Bowling Green State University Athletics
Five to Join BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame
August 12, 2009 | General, Men's Basketball, Ice Hockey, Men's Soccer, Women's Basketball
Cornelius Cash, Travis Downey, Ron Mason, Sara Puthoff and Scott Vallow to join elite group
COMPLETE H-O-F RELEASE (PDF)
The class of 2009 will include Cornelius Cash (men's basketball), Travis Downey '00 (men's track and field), Ron Mason (hockey coach), Sara Puthoff '98 (women's basketball) and Scott Vallow '02 (men's soccer).
The official induction ceremony will take place Saturday, Oct. 24. The class will be recognized on the field at halftime of the BGSU-Central Michigan football game at Doyt Perry Stadium that afternoon. The game, which begins at 12:00 p.m., is designated as Hall of Fame Day, and is part of Family Weekend. The class will be officially inducted into the Hall at a ceremony following the game.
Biographical sketches on each of the five inductees follow:
Cash, a native of Dayton, Ohio, was a three-year letterwinner and a prolific rebounder for Falcon coach Pat Haley's teams. An All-Mid-American Conference First-Team selection in each of those three years, Cash averaged 15.8 points and a whopping 13.5 rebounds for his career. In 79 games, he had a total of 1,245 points and 1,068 boards.
Cash, a member of the last freshman team in BGSU history, averaged 17.5 points and 14.2 boards per game with that freshman squad, leading them to a 10-4 record and showing signs of things to come. As a sophomore in 1972-73, Cash was the top-rebounding forward in the nation witih a 15.2 rpg average. He finished eighth in the nation overall, and also averaged 18.0 points per outing en route to being named BGSU's Most Valuable Player. Twice that year, he pulled down 23 rebounds in a game, and he had a 32-point night against Loyola of Chicago. In addition to his first-team all-conference honor, Cash also was an honorable-mention All-American in that sophomore season.
In his junior year, Cash led the Falcons in both scoring and rebounding for the second-straight year. He had 13.6 points per game, pulled down 12.4 boards per game to rank fourth in the conference, and had a total of 59 blocked shots, which remains the BGSU single-season school record.
Then, in his senior season of 1974-75, Cash averaged 15.3 ppg and a MAC-high 13.0 rpg, pulling down 22 boards twice that year. He also blocked 34 shots that season. In one of BGSU's 18 wins that year, Cash had a 22-point, 22-rebound performance in a win over San Diego State. The Falcons went 18-10 that year, including a 9-5 MAC mark, and finished third in the NCIT, beating Tennessee before losing to Drake.
In February of 1975, Cash became only the third MAC player to reach the 1,000 plateau in both points and rebounds. He joined fellow Falcon Hall-of-Famer Nate Thurmond and Miami's Wayne Embry on that list.
Cash led the MAC in rebounding as a senior, finishing 15th in the nation. He hit double figures in either points or rebounds in 25 of 27 games as a senior and 70 of 79 games in his career. Cash was a second-round choice by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1975 NBA draft. He was waived by the Bucks in November of that year, but was signed by the Detroit Pistons prior to the 1976-77 season and saw action in six games that season.
Cash finished his BGSU career ranked second in school history in career rebounding and ninth in scoring. He remains second on the rebounding chart, trailing only Thurmond, and is now 22nd on the BGSU scoring list.
In addition to his time in the NBA, Cash also played professional basketball in Belgium, Yugoslavia and Brazil. He worked at Howard Paper Company for 13 years, and is currently employed by Houser Asphalt & Concrete in the Dayton area. He has three children, Erica, Cornelius III and Robert.
Downey, a native of Weston, Ohio was a highly-successful pole vaulter in high school, and upon his arrival at BGSU, absolutely nothing changed. Downey was the MAC champion in the pole vault at all four league outdoor meets in which he competed (1994-95-96-98).
He was the league champion in the pole vault as a freshman at BG, setting a school record with a height of 17-0 3/4. That came several months after he had set the BGSU indoor mark with an effort of 16-5.
