MORGANTOWN — As athletic and physical as Kevin Jones was on a basketball court, the former WVU star said he was never cut out for football.
“Yeah, I saw the beating those guys took in football while growing up,” Jones said Saturday, after it was announced he was part of an eight-member class for the WVU Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2022. “I really didn’t want any part of that. Basketball was physical enough for me.”
It is an interesting notion, because while Jones was a standout for the Mountaineers from 2008-2012, the WVU football team was setting records and creating memories at that same time that are still held in such high esteem.
While Geno Smith lit up the scoreboard with 98 career touchdown passes, Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey were filling up highlight reels and blazing their own school records.
“Looking back on it now, it was truly a great four years at West Virginia,” Jones said. “Not just for basketball, but the football team did so many great things. There was so much excitement the entire year and fans were all into it for everything. That excitement carried over from football to basketball and it was just a crazy time to be sure.”
Jones helped guide the Mountaineers to the 2010 Final Four, while Smith, Austin and Bailey led the Mountaineers to an impressive 70-33 victory against Clemson in the 2012 Orange Bowl and then marched WVU into the Big 12.
All four athletes will be ushered into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame from an era that has yet to be duplicated.
“It was such a great time, obviously,” Jones said. “It means so much to me. I’m certainly happy to be among the names in this class, because I know our time at WVU meant so much to a lot of people.”
Induction ceremonies are scheduled for Sept. 17, prior to kickoff for the WVU-Towson football game.
They will be joined by four others: Donna Abbott (women’s basketball), Marie-Louise Asselin (cross country/track), Marsha Beasley (rifle coach) and Marilee Hohmann (rifle).
This class brings the total number of inductees to 223.
Donna Abbott
Abbott, who played women’s basketball from 1989-92, is one of three players in school history to score more than 1,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds.
A native of Huntington, Abbott scored 1,656 points during her career as a forward, ranking ninth all-time in school history. She averaged 15.3 points per game during her career, the ninth-best scoring mark in school annals.
Abbott appeared in 108 games with 103 starts and finished her career with 1,020 rebounds. She scored a then-school record 37 points against St. Joseph’s in 1989 and pulled in a career-best 20 rebounds against Rhode Island in 1992.
She produced 25 20-point games, which are tied for the ninth most in school history and had 52 career double-doubles in points and rebounds, the second most in WVU history.
Abbott played on WVU’s first two NCAA tournament teams (1989 and 1992).
The 1989 squad won WVU’s first conference tournament title (Atlantic 10) and the 1992 NCAA Sweet 16 team went 26-4, winning the Atlantic 10 regular-season title and posting a school-record 22 straight wins. She helped WVU to an 86-34 (.717) record during her four-year career.
Abbott graduated from WVU with a bachelor’s degree in physical education.
Marie-Louise Asselin
Asselin earned seven All-America honors — three in cross-country and four in track — during her running career from 2006-10.
A native of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, Asselin became only one of two WVU runners to earn three All-America honors in cross-country when she did so in 2009.
Her success continued into the track season, as she posted a second-place finish in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships and a second-place finish in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Her indoor 5,000-meter time currently sits as the WVU program record.
In 2008, she helped lead WVU to its most successful season in school history, as the Mountaineers finished fourth at the NCAA Cross-Country Championships, first at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals and second at the Big East Championship.
She became WVU’s first female Big East cross-country champion and placed 17th at the NCAA Championships with a time.
Asselin earned her first All-America honor as a sophomore in 2007, finishing 17th in cross-country.
Asselin graduated from WVU with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
Tavon Austin
Austin, a multi-year All-American and WVU’s career leader in all-purpose yards, was considered one of college football’s most explosive all-purpose players from 2009-12.
Appearing in 52 games and starting 38, the Baltimore native was a 2012 first-team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association and Associated Press, while becoming the first player in NCAA history to finish with more than 3,000 career receiving yards and rushed for more than 1,000 yards.
He earned the Paul Hornung Award for most versatile player in the nation and the Jet Award Return Specialist winner in 2012.
As a senior, Austin earned seven first-team All-America honors as an all-purpose player and three second-team honors as a wide receiver.
Austin is the only player in NCAA history to score a touchdown four different ways in one season (catch, rush, kick and punt return).
He passed Avon Cobourne and Noel Devine and set WVU’s all-purpose yards record at 7,286 yards. He also established WVU’s career reception record at 288 and became WVU’s career receiving yards leader with 3,413 yards.
He set WVU’s single-game record with 14 catches against Baylor and shattered WVU’s single-game all-purpose yards record with a 572-yard performance vs. Oklahoma, including a school-record 344 yards rushing.
Austin ranks second in career touchdown receptions (29), season touchdown receptions (12) and 100-plus receiving-yard games (13).
He was selected in the first round with the eighth pick in the 2013 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Rams. Austin played for the Rams until 2017, then Dallas (2018-19), San Francisco (2020), Green Bay (2020), Jacksonville (2021) and Buffalo (2022-present).
Stedman Bailey
Bailey was a three-year starter at wide receiver who earned All-America honors in 2012 and was a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award that year.
The native of Miramar, Fla. played in 39 career games from 2010-12, starting 34. In his final season, he was one of three finalists for the Biletnikoff Award and was named a first-team All-American by the Football Writers’ Association of America, CBSSports.com, Phil Steele and SI.com.
Bailey’s 25 touchdown receptions in 2012 tied for second all-time in FBS history with Randy Moss. At the end of his career, he owned the school record for consecutive 100-yard receiving games (five) and most career 100-yard receiving games (14). Bailey set the WVU career touchdown reception record (41) with five against Baylor and set the Big 12 season record with 25. He finished with a career-best 303 yards receiving in that Baylor contest, including a career-long 87-yard touchdown reception.
