Hall of Fame
Back To Hall of Fame
Back To Hall of Fame
Kenneth M. Mason, Jr. ’64 is inducted into the Washington & Jefferson College Athletic Hall of Fame as the 2010 Robert M. Murphy Award Winner. Ironically, Mason was honored with the 1964 Robert Murphy Award, given in those days to the most valuable senior athlete at the College. Mason was a two-sport standout at W&J, lettering four years in football and baseball for the Presidents. As a junior, he earned All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference football honors for his play as a defensive back. He also was the team’s quarterback. Mason led the 1962 Presidents to a 4-3 record, which included a four-game win streak after an 0-2 start.
The team’s winning record was the first by a Washington & Jefferson football squad in 10 years. He then helped the Presidents to a second-place finish in the 1963 Presidents’ Athletic Conference standings. A 14-6 loss to John Carroll in Cleveland, Ohio, during the final week of the season kept the 1963 squad, coached by W&J Hall of Famer Chuck Ream, from becoming the first conference champions in school history. Off the playing field, Mason was a Kappa and Junior Scholar and President of Student Government. He also was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and served as editor of the 1963 Pandora, the College yearbook. In the fall of his senior year, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. A native of Rochester, NY, Mason came to the College while his family was living in Lisle, Illinois.
After W&J, he attended Cornell University for his M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature. He had a distinguished career as a college professor, including 15 years as Chair of the English Department at W&J. For 11 years during that period, he was also Head of the Arts and Humanities Division. Mason is the eldest of five brothers to attend W&J and one of seven graduates altogether from the Mason family. In May, at Commencement 2011, his son Alex will become the eighth.
Back To Hall of Fame
