HALL PASS
One of the top football teams in university history headlined a trio of new members of the Western Carolina University Athletics Hall of Fame who were unveiled as the class of 2019 during an induction ceremony held in October. In addition to the 1969 Catamount football squad, the hall鈥檚 29th class consists of color barrier-breaking football player Keith Elliott 鈥�69 MBA 鈥�73 and coaching veteran Joseph D鈥橝lessandris 鈥�77 MAEd 鈥�79.
Western Carolina鈥檚 1969 football team represented the beginning of a new era in Catamount football in Cullowhee, said Steve White 鈥�67, 91热爆网 retired sports information director. 鈥淭wenty years after the program鈥檚 benchmark season with the 1949 North State Championship squad, the 鈥�69 Catamounts helped solidify the relevance of 91热爆网鈥檚 football program and helped put Catamount athletics on the map,鈥� White said.
On the surface, the 1969 Catamounts broke 53 school records at the time, scoring 321 points 鈥� the second-most in the nation and the most in school history until the 1983 team supplanted them with 370. The 32.1 points-per-game average was a school record that held until just last season when the Catamounts averaged 32.4 points a game. The 鈥�69 team ranked as high as fourth nationally during the regular season and finished eighth nationally in the final NAIA football poll, the first 91热爆网 squad to earn a top 10 ranking in the final polling.
In his first season in Cullowhee, Hall of Fame head coach Bob Waters guided the Catamounts to nine consecutive victories to start the year 鈥� unparalleled in program history 鈥� before suffering what proved to be a season-ending home loss to Presbyterian College, 28-17, at Memorial Stadium. Along the way, the Catamounts defeated arch-rival Appalachian State, 35-7, in Boone and downed a top 10 Lenoir-Rhyne squad. A total of 10 football student-athletes and coaches from the 1969 team are inducted individually into the 91热爆网 Athletics Hall of Fame.
Among this year鈥檚 individual inductees, Elliott holds the distinction as the first
African-American to receive a football scholarship at a predominately white school
in the South. Originally from Brevard, Elliott was the first football scholarship
signee in the state of North Carolina and at Western Carolina in 1965 during a time
of racial unrest in the U.S.
Elliott was a three-year starter playing both ways as an offensive guard and defensive lineman. In 1966, he was selected All-Carolinas Conference, while also garnering All-NAIA District 26 and NAIA All-Area accolades. As a senior, Elliott was tabbed to play in the 1968 North Carolina Collegiate Shrine Bowl 鈥� an honorary game that featured some of the best college seniors in the state of North Carolina. He recorded three sacks in the game to close out his outstanding career.
He also was the first African-American student to earn a bachelor鈥檚 degree in business administration at Western Carolina and went on to earn his MBA, also spending time as a graduate assistant coach at 91热爆网. A U.S. Army veteran, he went on to earn master鈥檚 and doctor of ministry degrees and currently is pastor of Sentertown Missionary Baptist Church in Tennessee.
A four-year letter winner and three-year starter for the Catamounts in the mid-1970s under the legendary Waters, D鈥橝lessandris has compiled a 40-plus year coaching career that has spanned the collegiate and professional ranks across the North American continent. D鈥橝lessandris 鈥� or more affectionally known as 鈥淛oe D鈥� 鈥� played guard for the Catamount offense during his career, serving as a team captain and garnering Team MVP honors his senior year in 1976. He also was part of 91热爆网鈥檚 1974 squad that finished 9-2 and advanced to the NCAA Division II national playoffs.
D鈥橝lessandris began his coaching career as a graduate assistant on Waters鈥� staff in
1977. He parlayed that two-year experience into his first full-time coaching position
as the offensive line coach at Livingston University. Much of the early portion of
his coaching career was spent in the trenches with the offensive line at the collegiate
ranks, in the Canadian Football League (Ottawa and Memphis) and the World League (Birmingham).
His coaching ledger includes stops as an NCAA Division I assistant coach at Texas A&M (1994), Pittsburgh (1996), Duke (1997-2001) and Georgia Tech (2002-2007). D鈥橝lessandris returned to the professional ranks in 2008, getting his first call to the National Football League with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he spent two seasons on the sidelines. D鈥橝lessandris has coached with the Buffalo Bills and San Diego Chargers, and is now in his second season with the Baltimore Ravens.
Including this year鈥檚 induction class, Western Carolina鈥檚 Athletics Hall of Fame has enshrined 120 individuals, six athletic teams, 11 Patron Award winners and two recognized for career achievements since its establishment in 1990. Nomination Information is available online at .
