LEXINGTON, Ky. – Former Eastern Kentucky University football coach and athletics director Glenn Presnell will be inducted into the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame in June.
 
Presnell will become the ninth EKU honoree in the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame, joining former players Wally Chambers (2006), Jason Dunn (2006), John Jackson (2009), Yeremiah Bell (2010), Chad Bratzke (2013), Aaron Jones (2015), Myron Guyton (2016) and Tim Lester (2018).
 
The ceremony will be held at the Lexington Opera House on June 26 beginning at 7 p.m.
 
Presnell was a valuable member of the Eastern athletics department for 28 years, serving as an assistant football coach, head football coach, athletics director and men's golf coach during the years 1947-1974.

From 1928-30, Presnell began his professional football career by serving as player-coach for the Ironton Tanks.  In 1930, he led the Tanks to upset wins over the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears.  The victory over the Giants included a 29-yard punt return that took the ball to the New York 27-yard line with just three seconds remaining.  On the last play of the game, Presnell eluded Giant defenders and threw a touchdown pass that tied the game 12-12 with no time remaining.  He finished the one-man demolition of the Giants by kicking the winning extra point in the 13-12 victory.  Presnell called this win "the biggest thrill of my career."  In the 26-13 win over the Bears, Presnell again got the better of Grange as he raced 88 yards for a touchdown, prompting legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice to pronounce, "Presnell is better than Grange."
 
The Ironton franchise folded after 1930 and he played the next three seasons for the Portsmouth Spartans.  In the inaugural season for the NFL in 1933, he led the league in total offense, set the single season record with 64 points and was chosen to the All-NFL team.

After the 1933 season, the Great Depression claimed another small town team and Detroit bought the Spartans for $7,850.  In the first year of existence, Detroit owner Dick Richards called Glenn and his wife, Liz, in to his office and asked them to pick the team's colors.  They chose Honolulu blue and silver, which have remained the Lions' colors.  Also, in his first season with the Lions, Presnell scored the game's only points in a 3-0 win over Green Bay by kicking a league-record 54-yard field goal, a mark that stood as the league's best for 19 years.  In 1935, Presnell quarterbacked the Lions to the NFL championship.  His nine-year pro career ended the next year as he finished with more than 2,500 yards rushing, 3,000 yards passing and accounted for 35 touchdowns.

Presnell began his career at Eastern in 1947 as backfield coach for Tom Samuels.  He remained in that position for seven years before being named head coach in 1954.  His first season as head coach was his best as the Maroons went 8-1-1 and compiled a perfect 5-0 mark in OVC play to capture the school's first conference football title.  That 1954 team also was invited to Orlando where they played Omaha in the Tangerine Bowl, losing 7-6.  In 10 seasons as Eastern head coach, the Maroons collected 42 wins and added the 1962 league title to the '54 OVC crown.

Following his exit from serving as head football coach in 1963, Presnell was EKU's director of athletics from 1963-71, while still coaching the Colonel men's golf team, a position he held from 1957-74.
 
Presnell was inducted into the Eastern Kentucky University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
 
Presnell had a distinguished career as a collegiate player at the University of Nebraska where he was a first-team All-American, starting all three years from 1925-27 at single-wing halfback/quarterback and middle safety on defense.  One of the highlights of his sophomore season at Nebraska included leading the Huskers to a 14-0 victory over an Illinois team that featured the "Galloping Ghost", Red Grange.  As one newspaper writer stated, "All the galloping was done by Presnell this day!"
 
Tickets for the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremony will be available online in May at www.kyprofootballhof.org.  Proceeds from the induction ceremony and golf outing support the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club of the Bluegrass in Lexington. 
 
Other 2020 inductees into the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame include Leeman Bennett (head coach Falcons, Buccaneers), Bob Fry (Rams, Cowboys, Browns), Elois grooms (Saints, Cardinals, Eagles), Cletidus Hunt (Packers) and Eric Wood (Bills).