Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 6, 1993 TAG: 9306060108
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Staff report
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
A middle-distance champion in the late 1970s and 1980, Banks joins four men as the newest members of Tech's Hall of Fame. Others newly elected are:
Roy Beskin, a Hokies tennis star of the early 1970s who later won four national amateur mixed-doubles championships and seven Virginia state titles;
The late Bucky Keller, a hot-shooting swingman who led Tech to basketball glory in the early 1960s;
Bill Matthews, who had an impact on Tech athletics in a 35-year career as a basketball player, a coach of three sports and an administrator;
Jack Prater, a star player on Tech's unbeaten 1954 football team who went on to excel as a Hokies coach, administrator and fund-raiser.
The five will be inducted Sept. 24 at a dinner on the Tech campus on the eve of the Hokies' football game against Maryland. The four living inductees and members of the families of all inductees will be introduced to fans at halftime of the game.
The new inductees bring to 62 the total number enshrined. The Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame was established in 1982 and is located in the Bowman Club Room of the Jamerson Athletic Center. Hall of Fame plaques engraved with portraits of all the members are displayed there.
The newest honor for Banks turns the Tech Hall of Fame into a family affair. Her husband, Mac Banks, was inducted into the Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 1991. He was also a track star for the Hokies.
Lucy Banks was an All-American in 1980 before women's track gained varsity status at Tech. Serving as captain of a club team, she qualified in the 800-meter runs at the Track and Field Association meet in Wichita Falls, Texas. She also scored major victories in state competition.
Beskin enrolled at Tech in 1969 after winning the Virginia state tennis championship while a member of the team at Granby High School in his hometown of Norfolk. With the Hokies, he was the team captain and No. 1 player his last two seasons.
As a senior, he capped his collegiate career with a victory over Columbia's Rick Fagel, later a world-ranked player, at the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington.
Beskin, whose powerful serve has been clocked at 112 mph, is the only player to win four mixed-doubles national championships. He did it with three partners. He swept the Lipton-Infiniti championships in 1983 with Maggie Russo and in 1987 with Caryn Schindler, won the Buick Championships in 1986 with Schindler and won the Ford Tennis Festival in 1987 with Karen O'Sullivan.
He was a seven-time Virginia state champion in three divisions - open mixed doubles, 35-and-over singles and 40-and-over doubles. He represented the United States at the Lloyds of London Challenge at Wimbledon in 1987. Although the U.S. team lost, Beskin won both of his matches.
From 1959 through 1962, Keller played on three Virginia Tech teams that posted an overall record of 54-19. It was one of the most successful eras in Hokies basketball.
A 6-foot-3, 180-pound swingman, Keller finished his career with a scoring average of 18.2 points per game. He averaged 15.0 points on a 1959-60 team that went 20-6, averaged 17.6 in 1960-61 when the Hokies were 15-7 and averaged 21.7 in 1961-62 when Tech finished 19-6.
Keller was co-captain of the team his senior year in 1961-62. It was during that season that he scored a career-high 31 points in an 87-81 upset of Wake Forest, a national power at the time with Len Chappell and Billy Packer in the lineup.
Matthews, a native of Claudsville, came to Tech on an academic scholarship and excelled in the classroom and on the basketball court. He received his degree in agricultural education in 1956.
A bulky center in basketball, he ranks second only behind Hall of Famer Chris Smith in all-time rebounding for the Hokies. Matthews had a career average of 13.8 points per game and in 1954-55 averaged 18.8 rebounds. His career scoring average was 16.5. He was voted Virginia's state player of the year as a senior in 1955-56.
Matthews started his career on the university staff as an assistant coach in basketball and baseball and later worked in the university bookstore and athletic ticket office.
In 1962, he was hired as head basketball coach. His first team went 12-12 and his second 16-7.
In his first game as Tech coach, the Hokies upset Kentucky 80-77 in Lexington, Ky. It marked the only time in the legendary career of Wildcats coach Adolph Rupp that one of his teams lost a home opener.
Matthews also coached the Tech golf team with success for 11 seasons. He was elevated to assistant athletic director in 1964 and became associate athletic director in 1978. He left Tech in 1986.
Prater was a star center and linebacker on Tech's only undefeated football team of the modern era, the 1954 club that went 9-0-1. He made the All-Southern Conference team in 1955 and played in the Blue-Gray game that season.
Prater began his coaching career in 1957 as an assistant at Edison High School in Miami. He came back to the Hokies as a line coach in 1958, worked in football for two years at William and Mary and then returned to the Hokies, again as a line coach, in 1961 and 1962.
After spending five years as an assistant coach at Miami, Prater was brought back to Tech as field secretary of the Student Aid Association in 1968. He later was an administrative assistant under football coach Charlie Coffey.
Prater spent part of the 1970s working for Hoerner Waldorf, a division of Champion International. He returned to Blacksburg in 1978 as an assistant athletic director. Soon thereafter he was appointed executive secretary of The Student Aid Association.
He is working as an assistant director of development for athletic programs.
by CNB