By William “Skip” Deegans
Shown in the 1934 photograph is Charles G. “Trusty” Tallman. Tallman has the distinction of having played and coached football at Marshall Normal School (now university) and West Virginia University (WVU). At WVU, he played center, guard, tackle and end and was described as “…deadly accurate and fierce tackling.” He played on the famed 1922 team that was undefeated and the first to play in a bowl. WVU had not beat Pitt since 1904, but a late 39-yard field goal gave the Mountaineers a 9-6 win. A 12-12 tie against Washington and Lee before 7,000 spectators in Charleston, WV, galvanized the team to beat their next five opponents 136-0. They beat their main rival, Washington and Jefferson, a team that had played in the previous year’s Rose Bowl. The 1922 team was given WVU’s first bowl invitation to play in the East-West Christmas Classic in San Diego. The Mountaineers beat Gonzaga, and it was the first WVU game that fans could listen to on the radio.
Talllman made second-team All American as stand-out end in his senior year. Following his undergraduate and law degrees, he was appointed head football coach at Marshall in 1925. From Marshall, he returned to WVU as coach of the freshman team and was named head coach of the varsity team in 1934, replacing Earle ‘Greasy’ Neale. While he was coaching at WVU, he was a member of the House of Delegates for Mason County and operated a 1,600-acre farm. Tallman was nick-named ‘Trusty’ after he was the only player to show up for practice during a rain storm, and the coach called him trustworthy.
Photo: Courtesy of the West Virginia University West Virginia Regional History Center.
Sources: Charleston Daily Mail, The Daily Athenaeum, Bluefield Daily Telegraph, The Raleigh Register, Hinton Daily News, conversations with Dr. James T. Tallman.
