BALTIMORE, Md. -- The Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame will be inducting Earl Banks who was a legendary football coach while at Morgan State and served as the Athletic Director from 1960 through 1973. He was also enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1992, a year before he was killed in an automobile accident in Baltimore at the age of 69.
This year's Hall of Fame event will be held on November 13, 2014 in Baltimore, Md.
Banks, who completed his career with a .839 win-loss percentage, will be honored with the John Steadman Lifetime Achievement Award. The Award recognizes a Maryland citizen whose lifetime career in sports has brought honor and distinction to Maryland and its citizenry.
Banks, who led Morgan State to a 95-30-2 record in 14 seasons from 1960-73, was MEAC's first superstar coach. Banks' teams never had a losing season, and he oversaw the Bears' into the MEAC from the CIAA, where they won five conference titles, made four bowl appearances, had three unbeaten seasons and fashioned a 30-game winning streak from  1965-1968. He was named three times as the CIAA Coach of the Year - 1962, 1965, and 1966.
As an assistant coach and head coach he sent forty-one of his players to the pros, including Willie Lanier, Leroy Kelly, John Fuqua, Raymond Chester, Roger Brown and Sherman Plunkett.Â
Banks was chairman of a fund drive that raised $1 million for Lafayette Square Community Center. He was a board member for HUB (Help Unite Baltimore), League for Crippled Children, Heart Association, Diabetes Association, Prisoner's Aid, Boy Scouts and Salvation Army.
As the coach at Morgan State, he said, "The players are going to be scholars first. They come for an education, and 90 percent get degrees - not just physical education but in pre-medicine, pre-law and business. Two days a week I talk life, not football. College football is great for today's life. The world is looking for leadership and discipline. Football offers that experience."
Banks played football for Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, and was all-state in 1943. He was a stocky, 5-8, 210 pound all-star guard for Iowa, 1946-49, and played one year professionally with the New York Yankees of the NFL in 1950.
The other inductees for the Class of 2014 include: Beth Botsford (Swimming), Tommy Brown (Football/Baseball), Brian Jordan (Football/Baseball), Bob Scott (Lacrosse), Kimmie Meissner (Figure Skating) and Native Dancer (Thoroughbred Horse Racing).
The Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame dates back to 1956 when it inducted its first class of "all-stars," which included the first modern Olympic champion in discus throw and shot put, Robert Garrett, the baseball greats Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, and Frank "Home Run" Baker. Ever since, this list of native-born Maryland sons and daughters - some of the region's greatest athletes - has grown.
For more information about the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame and tickets to the 2014 Induction Banquet go to www.MDSAHOF.com.Â
