New Class of Inductees for the Montgomery Hall of Fame Includes Tom Shirley
NORRISTOWN, Pa. – Two coaches who are still turning out record-setting performances at the collegiate level and two legendary coaches from the high school ranks will be represented in the new class of inductees for the Montgomery County Coaches Hall of Fame. The 10th edition of this annual induction banquet is scheduled for Tuesday, November 22 at Westover Country Club in Jeffersonville, Pennsylvania.
Tom Shirley, the longtime women's basketball coach and athletic director at Philadelphia University; Jack Bauerle, who has made national powerhouses out of both the men's and women's swimming programs at the University of Georgia; Barb Clipsham, the two-time field hockey state champion while at Methacton High; and the late Chris Bockrath, who was a legendary and beloved football coach at both Archbishop Kennedy High and Kennedy-Kenrick High are this year's four inductees.
President John Pergine – himself a football great during his All-American days at Notre Dame and later in the NFL with the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins – understandably is excited about the tenth class of inductees to the Coaches Hall of Fame. "This is another exceptional group of coaches," said Pergine. "The diversity of the four coaches who are being inducted this year really shows that our Selection Committee searches far and wide for the best candidates to enter this prestigious Hall of Fame. I am very proud that there is such a special nature to our 10th class of inductees."
Tom Shirley
Tom Shirley has crafted a 30-year coaching career that puts him at the top of his profession in terms of achievement. After a seven-year stint at DeSales University in Allentown, where his women's basketball team was a three-time NAIA District 19 champion and recorded seven 20-win seasons, the Plymouth Whitemarsh High product found his true home at Philadelphia University (then Textile University).
He finished the 2010-11 season with a 607-281 career record that makes him Philadelphia's winningest active women's basketball coach. Currently he ranks fourth among women's Division II coaches in career victories.
At PhilaU, Shirley's teams have posted 16 20-plus win seasons, and 19 consecutive times his team qualified for a post-season tournament. His teams won two ECAC championships and has been a 10-time ECAC finalist.
In 1993 Shirley was named the AWSF Division II National Coach of the Year. Also that year he was named the Converse District Coach of the Year. Shirley is a member of the De Sales University Hall of Fame, as well as the PhilaU Hall of Fame.
