West Virginia announces Pat McAfee as member of 2025 Sports Hall of Fame Class

ESPN firebrand host and former NFL punter Pat McAfee will be among the newest inductees as one of six members of the 2025 class to be inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. The Mountaineers and athletic director Wren Baker announced the news on Friday morning.

Joining McAfee, a fan-favorite punter at West Virginia between 2005-08, in the Class of 2025 from the football side are former Mountaineers head football coach Bill Stewart and longtime former football assistant Bill Kirelawich. Also in the class are former two-sport star Darrell Whitmore, former track and field hept- and pentathlete Chelsea Carrier-Eades, and former rifler Petra Zublasing.

McAfee’s very-public profile as an occasionally controversial figure on ESPN and College GameDay, as well as on his own weekday streaming show, The Pat McAfee Show, and his role as a WWE commentator effectively make him the headliner of the 2025 class. It will be formally inducted on Sept. 27, just prior to the West Virginia-Utah game that day.

While in Morgantown, McAfee established himself as a fan favorite while serving as both the team’s kicker and punter, a rare feat in today’s game. The former All-American finished his WVU career having set program records for most games played (51), scoring and kick scoring (384 points), and extra points made (210), while also ranking third in program history in punting average (43.7 ypp) and field goals made (58), including a career-long 52-yard field goal as a senior in 2008.

The late Bill Stewart, known colloquially as “Coach Stew,” helped spearhead “one of the greatest bowl wins in school history” as the team’s interim coach in a 48-28 win over Oklahoma in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl, which led to his formal hiring as the team’s 33rd head football coach the following day. Stewart, who previously served as a longtime assistant coach, went 27-12 in three 9-4 seasons as head coach between 2008-10. Stewart passed away in 2012 at the age of 59.

Bill Kirelawich is the winningest assistant football coach in WVU history, participating in 23 bowl games across 32 years (1979-2011) in Morgantown. Kirelawich first joined Frank Cignetti’s staff in 1979 and stayed on as a trusted assistant through the next four Mountaineers coaching changes (Don Nehlen, Rich Rodriguez, Stewart and Dana Holgersen).

Darrell Whitmore starred in both baseball and football at West Virginia between 1988-91, and still holds school records in baseball with a .678 slugging percentage and .481 on-base percentage. Whitmore also set a school record with a .392 career batting average, which is now second all-time in program history. After being drafted by the then-Cleveland Indians in 1990, Whitmore played pro baseball for 13 years, including three seasons with the Marlins. He was also a four-year starter on the WVU football team at safety, where he recorded 14 career interceptions and left the program as the career-leader with 21 passes broken up.

Chelsea Carrier-Eades is the most decorated track and field athlete in West Virginia history, earning eight All-American honors in four years between 2008-12. Carrier-Eades still holds program records in the 60-meter hurdles (8.08 seconds, 2011); 100-meter hurdles (12.78, 2012), pentathlon (4,170, 2011) and heptathlon (5,927, 2011).

Petra Zublasing is the only Moutaineer athlete to win three individual NCAA championships during her career between 2011-13. She won the national air rifle title in 2012 and 2013, along with smallbore disciplines in 2013.