BleacherCoaches.com

Let's be hypothetical here and say that some benefactor is going to help create a Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame. For the first banquet, five men or women who played, coached, supported -- fill in your own verb -- at one time in Bedford County will be inducted. The only criterion is that they played an important role in contributing, in some way, to the Bedford County sports scene. Also, they can be living or dead.

Let's see what kind of list we can put together. When you nominate someone, identify them and give your reasons for putting them on the list.

I'll start things by nominating the legendary Dr. John Topper, the Hyndman physician who was perhaps one of the greatest supporters of sports this area has ever seen. Doc Topper died in 1983, but talk to anyone in Hyndman who remembers him and you'll realize how special this man was. When he wasn't doctoring to his many, many patients, you could most likely find him at some sporting event.

If I had one pick: Jan Clark- NBC (as a wrestler)
THREE TIME state champion.! One of the most successful wrestlers in PA history. He has also gone to different programs as a coach and had great teams. His PASSION for the sport is amazing....

from Bedford i would nominate:
the late Bill Clark....great athelete and coach
Brian Creps (2 years as track coach, 2 district titles)
Bill Creps...need i say more
Bill Benbow...probably the best overall athelete ever to attend bedford
Eric Nelson and Megan Houston...only soccer players to be all-state.

Great Choices!

A good argument could be made for Jan Clark to be the first choice.

I hope some people come up with people who go pretty far back.

I'll add Whitey Koontz and Ed Clark, both teachers and wrestling coaches from Bedford who literally defined the sport here in Bedford County. I was lucky enough to have both of them as teachers. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't both of them in the Pa Wrestling Hall of Fame -- or something like that?

Ed King- NBC baseball coach; In fact all NB coaches in the 80-'s 90's era and before.
King, Joe Nastasi football, Rod Hoover wrestling, Lew Ewart basketball & softball, Dave Adams girls' basketball, Joe Clapper softball, Mel Bowser volleyball and track, Bill Reed junior high fb. and the backbone, athletic director and coach, Dale Batzel and others I hurriedly forgot for a second.
A lot of District 5 championship banners hang in Panther Land because of most of the above people.

NBC could have its own wing! It shows how many great people each school in the county has. Ed King and Dale Batzel would definitely be in the first group. King, of course, is a legend, and Dale, to my mind, was a truly great basketball coach and a class act.

By the way, there isn't someone out there who'd like to donate a building or a room somewhere to house this hypothetical Bedford County Sports Hall of Fame, is there? I'm having a little fun here, but a place to put trophies, pictures, memorabilia, etc., would be fantastic. It would take a lot of work, but I'm pretty certain we could get a lot of people aboard. I envision a banquet somewhere where the first class of 10-15 people would be inducted.

Our county has had too great a sports history not to have something like this. I know other people have been discussing this sort of thing for years, but perhaps now the time has come, especially since BC's is such a superb way for a lot of interested parties to communicate.

Anyway, keep the nominations coming. We need more women, of course.

Gee, I thought we'd get some female nominees by now.

i nominated a girl...

i would think that each school would have its own wing since there are only 6.

im not much for knowing the old timers but....

aj nastasi and max shoemaker are both guys i think should definately be be in it. floyd harris from bedford way back in the day was incredible on the track. also matt otis was a special tennis player for bedford during his 4 yrs. i dont think he lost a match in county. might wanna double check me on that.

as for female...that softball pitcher from nbc last year. i wanna say shawna clark was her name. blackburn girl that plays tennis at CR is dominant. CR had a great girls track team a cpl years back. im sure there was somebody on that worthy.