He matched WVU’s single-game record with 14 catches against Oklahoma State and finished his career second on WVU’s all-time list with 3,218 receiving yards. Bailey finished second in career receptions with 210.
Bailey concluded 2012 ranked first in the Big 12 in receptions per game (8.8), second in receiving yards (124.8) and third in all-purpose yards (137.0). He finished the season ranked third nationally in scoring, receiving yards per game and receptions and was 25th in all-purpose yards.
Bailey finished his career with 41 touchdowns, scoring 246 points.
He decided to forgo his senior season at WVU and was drafted in the third round with the 92nd pick in the 2013 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Rams.
He graduated from WVU in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in multidisciplinary studies.
Marsha Beasley
Beasley served as head coach of the rifle team for 16 seasons from 1990 and 2006 and led the squad to eight NCAA titles.
Beasley compiled 14 winning seasons in her first 14 years with the Mountaineers, including nine undefeated campaigns. Her record after 14 seasons was 146-8.
She guided 28 student-athletes to 119 All-America honors and coached eight individual NCAA champions and four Olympians, including Ann-Marie Pfiffner, who qualified for the 1992 Olympics while a WVU student.
Beasley earned numerous coaching awards and honors: 1997 National Coach of the Year for shooting by the United States Olympic Committee, 1993 National Rifle Association Coach of the Year, 1996 West Virginia State Sportswriters Coach of the Year, 1998 West Virginia College Coach of the Year by the West Virginia Girls and Women in Sports Association, 2003 Distinguished Service to Collegiate Shooting Sports honoree and a 2005 Celebrate Women Award honoree by the West Virginia Women’s Commission.
Beasley is a graduate of East Tennessee State and later earned a master’s degree in sport management at WVU. She competed in smallbore and air rifle while in college. Later as a member of the U.S. national team, she was a two-time international gold medalist.
Marilee Hohmann
Hohmann was the first female athlete to compete on any WVU athletic team in 1961, 11 years before Title IX became federal law.
The Fairmont native competed on the WVU rifle team from 1961-62, coached by Major Charles Means and Sgt. Charles Haley. She became the first woman ever to compete in an athletic competition at the United States Military Academy at West Point. At the time, the Academy was an all-male institution and a special dressing room arrangement had to be made.
Her exploits as a modern-day Annie Oakley were published in numerous media outlets – Sports Illustrated, The New York Times and Stars and Stripes, the newspaper that serves the U.S. Military community.
During that 1961-62 season, Hohmann had the fourth-highest average, 283, on WVU’s defending national championship rifle squad.
Hohmann attended East Fairmont, where she was a majorette and Maid of Marion. She captured a national rifle championship at Camp Perry, Ohio, in 1959, at the age of 16.
At WVU, Hohmann was a member of the Pi Beta Phi women’s fraternity and earned her master’s degree.
She taught at Fairmont Senior and Mannington High, before taking a position on the Fairmont State faculty, where she taught speech and communications for nearly 20 years.
Hohmann died of cancer in 1986 at the age of 43.
Kevin Jones
Jones was one of two WVU men’s basketball players to score at least 1,800 career points and grab 1,000 rebounds during his career from 2009-12.
The Mount Vernon, N.Y. native was named to the John Wooden All-America Team in 2012 and earned second team consensus All-America honors. Jones was a USBWA Second Team All-American, Associated Press Second Team All-American, NABC Second Team All-American, Sporting News Third Team All-American and Basketball Times Third Team All-American. He was named to the All-Big East First Team and was the USBWA District II Player of the Year in 2012.
Jones scored in double figures in 95 career games and had 33 double-doubles for his career. Starting every game his final three seasons, he finished fifth in school history with 1,822 career points and was fourth in career rebounds with 1,048.
As a senior, he averaged 19.9 points and 10.9 rebounds per game, while shooting 50.9% from the field. Jones became just the third player in Big East history to lead the league in scoring and rebounding in all games.
He helped lead WVU to four consecutive NCAA tournaments, including the NCAA Final Four in 2010 and a Big East tournament title in 2010.
Jones left WVU with the most offensive rebounds in school history with 450. He holds the season offensive rebounds mark (141).
A Big East Academic All-Star, Jones graduated from WVU with a bachelor’s degree in multidisciplinary studies in 2012. He played for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2012-13.
Geno Smith
Smith set 33 Mountaineer game, season, class and career records as a quarterback from 2009-12.
As a senior, the Miramar, Fla. native was a finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award and the Maxwell Award.
He finished his career with a school-record 98 passing touchdowns.
Smith set the WVU season records for passing yards (4,385) and touchdowns (42) and career records for total offense (12,004), passing yards (11,662) and pass attempts (1,465). He set WVU records with 45 pass completions for 656 yards and eight touchdowns in the 2012 Baylor win. His passing yards total was the NCAA’s top single-game performance of the year.
In 2011, Smith was named the Discover Orange Bowl MVP after he set five Orange Bowl and four WVU and BCS bowl records, while tying three NCAA all-time bowl records. Smith went 32-of-43 for 407 yards and accounted for seven touchdowns in the 70-33 win over Clemson. His six passing touchdowns set a BCS and Orange Bowl record, while his 407 passing yards, 433 yards of total offense, seven touchdowns responsible for and 42 points responsible for all set Orange Bowl records.
Smith was selected as the 39th pick overall in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. He played for the Jets until joining the New York Giants in 2017, the Los Angeles Chargers in 2018 and then the Seattle Seahawks from 2019-present.