As a soph in 1994-95, broke his own mark in the pole vault, clearing 17-4 1/2 to take the top spot in the MAC meet once again. Downey also had the team's second-best time in the 100 with an 11.12 clocking. He also set a new school indoor record with a 16-7 1/4 vault in a meet at Kent.
As a junior, Downey was the MAC champion yet again, winning the league meet with a 16-9 1/4 effort. He also won the league's PV title at the indoor meet with a school-record height of 17-3 1/2.
After sitting out the indoor and outdoor seasons as a redshirt in 1996-97, Downey was back at it in '97-98. That year, he again broke his own indoor mark with a height of 17-4 1/2. Outdoors, he shattered the school record with a 17-5 1/2 effort at the conference meet en route to winning the MAC pole-vault title for a fourth time. At the time, Downey was only the seventh athlete in MAC history to win the same event four times. He also competed in the 100 meters and the 400-meter relay for the Orange and Brown.
He excelled in both football and track during his prep career at Otsego H.S., winning the state title in the pole vault once and finishing second on two occasions.
Mason, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA hockey history, coached at BGSU for six seasons, establishing the Falcons as a national power. After a 36-year coaching career in college hockey, Mason became the athletics director at Michigan State.
In 1966, Mason began his coaching career as the first head coach at Lake Superior State. He guided the Lakers to five NAIA Tournament appearances, including the 1972 National Championship. Three of his other teams finished as NAIA runners-up.
Mason came to BGSU in 1973, and led the Falcons to three CCHA regular-season titles (1976, 1978, 1979) and three playoff championships (1977, 1978, 1979). His 1977-78 team finished third in the NCAA Tournament with an impressive 31-8 record. The following season, his BGSU squad established a then-national record with 37 wins. While at BGSU, he coached two members of the 1980 U.S. Gold Medal Olympic Hockey Team - Ken Morrow and Mark Wells.
Mason assumed the helm at MSU in 1979, where he spent 23 seasons behind the bench. With the Green and White, he posted a 635-270-69 mark, leading the Spartans to 17 CCHA regular-season and playoff titles and guiding 23 teams to the NCAA Tournament, an all-time record. In addition, he coached 35 All-Americans and 50 former Spartans who went on to establish careers in the National Hockey League. Mason guided the 1986 MSU squad to the NCAA Championship, the second national title in the school's history, and took a total of eight teams to the “Frozen Four” during his career.
In 2001, the CCHA honored Mason by renaming the conference's playoff trophy - The Mason Cup - in recognition of his contributions to college hockey and the formation of the league as well as his success behind the bench. Mason is considered one of the founding fathers of the CCHA, as he joined Bowling Green's Jack Vivian – a 2008 BGSU Hall-of-Fame inductee – and Saint Louis University's Bill Selman in establishing a “coaches' league” in 1971.
On March 18, 1994, a win over Bowling Green established Mason as the winningest college hockey coach in history. In 2001-02, Mason's final campaign as the Spartan coach, he recorded his unprecedented 900th win as a college hockey coach with an October victory over Ferris State. He finished his coaching career with an overall record of 924-380-83.
Upon Mason's retirement, he assumed the leadership of the Spartans' 25-sport department, beginning a six-year tenure as the school's AD. During that time, State squads captured 11 conference championships (regular season and postseason combined) and one national title. In addition, MSU was represented at the NCAA Championships 72 times, including Final Four/Frozen Four appearances by men's basketball (2005), women's basketball (2005), field hockey (2002 and 2004) and ice hockey (2007).
Mason served on the American Hockey Association Board of Directors from 1973-77 and is a former member of the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee and NCAA Ice Hockey Championships Committee.
Mason is also active in a number of local organizations and charities. He is very involved with Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, where he served a four-year term on the Sparrow Foundation Board and has set up the Ron Mason Fund for Kids that supports the Pediatric Rehabilitation Department, which has raised over one million dollars since 1998. He also served as the honorary chairperson for the Children's Miracle Network, which has raised $19 million over the last 19 years, and has worked with the Coaches For Kids campaign, which has raised $5.3 million in the last seven years for a pediatrics emergency room at Sparrow Hospital. In addition, he served on the committee for the broomball game for the Legal Eagles, which benefited the Boys and Girls Club of Lansing, and spent several years on the Lansing Safety Council. Mason recently completed his term as a board member for the Lansing Chamber of Commerce.
