Bridgewater College

VIDEO: HARRYG.M. "DOC" JOPSON HALL OF FAME INDUCTION SPEECH

Harry G.M . "Doc" Jopson came to Bridgewater in 1936 as abiology professor and, a year later, revived the spring trackprogram which had been on hiatus for six years. In 1938 Jopsonintroduced the first-ever cross country to Bridgewater.

During the next four and a half decades, Jopson became afixture in the Bridgewater track program. Widely acknowledged asthe "dean of Virginia track coaches,"Jopson led his teams to twodozen undefeated seasons, as well as two dozen state and conferencechampionship titles, and a won-lost percentage of over 80 percent.In 1973, Jopson was named the Virginia College AthleticAssociation's Cross Country Coach-of-the-Year, and later became theOld Dominion Athletic Conference's Track Coach-of-the-Year fourconsecutive times from 1978-81.

Jopson also became widely known in academic circles duringhis tenure at Bridgewater. Doc's many career highlights includedteaching at the University of Virginia's Mountain Lake BiologicalStation for 15 years and discovering a previously unidentifiedsalamander. After his retirement in 1981, Jopson's friends andformer students endowed the Harry G.M. Jopson Chair of Biology atBridgewater in recognition of his academic contributions to thecollege.

Over the years, Jopson has been honored many times for histeaching and coaching contributions. On October 9, 1971, theBridgewater College athletic complex was renamed Harry G.M. JopsonField. In 1977, Jopson was awarded the Walt Carmack Award for"contributions to state college track over the years." In 1978,Jopson received an honorary Doctor of Science degree fromBridgewater in 1984, the prestigious "Harvard Award" from his almamater. Since 1981, the ODAC has presented the Harry G.M. "Doc"Jopson Award to "the college senior who exhibits the highestathletic, academic, and extracurricular achievements."