Baseball | 1/12/2010 12:00:00 AM
WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The doors of the West Liberty University Athletic Hall of Fame will swing open to admit five new members on Sept. 25.
The Hall's 30th annual class includes Susan Beathler-Brokaw (women's tennis), Dave Delande (wrestling), Tom Meikle (men's basketball), William Parry (football) and Lynn Ullom (women's basketball).
The quintet will be guests of honor at a social gathering from 8:30 to 9 a.m. in the lobby of the University's Academic, Sports and Recreation Complex. A formal induction ceremony and breakfast will follow at 9 a.m. in the R. Emmett Boyle Conference Center at the ASRC.
The event is open to the public with tickets priced at $10. Reservations can be made by calling Athletic Secretary Robin Brunner at (304) 336-8046.
The inductees will receive their plaques at halftime of that afternoon's football game against West Virginia Wesleyan. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at Russek Field.
Following are information capsules for the five honorees:
SUSAN BEATHLER-BROKAW
Sue Beathler played a major role in establishing West Liberty as the West Virginia Conference's dominant women's tennis program during the 1990s.
A native of Mansfield, Ohio, Beathler won a total of six West Virginia Conference singles and doubles championships from 1992-95. She was the WVIAC champion at No. 2 singles in 1992, 1994 and 1995 and teamed with Kelly Brown to win the WVIAC's No. 1 doubles title in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
West Liberty never lost a conference match during Beathler's career, running off a streak of 43 consecutive WVIAC victories. Coach Jim Crutchfield's Hilltoppers were a sizzling 58-3 overall during Sue's four varsity seasons.
After graduating from West Liberty in 1996, Beathler began working as a Dental Hygienist in Columbus, Ohio before getting married and moving to Butler, Ohio in 2000. She has since enhanced her Dental Hygiene career with a license in Local Anesthesia from Stark State College.
She took a career break in 2009 to spend time as a stay-at-home mother following the birth of her fourth child. Sue lives in Butler with her husband, Joseph, and their four children: Regan, Riley, Alyson and Cooper.
DAVE DELANDE
Dave Delande won multiple All-America and Academic All-America honors during a record-setting wrestling career at West Liberty from 1983-86.
A native of St. Clairsville, Ohio, Dave was a three-time NAIA All-American in three different weight classes. He was 7th in the NAIA championships at 142 pounds in 1983, 4th at 150 pounds in 1985 and the national runner-up at 158 pounds in 1986.
Delande also was the Hilltopper wrestling program's first Academic All-American, earning back-to-back academic laurels in 1985 and 1986.
Dave still ranks among the Hilltoppers' all-time leaders with a 96-23 record on the mats. He set West Liberty career and single-season records for pinfalls and shutout wins that are still standing after a quarter-century.
Delande relocated to Central Ohio after graduating from West Liberty. A Certified Public Accountant, he is Deputy Director of Finance for the Columbus suburb of Hilliard, Ohio.
Dave and his wife, Stephanie – also a West Liberty graduate – have three sons: Bo, Spencer and Chase. The family resides in Hilliard.
TOM MEIKLE
Tom Meikle led West Liberty to West Virginia Conference glory as a player and a coach during the 1960s.
The Weirton, W.Va. native came to the hilltop in 1957 after a stint in the Coast Guard and joined the Hilltopper basketball team. The highlight of his Hilltopper basketball career came in 1960 when he and his teammates shocked nationally-ranked West Virginia Wesleyan to win the first WVIAC Tournament played in the Charleston Civic Center.
Honored as West Liberty's Outstanding Male Athlete in 1960, Tom coached briefly at Marlington (Ohio) High School after graduation but returned to West Liberty in 1964 when he was hired as head basketball and baseball coach.
His 1965 baseball team won the WVIAC championship with a perfect 14-0 league mark but Meikle left the hilltop in 1967 to launch a highly-successful business career.
Tom has spent the past four decades in the insurance industry, earning several awards and honors for his achievements. He spent nearly 20 years coaching AAU girls' basketball teams in northern West Virginia, leading three of them to Top 20 finishes in the national tournament. He has also coached high school girls' summer league teams in the Morgantown area since 1997.
Tom and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of three daughters – Kris Childs, Kathy Clinton and Kamela Meikle. They have three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. The Meikles reside in Morgantown.
WILLIAM PARRY
William Parry was a standout linebacker on the West Liberty football team from 1959-62 who helped lead the Hilltoppers to back-to-back 7-2 seasons during his junior and senior years.
Parry served as team captain for head coach George Kovalick during the 1962 season and was a first-team All-West Virginia Conference selection at linebacker. The hard-nosed gridder was also named to the WVIAC All-Star Team.
After graduating from West Liberty in 1963, Bill went on to earn his Master's Degree from West Virginia University. He also played professionally with the Wheeling Ironmen of the United Football League and was an assistant football coach at Bishop Donahue High School in McMechen, W.Va.
Parry was vice-president of Sigma Beta Chi fraternity and has served as a member of the Interfraternity Council. He was awarded Phi Beta Kappa in 1972.
Bill spent 17 years working in the Duval County (Fla.) school system, serving as an assistant principal for 10 of those years. He later founded Parry Pools, Inc., which grew into the largest pool company in North Florida.
Now retired from the business world, Parry has been active in the Florida chapter of the West Liberty Alumni Association for the past 22 years.
Bill and his wife, Shirley Ossi Parry – also a West Liberty graduate – have been married for 47 years and reside in Jacksonville, Fla. The couple has three children and 10 grandchildren.
LYNN ULLOM
Lynn Ullom has established West Liberty as the standard of excellence for West Virginia Conference women's basketball, averaging more than 20 wins a season in two decades at the Hilltopper helm.
A native of Cameron, W.Va., Ullom is the winningest women's basketball coach in West Virginia history. His career record (391-177, .688) places him among the top 30 coaches in NCAA Division II history.
Lynn's Hilltoppers have won three WVIAC regular-season titles, five WVIAC tournament championships, earned 10 NCAA Division II tourney invitations and won 20 or more games in 12 of the past 15 seasons.
One of only five coaches honored when the WVIAC selected its 25th Anniversary Women's Basketball Team in 2007, Ullom is a two-time WVIAC Coach of the Year. In 2001, Lynn became the only coach of a women's sport to win the West Virginia Sportswriters Association's Mickey Furfari Award as the state's College Coach of the Year.
In addition to their on-court success, Ullom's teams annually rank among the nation's best in combined grade point average. Every player who completed her career at West Liberty has earned her degree.
Ullom, who is also Associate Athletic Director for the Hilltoppers, coached at Lakeland (Ohio) High School and Cameron High School after graduating from West Liberty but returned to his alma mater in 1991 to take the women's basketball reins. He has two children, Jared and Tessa.
