From Hall of Honor press release dated Sept. 1, 2015:

Jim Coleman is being recognized for his extraordinary career in athletics, which started in Springfield as a child and blossomed during his four years as a student at Wittenberg. After he was introduced to the sport of volleyball during his formative years, Coleman brought it to Wittenberg as a student and later as a professor at the university. Married to Lee Doellman Coleman, class of 1958 and a 1988 inductee into Wittenberg’s Athletics Hall of Honor, Jim Coleman served three stints as the United States National Team’s head coach and was involved in the program through most of a 35-year span. He coached in seven Olympic Games, helping the USA Men’s Volleyball team to gold medals in 1984 and 1988, and he is credited with visionary leadership in the sport itself, teaming with his wife to create statistical systems and the net antennae used in today’s competition. 

Coleman was one of the founders of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) in 1961, a league that now features some of the top NCAA Division I intercollegiate men’s programs in the country. Wittenberg competed in the MIVA in 1961 and 1962 before Coleman moved on to the first of several NCAA Division I college coaching positions. 

In November 2014, Wittenberg announced the introduction of men’s volleyball as its 24^th intercollegiate sport, and the program will compete for the first time since 1962 in January 2016.

To view plaque in larger size, click here.