1995 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE | STAR WOOD
Star Wood of Chapel Hill will be inducted into the Milligan College Athletics Hall of Fame on October 28. The hall of fame was established several years ago to honor outstanding athletes, coaches, and other significant participants in the athletics program of Milligan College.
A native Virginian, Wood was valedictorian and captain of the Virginia State Champions when Steve Lacy found him playing football at Big Stone Gap (Va.) High School and took him to Milligan. Later, they would win the Smoky Mountain Conference Championship in football.
Graduating in 1935, Wood returned to Milligan in 1938 as assistant to Coach Lacy. In 1940, Wood earned a master's degree in English at the University of Tennessee. Wood then began a long career in athletic coaching, serving at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, in the early 1940s. He next moved on to North Carolina State University in 1944 as assistant coach.
In 1946, Wood took off his cleats and became the Dean and head of the English department at Milligan College. He returned to coaching the next year and served at Tennessee Technological University, being named head football coach in 1949.
In 1952, Wood became full-time athletic director and head football coach at East Tennessee State University. He led the team to two consecutive Burley Bowl championships in 1952 and 1953. In 1958 and 1962, Wood was named Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year.
Wood again put away his cleats, this time for good, and became professor of English at ETSU in 1967, serving until his retirement in 1977. In 1980, Wood was inducted into the ETSU Sports Hall of Fame and in 1988 was named to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
He and his wife now reside in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.