Seven members added to Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2024

Seven new members were inducted into the Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame during a special ceremony on Friday night.

The Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024 included representatives from athletics administration, baseball, football, men’s track & field, strength and conditioning program, women’ soccer, women’s basketball, and women’s cross country and track & field.

This class, the 16th to be inducted into the Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame, was honored during special ceremonies surrounding Liberty’s Hall of Fame and Homecoming Weekend football game against UTEP on Saturday at Williams Stadium. It includes Dre Barnes (Football), Kristal [Tharp] Bechtold (Women’s Basketball), Chuck Burch (Athletics Director), Keith Butler (Baseball), Bill Gillespie (Men’s Track & Field/Football/Strength and Conditioning), Jennifer [Klugh] Margraff (Women’s Cross Country/Track & Field) and Holly Van Noord (Women’s Soccer).

The Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held on Friday night in the Alumni Ballroom on the third floor of the Montview Student Union.

Additionally, the seven-member class received special recognition during the UTEP football game.The Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame celebrates the best of the best, honoring those who helped shape the face of Liberty Athletics. The Hall of Fame’s now 87 members have each played a key role in helping Liberty grow from an NCCAA program in 1972 to its current status as a thriving NCAA Division I program.

Dre Barnes

Football: 2001-04

Dre Barnes was one of the most dominating running backs in program history. More than two decades following his playing career, he still holds the program’s gold standard for career rushing yards.

Barnes is the only player in program history to surpass 4,000 career rushing yards, setting the program record of 4,063 yards during his standout four-year playing career (2001-04). He surpassed 1,300 yards in a season as a sophomore (1,304 yards in 2002) and junior (1,347 yards in 2003) and he could have added another season if he didn’t miss five games in 2004 due to an injury.

The native of Ocilla, Ga., earned Football Gazette All-America honorable mention honors in 2001 before helping the Flames in their early years as a member of the Big South Conference. The running back was a three-time Big South All-Conference honoree and became the program’s first-ever Big South Offensive Player of the Year in 2003. During his final two years as a Flame, Liberty posted a 3-1 record in conference play, marking the program’s first two winning seasons in FCS conference play.

En route to the program’s all-time career rushing mark, Barnes recorded 20 100-yard rushing performances and surpassed the 200-yard mark in four games. Following graduation, Barnes was honored for setting the rushing standard in the Big South Conference when he was named to the Big South All-Decade Team (2002-09).

Kristal (Tharp) Bechtold

Women’s Basketball: 2002-05

One of the best long-range shooters in program history, Kristal (Tharp) Bechtold becomes the second player from the 2005 NCAA Sweet 16 team to join the Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame.

Bechtold stormed the Big South Conference during her first collegiate season, earning 2002 Big South Freshman of the Year honors. She finished the season shooting 42.0 percent from the field (76-of-181), including 37.4 percent from three-point range (34-of-91).

The two-time Big South first-team all-conference honoree (2003 and 2005) enters the Hall of Fame ranked third in program history in career three-point field goal percentage (35.8), sixth in three-point field goals made (151) and seventh in three-point field goal attempts (422).

The native of Chillicothe, Ohio, helped the Lady Flames to four-straight Big South titles and a 100-26 record during her four-year playing career. Bechtold, along with 2015 Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Katie (Feenstra) Mattera, made Liberty history in 2005 by guiding Liberty to its first two NCAA Tournament wins and an appearance in the Sweet 16.

A standout in the classroom as well as on the court, Bechtold was a two-time Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year (2004 and 2005) and became the Lady Flames’ first-ever CoSIDA Academic All-America® selection as a senior in 2005. A member of the NCAA Division I Elite Student-Athlete Advisory Group as a junior and senior, Bechtold would go on to earn her doctoral degree from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2009.

Chuck Burch

Athletics Administrator/Director of Athletics: 1982-97

A 15-year administrative veteran at Liberty University, Chuck Burch played a large part in establishing the Flames as a flourishing NCAA Division I athletics program, including his seven years as Director of Athletics (1990-97).

Burch joined the Liberty Athletics staff in 1982 as an assistant Sports Information Director before being promoted to Assistant and Associate Athletics Director. He gained valuable experience in nearly every area of the athletics department during this time, handling compliance, tickets, budgeting, game management, sports information and the Flames Club.

Burch played a vital role in Liberty Athletics’ move to the NCAA Division I ranks in 1988 before taking over as the department’s seventh Director of Athletics in 1990. He found conference affiliation for the Flames in the Big South Conference, starting with the 1991-92 season.

The Flames went on to capture 16 Big South titles during Liberty’s first six years in the league with Burch at the helm of the department. The most notable title was the 1994 Big South Men’s Basketball Championship that placed Liberty in the NCAA Tournament for the first time where the Flames faced No. 1 North Carolina in the first round of the “Big Dance”.

In 1997, Burch returned to his alma mater, Gardner-Webb University, when he was named the Vice President of Athletics. He maintained this role for 25 years before retiring from collegiate athletics in May of 2023.

Keith Butler

Baseball: 2000-02

Keith Butler left little doubt that his three-year playing career at Liberty would land him in the Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame when he was named conference Freshman and Player of the Year as a rookie.

