Hott

SHEPHERDSTOWN — George Hott had been a virtual giant, when it came to his on-field and off-field athletic exploits, ever since he scattered opponents playing for Moorefield High School.

He was 6-foot-3 and could outrun the wind, if need be.

After his three-sport excellence at his small Hardy County school, he went to West Virginia University and would letter in football in 1949, before signing a professional baseball contract with the struggling Pittsburgh Pirates organization.

He played minor league baseball for a season and then entered the military, before returning from Germany to play another season in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system.

As a professional player, he couldn’t join any college team in that sport. But he was still eligible to play college football.

Hott enrolled at Shepherd College and quickly became one of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s best players, gaining first-team, all-conference honors in 1955, after scoring 14 touchdowns, and being a driving force in Shepherd’s undefeated (8-0-0) season.

He attracted further attention, by playing for the Jackson-Perks Post 71 American Legion team in Charles Town, where he joined a group of other former professionals who had also toiled in the lower minor leagues.

The summer after he graduated from Shepherd in 1957, the rangy running back was invited to the football training camp in California of the Washington Redskins.

While at that training camp, word came that he could become the football coach at Moorefield High.

And so, in 1957, he began a longtime coaching relationship with Moorefield — not only in football, but also in baseball, at his alma mater.

The years tumbled by, as they seem to do for most people.

Hott’s reputation seemed to grow as fast as his winning seasons with the Yellow Jackets.

His former students and players often returned to advise him of their post-high school happenings — by the time he had been coaching football for two decades, he had gained a lengthy list of friends for life. He continued coaching baseball, only stepping down after 25 years in that well-chronicled position.

His long-time presence and earned respect brought him into local politics and he was elected sheriff of Hardy County.

What was more impressive or more important — being elected sheriff or earlier, having the high school baseball field named after him?

And then, when he was 93, the West Virginia Baseball Coaches Association enshrined him in its Hall of Fame.

He was already a member of the Shepherd Athletic Hall of Fame, at that point in time.

Now at age 95, Hott continues to receive accolades for his contributions to the community and for his years of service to West Virginia high school sports.

George Hott — remembered as one of Shepherd’s all-time best football players. George Hott — revered in Moorefield, as much for his caring ways for his hundreds of athletes as he is for his hundreds of on-field wins.