Mason received his bachelor's degree from St. Lawrence University in 1964 and his master's degree from Pittsburgh in 1965, before beginning his coaching career at Lake Superior State in '66. He was presented with an honorary doctorate from Michigan State in the spring of 2001. Mason is a member of numerous Halls of Fame, including the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame (1994), Lake Superior Sports Hall of Fame (1996) and St. Lawrence Sports Hall of Fame (1999) and now the BGSU Hall of Fame. In addition, the American Hockey Coaches Association honored him with the John MacInnes Award for his outstanding contributions to hockey in the spring of 2003, and he received the Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation's “Legend of Hockey” award in April 2004. He was selected to receive the Spartan Hockey Distinguished Alumnus Award – an award he helped found – in 2008.
Born Jan. 14, 1940, in Blyth, Ontario, Mason and his wife, Marion, now reside in Palm Beach Shores, Fla. They have two daughters, Tracey and Cindy, and two grandsons, Tyler and Travis. An avid fisherman, Mason also enjoys golfing.
Puthoff, a native of Chickasaw, Ohio, was a stellar scorer for coach Jaci Clark's Falcons. She scored 1,678 points in the Brown and Orange, the second-most in school history at the time of her graduation.
Puthoff earned some sort of major MAC award in each of her four years at BGSU. The MAC Freshman of the year in 1994-95, she was a second-team all-league selection in her sophomore year, before earning All-MAC First-Team honors in both her junior and senior seasons.
Puthoff averaged 12.4 points as a freshman, finishing 11th in the nation in three-point field-goal percentage (42.7%). She shattered the existing three-point records at the time, and also shot nearly 85 percent from the free-throw line.
In her sophomore year, Puthoff led the Falcons with 15.5 points per game, ranking second in the MAC. She set the school record for three-point attempts in a season, and also earned the AT&T Long Distance Award for the month of January, holding the best 3-point pct. of any Division I player in the country during that month. A two-time MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week that season, Puthoff earned Academic All-MAC First-Team and GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-District Second-Team honors.
As a junior in 1996-97, Puthoff averaged 16.1 ppg, ranking fifth in the MAC. She became only the fourth junior in school history to surpass the 1,000-plateau, and she led the entire nation in free-throw accuracy (89.7%), sinking 130-of-145 shots from the stripe. Puthoff earned a pair of MAC Player-of-the-Week awards, with her second coming after back-to-back 30-point games, vs. Toledo and Ohio. In the UT game, Puthoff scored 28 points in the second half alone, en route to a 32-point effort vs. the arch-rival Rockets. She again earned Academic All-MAC honors.
In 1997-98, Puthoff averaged 16.3 points en route to her second-straight all-conference first-team selection. She was named to the All-District 4 First Team as well as the GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team. In addition to scoring, Puthoff led the team in steals and three-pointers made and attempted. Her 26 double-digit scoring games that year included 11 games of 20 or more points. Puthoff helped the Falcons to 21 wins and a berth in the WNIT in that senior season.
For her career, Puthoff scored in double digits in 86 of her 111 games, including 35 games of at least 20 points. She left school as the second-leading scorer in BGSU history, and averaged 15.1 ppg in her career. Puthoff also finished as the BGSU career leader in free-throw percentage (353-for-416; 84.9%), three-point field goals made (173) and attempted (453). In addition to points, she was second in BG history in points per game and field goals attempted, third in field goals made and fifth in three-point pct.
Through the 2008-09 season, Puthoff still ranks third all-time in scoring at BGSU, and is second in three-pointers made. Puthoff also ranks second in field goals attempted and third in free-throw pct., and remains in the BGSU career top-10 on several other lists as well.
After receiving her undergraduate degree in 1998, Puthoff remained at BGSU for graduate school, earning a Master's degree in Developmental Kinesiology in 2000. She opened a health and fitness club, Ultimate Health and Fitness in Maria Stein, Ohio, and is a corrective exercise specialist and a licensed massage therapist there.
