Hoos Making a Difference honors ’74 receiver Ken Shelton tonight

By Jerry Ratcliffe

For the most part, the 1974 football season at Virginia wasn’t much to get excited about, except for the passing duo of quarterback Scott Gardner and receiver Ken Shelton.

Shelton put together one of the best seasons by a Cavalier receiver up to that point, and set a record for most receiving yards in a single game by a Wahoo, a record that lasted until 2018.

More about those on-the-field accomplishments momentarily, but first, Shelton and his family will be honored at Scott Stadium tonight by the Virginia Football Alumni Club and it’s program “Hoos Making a Difference,” which celebrates former Cavaliers or contributors to the program that have gone on to distinguish themselves with their off-the-field achievements in their communities.

“To me, the message that’s underlying this honor by Hoos Making a Difference is what you do in your community is a critical issue,” Shelton said from his home in Hendersonville, N.C. (about 20 miles south of Asheville) on Friday. “We all need to make our communities better. Personally, it’s wonderful to be recognized in your community, and I appreciate the recognition.”

Shelton is retired now after a 38-year career as a radiologist, and spends his time enjoying the mountains (he’s a mountain biker) and the outdoors near his home.

While he’s a model citizen, he was a terror to opposing ACC secondaries during his senior season of ‘74 at UVA.

During that particular year, Shelton finished with the third-most receptions in the ACC with 32, the second-most receiving yards in the conference with 575, his 18 yards per catch was No. 1 in the ACC, his nine touchdowns receiving were the fourth-most in the league and eighth in TD responsibility, while his overall nine TDs were fifth in the ACC.

In Virginia’s win over nonconference state rival William & Mary that season, he set a Cavalier record that lasted for decades when he posted 241 yards on nine catches and three TDs against the Tribe, 26.8 yards per reception. That record stood until Olamide Zaccheaus broke it with a nine-catch, 247-yard effort against Ohio U. in 2018.

“I was hoping my record would be broken by Herman Moore in that 1990 game against Georgia Tech, when Virginia was ranked No. 1 in the nation,” Shelton said.

What he remembers about that record-breaking performance against William & Mary was a called audible by Gardner, who recognized that the Tribe defense had lined up in single coverage and automatically knew that Shelton could beat his man, resulting in a TD pass of over 70 yards.

“That was by far the longest touchdown I ever had,” Shelton said. “We knew it would be a touchdown when William & Mary came out in man-to-man.”

While that was his most prolific game, his favorite game came against NC State, a game in which the Wolfpack was nationally ranked and Virginia jumped out to a 21-0 lead, but couldn’t hold on, losing 22-21 when State scored late and converted a two-point conversion.

“Lou Holtz was their coach and the Buckey twins were quarterback and receiver,” Shelton said. “I caught a touchdown in the third quarter to put us up 21-0. It’s sad that such a great memory resulted in a loss.”

Shelton said that first-year Virginia coach Sonny Randle called what he labeled his “Homecoming play,” which was essentially a flea-flicker that caught the Wolfpack by surprise.

“You know, we ran that play five or six times in practice and it was always incomplete or intercepted,” Shelton said. “But it worked against NC State.”

After the season, Shelton was drafted in the 15th round by the Denver Broncos, leaving him with a decision to make. UVA’s school of medicine told him it was now or never, and Shelton, who had some knee issues, elected to begin his medical career.

Medical school was paid for by the U.S. Army, so afterward he spent seven years in the military, serving at Walter Reed Hospital before moving on to Hendersonville, where he raised his family.

Shelton became chief of staff at the local hospital and organized the medical staff to prevent the hospital’s sale.

While there, he started a program called “Tobacco Free for Life,” and ran it for 10 years, a program that focused on preventing kids from using tobacco and starting a lifetime of addiction.

“Our schools in North Carolina were tobacco-tolerant back then,” Shelton said. “You could smoke after hours or in the football stands. My program asked the school boards to make campuses tobacco-free.

“When schools did become tobacco-free in our county, I went to our hospital and said, ‘We’re dedicated to healthy living, but you can smoke in the wards in the hospital.’ Our hospital became the first tobacco-free in the state of North Carolina. Probably about 10 years ago, every hospital in the state became tobacco-free.”

In 1996, Shelton and Hendersonville got behind an effort to attract the New Zealand Olympic swim team to come to their town and train for the ‘96 Olympic games. It did, and won its first gold medal in swimming that year. Shelton became life-long friends with many of the New Zealanders.

Several years later, he was involved in an effort to make a large piece of property in the county, now-called Dupont State Forest, into an area for everyone to enjoy rather than be turned into a development.

“We ended up saving a large national park-quality area for the people of North Carolina. It was a group effort and we received the North Carolina Environmentalists of the Year award. People can now go out and see world-class waterfalls, open to the public, instead of a golf course,” Shelton said.

Former UVA teammate John Sims nominated Shelton for the Hoos Making a Difference distinction after learning that Shelton is involved in a current project around Hendersonville.

“We have an unused rail line, almost 20 miles, between us and Brevard and we’re in the process of converting it to a rail trail,” Shelton said. “It took us 15 years to get there and now we’ve completed six miles of pavement on that trail. The remainder will be finished in the next three years and will be a generational legacy.

“People can use the trail to go to school, go shopping or go to work in a healthy manner. Anything to improve and help people self-transporting themselves will improve our community.”

Shelton hopes that he can help transport his mom and dad, both in their 90s, onto the field at Scott Stadium tonight for the recognition.

Now that’s a Hoo Making a Difference.