WVU Football

WVU Legend Don Nehlen Adds Inclusion in Another Hall of Fame

Published

1 month ago

February 7, 2025

Kelsie LeRose / WVSN

With his legacy as a legendary coach already secured, Don Nehlen is set to join one more Hall of Fame. Nehlen will be inducted into the Canton South Hall of Fame on Friday.

“With a career defined by resilience, leadership, and an ability to build winning teams, Nehlen’s impact on Canton South and beyond remains a lasting part of football history!,” the Canton Local Schools Facebook page posted about Nehlen’s induction.

Nehlen will now be forever enshrined where he started his illustrious coaching career. At just 23-years-old in 1959, Nehlen took over a struggling Canton South program. He then secured a big moment right away with a big 14-6 upset over Jackson in his first game at the helm. Nehlen would stay at Canton South for four seasons, leading the school to its first outright league title in 1962 and a 9-1 record. Nehlen’s 1962 team is still regarded as one of the best teams in school history.

Nehlen then moved on and served as the head coach at Canton McKinley High School before spending time as a college assistant at Cincinnati, Bowling Green and Michigan. But of course, Nehlen will forever be mostly associated with his tenure leading the West Virginia Mountaineers from 1980-2000. Nehlen would become the winningest coach in WVU history.

Nehlen is a member of both the WVU Sports and College Football Hall of Fames.

Below offers a description of Nehlen’s accomplishments and illustrious tenure provided by WVU Athletics.

Nehlen coached 15 first team All-Americans, 28 total All-Americans, 82 All-Big East Conference honorees and 80 NFL players from 1980 to 2000. In 1988, Nehlen was recognized with three national coaching awards, the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award, the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award and the AFCA Coach of the Year. In 1993, he was named the Big East Coach of Year and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Image credit to WVU Athletics

Nehlen guided his WVU teams to 13 bowl game appearances, 17 winning seasons and the 1993 Big East Conference title, and his 1988 and 1993 squads finished the regular season with undefeated records. The 1997 president of the prestigious American Football Coaches Association, Nehlen received the 2002 Distinguished West Virginian Award from the West Virginia Broadcasters Association, and in 2017, he received the AFCA’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Award for advancing the best interests of college football.

His final numbers included 202 victories, two Lambert Trophies for eastern football supremacy, the 1993 Big East championship and at the time of his retirement, he was just one of 17 coaches to win 200 or more career games on the collegiate level.

WVU honored Nehlen during the 2023 season by immortalizing his name on a wall inside Milan Pulsar Stadium.