"Coach" Tom Hurley grew up in the Wilkes-Barre, PA area and graduated from Coughlin High School in 1946 where he was played several sports. Football was his first love and he played it during his two years in the Marine Corps (1946-48) and during his college career at Mansfield State. In 1954 he started his teaching career at the Elmira Southside High School and became the head wrestling coach in 1956 and served in that capacity until 1970. He also had a 23-year career as the head football coach at ESS and in October 1992 the new sports complex at Southside was dedicated to Tom. At the dedication, Kevin Callahan, one of Tom's former players who is the head coach at Division I - AA Monmouth University, stated, "I am sure at the time, he didn't envision us moving on and becoming coaches, at the college or high school level. He was training us for life and teaching us to be good people, to do the right thing and be role models." Tom Hurley has been considered one of the most successful coaches in the history of athletics in the Elmira City School District. While the wrestling coach Tom achieved a 154-29-3 record along with developing 12 Section IV Champions and 2 state champions during this tenure. In 1967 Tom received the New York State Coaches Association Honor Award in wrestling and was selected as the Coach of the Decade for the 1960's. Mike Stephens, brother of Tom's first state champion and Hall of Fame honoree Mark Stephens (2013), added "there is no doubt that without Coach Hurley my brother would never had won his 1966 state championship." Impressive as his accolades are for wrestling he was also an outstanding football coach at Elmira. His Elmira teams won 113 games and garnered 6 conference championships and in 1971 and 1974 he was selected as the Coach of the Year in the conference. Today the Elmira City Schools present the Most Valuable Football Player Award in the memory of Tom. In addition, Tom was one of the founding fathers of the Section IV Wrestling Officials Association and served as their assigner for many years. He accomplishments as an official included working the New York State Wrestling Championships four times - 1971, 72, 76 and 77. Tom spent his life serving and working for his student/athletes and the sports that he loved. Jim Gush, defensive coordinator for Baylor University and player for Tom at ESS, sums it up best with this statement, "Tom meant so much to me as a person. To me, he's the legend." He is truly a worthy honoree for the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.