The native of Marietta, Ga., exploded onto the collegiate baseball scene in 2000 with a .406 batting average, 56 runs scored, 16 doubles, six home runs, 49 RBIs and 35 stolen bases. Butler was duly honored when he was named the 2000 Big South Freshman and Player of the Year. He was also named to a pair of Freshman All-America teams on the national level (Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and Baseball America), capping his standout rookie season.

Butler’s immediate success helped Liberty capture the 2000 Big South Baseball Championship title and the program’s first-ever win at an NCAA Regional. He was named to the Big South All-Tournament team all three years of his career at Liberty, and he was the Big South inaugural winner of the Howard Bagwell Award in 2000 (Male Athlete of the Year). At the time of his Hall of Fame induction, he still ranks in the program’s career top 10 in runs (169), doubles (48) and stolen bases (52).

His stellar three-year career landed Butler in the major leagues after his junior year when he was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 10th round of the 2002 MLB Draft. He would go on to play three seasons at the minor league level.

Bill Gillespie

Men’s Track & Field/Football/Strength Coach: 1978-83; 1983-91; 2005-18

Bill Gillespie’s impact on Liberty Athletics spans four different decades as a national champion in track & field, a football player and a strength and conditioning coach who helped train Champions for Christ at his alma mater.

The native of Tacoma, Wash., quickly found Liberty Mountain as his second home as he was the 1980 and 1981 NCCAA shot put national champion as a freshman and sophomore. He also helped the track & field program capture the NCCAA team national title in 1981.

Gillespie was a four-time All-American in the shot put (NCCAA – 1980 and 1981; NAIA – 1982 and 1983) and owned the Liberty outdoor men’s shot put record (55-8.5) for 24 years after graduation in 1983. Also a two-time letterwinner on the Flames’ football team (1978-79), Gillespie was named the 1983 Rock Royer/Mac Rivera Award winner, garnering the highest honor bestowed upon a Liberty student-athlete.

Gillespie served as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Liberty from 1983-91, an assistant track & field coach in 1983-85 and 1987-91 and the head track & field coach in 1986. After an 11-year career at Washington, that included a national championship in 1991, Gillespie returned to the Mountain where he served as Head Football Strength and Conditioning Coach from 2005-18, helping Liberty move from winning FCS conference titles to the FBS ranks.

Outside the collegiate space where he was a CSCCA Master Strength Coach, Gillespie was also a world-renowned weightlifter where he was a 133-time world record holder and is the all-time world record holder with a 1129-pound bench press at the age of 62.

Jennifer (Klugh) Margraff

Women’s Cross Country/Track & Field: 2008-12

After coming to Liberty off a torn ACL during her senior year of high school, Jennifer (Klugh) Margraff would go on to become one of the most highly-decorated women’s distance runners in school history.

Margraff was a 10-time Big South individual event champion (three in cross country, four indoor track & field and three outdoor track & field) and was an 18-time All-Big South performer.

The native of Centerburg, Ohio is one of only four runners in program history to qualify for the NCAA Cross Country National Championship as an individual and she is the program’s only three-time cross country All-Region performer (2010, 2011 and 2012). Also the Lady Flames’ only three-time Big South women’s cross country individual champion (2010, 2011 and 2012), Margraff culminated her cross country career with a 93rd-place finish in the 2012 national championship.

Competing in indoor track, Margraff won back-to-back Big South Most Outstanding Track Performer awards in 2011 and 2012, helping Liberty capture consecutive conference titles by earning 28 points at both meets. At the time of her graduation in 2013, she owned four program records (cross country 5K, cross country 6K, indoor 3K, and indoor 5K).

Margraff received Liberty’s highest student-athlete honor in 2013 when she was named the winner of the Rock Royer/Mac Rivera Award. Following her career, her efforts were continually honored by the Big South Conference when she was named to the 2010-19 Big South All-Decade team for cross country, indoor and outdoor track & field.

Holly Van Noord

Women’s Soccer: 2013-16

Holly Van Noord was an unstoppable force for the Lady Flames in the net that resulted in three conference championships and a trio of trips to the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship.

Nearly a decade following her time on the pitch, Van Noord enters the Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame as the program’s all-time career leader in shutouts (41) and goals-against average (0.80). She also ranks second in career games played (86) and career saves (407).

A two-time Big South Defensive Player of the Year honoree (2014 and 2016), Van Noord is the only player in program history to hold this distinction twice. She was named to three Big South all-conference teams (first team in 2014 and 2016; second team in 2013) and was named the VaSID All-State Rookie of the Year in 2013.

Van Noord’s standout presence in goal helped guide the Lady Flames to four-straight appearances in the Big South Women’s Soccer Championship game. The women’s soccer team would go on to claim three titles during her time on the Mountain (2013, 2015 and 2016) and she was named to two Big South All-Tournament teams (2015 and 2016).

The native of Hudsonville, Mich., Van Noord’s efforts were recognized nationally when she was named to four United Soccer Coaches All-Region teams. She was a second-team honoree in 2014 and 2016 and named to the third team in 2013 and 2015.