Vallow, a native of Naperville, Ill., was a four-year starter and two-time All-American at goalkeeper for head coach Mel Mahler's Falcons, and still holds several Mid-American Conference goalkeeping records. He had at least 10 shutouts in each of his four seasons, and a career goals-against average of just 0.74. Most importantly, Vallow led the Falcons to three consecutive NCAA Championships appearances (1995-97), with trips to the Sweet 16 in the latter two years.
Vallow burst onto the scene as a freshman in 1995, with a 15-3-2 record and a GAA of 0.52. His GAA not only led the MAC, but ranked second in the nation (tops among all freshmen). He had a scoreless-minutes streak of nearly 550 minutes, spanning parts of six matches. That streak included both of the Falcons' MAC Tournament wins, as Vallow led the Falcons to the MAC regular-season and tournament titles for the first of three consecutive years.
As a sophomore in 1996, Vallow saw action in all but 44:40 of the team's total minutes, finishing the regular season ranked second in the region and ninth in the nation in GAA. He ended the year with a school-record 18 wins, and had 10 complete-game shutouts, playing in the bulk of two other shutout wins. Three of his four losses that year came to teams ranked 15th in the nation or higher. Vallow led the MAC in wins, GAA, minutes and shutouts. For the second year in a row, he did not receive All-MAC honors. In '96, this was due to the fact that he was not nominated (the MAC had a policy of limiting teams to five nominees). Vallow did, however, earn All-MAC Tournament honors as BG won the tourney crown once again. He blanked Detroit in the NCAA Tournament at Cochrane Field, his fourth-straight complete-game shutout. Vallow was named to the All-Mideast and All-Ohio first teams.
In 1997, Vallow tied the school record with 12 shutouts en route to 16 overall wins. He was selected as the Ohio Collegiate Soccer Association Player of the Year, and also earned NSCAA All-America Third-Team honors for the first of two consecutive seasons. Vallow had 16 wins, a GAA of 0.85 and 100 saves, and also earned Soccer News All-America honorable mention. He was a first-team All-Mideast Region, All-Ohio and All-MAC selection, and again was named to the MAC's All-Tournament Team as the Falcons won a third consecutive title. In the NCAA Tournament, Vallow recorded shutouts in both the Falcons' play-in game vs. Colgate and BGSU's first-round win at Marquette.
As a senior, Vallow was an All-MAC First-Team choice, and was the runner up in the coaches voting the MAC Player of the Year. He recorded 10 shutouts for his fourth-straight double-digit season in that category, and had a GAA of 0.87. For the second year in a row, Vallow was selected to the All-Mideast Region and All-Ohio first teams and was an NSCAA All-America Third-Team choice.
Vallow ended his career with the school records for wins (59), shutouts (42) and GAA, and all of those records still stand. In fact, Vallow still holds the MAC records in wins and GAA, and is second in conference history in victories and saves (320).
Vallow has gone on to a lengthy, 11 year professional career that continues today. Currently, he is goalkeeper and team captain of the Rochester Rhinos of the United Soccer League, Division 1 (formerly the A-League). Vallow helped the Rhinos win A-League Championships in both 2000 and 2001. A multiple all-league selection, Vallow was named the A-League's Goalkeeper of the Year in 2000. Additionally, Vallow attended the USL1 All Star Game and was voted Rhinos Team MVP in 2006. Vallow, the Rhinos' all-time leader in goalkeeper wins, shutouts and saves, also played with the Dallas Burn ('99, '02) and Colorado Rapids ('03, '04) of Major League Soccer.
In addition to his playing career, Vallow has served as an assistant coach on the women's soccer staff at Niagara University and is currently involved in youth soccer as the Director of Coaching and Player Development for the Cobras FC (33 teams). He also owns a goalkeeper development company called Train Like a Champion, started his own clothing line called Rockstar Soccer and has his own website, www.ScottVallow.com. Scott is married to Lindsay, his BGSU sweetheart, and the couple has two sons, Brayden and Mason.
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The 2009 class of inductees, the 46th class in history, brings membership in the Athletic Hall of Fame to 216. The 1983-84 national championship hockey team is also in the Hall of Fame.