MORGANTOWN – Six outstanding contributors to Mountaineer athletics make up the 35th class of honorees in the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame, announced today by Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker.

The class of 2025 includes Chelsea Carrier-Eades (track & field), Bill Kirelawich (football), Pat McAfee (football), Bill Stewart (football), Darrell Whitmore (baseball/football) and Petra Zublasing (rifle). This class brings the total number of inductees to 243.

Induction ceremonies will take place on Saturday, Sept. 27, prior to the West Virginia-Utah football game.

Bill Stewart

Stewart, best known as Coach Stew, led WVU to one of the greatest bowl wins in school history and had a .700 winning percentage as a head football coach from 2009-11.

After guiding WVU to a remarkable 48-28 victory against Oklahoma in one of the most memorable and significant wins in school history at the 2008 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Stewart was named WVU’s 33rd head football coach on Jan. 3, 2008, a day after that impressive triumph.

He followed up the Oklahoma victory with three consecutive nine-win seasons, including trips to the Meineke Car Care, Gator and Champs Sports Bowls. Stewart’s nine victories in 2008 represented the most ever by a first-year Mountaineer coach, and his 28-12 career mark included a .700 winning percentage that ranks fifth among all WVU grid coaches. His Big East championship in 2010 was the school’s sixth at the time. The players Stewart recruited won another Big East title and Orange Bowl victory over Clemson in the next season in 2011.

Stewart coached 30 players to All-Big East accolades in his three seasons, including quarterback Pat White, who became the NCAA’s all-time leading rushing quarterback and the first in college football history to win four straight bowl games as a starting quarterback. Stewart saw 18 of his West Virginia players drafted by NFL teams, and he led two Mountaineer squads to Top 25 finishes in 2008 and 2009, while his 2010 team was ranked for several weeks during the season.

Stewart died on May 21, 2012, leaving behind his bride, Karen, and son, Blaine, a former WVU assistant coach and now assistant coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Chelsea Carrier-Eades

Carrier-Eades is one of the most decorated track & field athletes in school history, earning eight All-America honors from 2008-12.

Carrier-Eades still holds WVU school records in the 60-meter hurdles (8.08, 2011), pentathlon (4,170, 2011), 100-meter hurdles (12.78, 2012) and heptathlon (5,927, 2011).

In all, Carrier-Eades was an 11-time NCAA individual qualifier and a 10-time Big East champion.

She married her high school sweetheart, Wesley Eades, and they have four children, Tristan (7), Brecken (5), Nolan (3) and Evie (1). After retiring from her professional track & field career in 2016, she became a certified personal trainer/group instructor and currently works from home with a new wellness business while raising her children.

Bill Kirelawich

Kirelawich, the winningest assistant football coach in WVU history, spent 32 years at West Virginia from 1979-2011.

During that time, Kirelawich was part of 23 bowl appearances, including some of WVU’s top bowl wins and national championship appearances in school history, culminating with WVU’s win over Clemson in the 2012 Orange Bowl.

Kirelawich joined Frank Cignetti’s staff in 1979 before joining Don Nehlen’s staff in 1980 as a defensive line coach. He coached the defensive line from 1980-87, outside linebackers from 1988-90, the defensive line from 1991-00 and was an administrative assistant in 2001-02. Kirelawich was then the defensive line coach on Rich Rodriguez’s staff from 2003-07, Bill Stewart’s staff from 2008-10 and Dana Holgersen’s staff in 2011.

Pat McAfee

McAfee was one of the top kickers and punters in the Big East Conference, as well as the nation, from 2005-08.

The native of Plum, Pa., handled the team’s punting, kickoff, extra point and field goal duties. During his career, McAfee was named a CBSSports.com First Team All-American, Walter Camp Football Foundation Second Team All-American, Associated Press Third Team All-American, Ray Guy Award finalist, Lou Groza Award semifinalist and played in the Under Armour Senior Bowl.

McAfee was a four-time bowl winner: 2006 Sugar, 2007 Gator, 2008 Fiesta and 2008 Car Care. He set the WVU career records for most games played (51), scoring (384), kick scoring (384) and extra points made (210), was third in punting average (43.7) and field goals made (58) and eighth in number of punts (126). He held the Big East records for most extra points made, was second on the all-time scoring list, second in punting average and third in field goals made. At the conclusion of his career, he was tied for 22nd in overall scoring and 16th among kickers in NCAA history.

Darrell Whitmore

Whitmore was a two-sport standout in baseball and football from 1988-91.

The Front Royal, Virginia, native played two seasons in right field with the Mountaineers in 1989-90, hitting .392 with 78 hits and 72 RBI in 199 at-bats. Whitmore had 18 doubles, 11 home runs and three triples with 57 runs scored and six stolen bases, playing in 71 games with 60 starts. He was named to the All-Atlantic 10 First Team and to the All-East Region Second Team in 1990.

Whitmore owns school records with a .678 slugging percentage and .481 on-base percentage. He set the school record with a .392 career batting average, which now ranks second all-time. Whitmore had a .757 slugging percentage in 1990, which now ranks fifth all-time and was second in program history at that time and posted a .559 on-base percentage in 1990, which now ranks fourth all-time.

Whitmore was also a four-year starter at safety on the Mountaineer football team, recording 14 career interceptions and left as the career leader in passes broken up with 21.

Whitmore and his wife, Ayanna, have two children, Gianna and Ava.

Petra Zublasing

Zublasing is the only Mountaineer to win three individual NCAA Championships during her career from 2011-13, claiming the 2012 air rifle title while winning the air rifle and smallbore disciplines the following season in 2013.

Her 2013 success marked the first time in WVU program history a student-athlete had won both disciplines in the same season. She was the third Mountaineer to win titles in back-to-back seasons.

She was a five-time NCAA All-American, claiming the honor in air rifle three times (2011, 2012, 2013) and smallbore twice (2012, 2013). Zublasing was named the 2013 College Rifle Coaches Association (CRCA) Shooter of the Championship in 2013.

At the time, Zublasing was one of seven Mountaineers to record a perfect 600 in air rifle and still holds the third-best mark in smallbore with a 595. Her 120-shot aggregate match score of 1193 was a program best, while her 120-shot season average of 1187.67 also topped the program record book. Her 60-shot smallbore season average of 591.33 is the second-best in program history.