia-Kaye Smith
• Roger Kingdom
• John Woodruff

Basketball

• Henry Clifford “Doc” Carlson
• Billy Knight
• Charles Smith

Baseball

• Henry Clifford “Doc” Carlson

Gymnastics

• Lisa Shirk

Swimming

• Kathy Stetler

Doc Carlson, a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame who is most famous for his 31 seasons as the head coach of the Pitt men’s basketball program, is counted three times on the above list, as he also played baseball, basketball and football as a student-athlete from 1914 to 1917 in addition to coaching the Panthers basketball team from 1922 to 1953.

Carlson was one of four posthumous inductees into the Hall of Fame. The other three were Marshall Goldberg and Jock Sutherland, one of the principal figures in the Dream Backfield of the 1930s and a football coach responsible for back-to-back national championships, and track and field star John Woodruff, a gold medalist in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

Carlson, Goldberg, Sutherland and Woodruff will be inducted in a formal ceremony at the Petersen Events Center on Sept. 7, along with the 12 living members of the inaugural class. The inductees will also be honored during the Pitt-Penn State game at Heinz Field on Sept. 8.