KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (Sept. 26, 2026) – The Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame's 2026 Induction Ceremony and Dinner took place at Valley Forge Casino Resort Saturday night, where Thomas Jefferson University women's basketball coach
Tom Shirley joined 12 other Pennsylvania Sports Legends on stage as members of this year's class.
Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame
The induction came one day after he inducted one of his former players, Jessica Fixl (Kaminsky) '19 into another Hall of Fame -- the Thomas Jefferson University Athletics Hall of Fame.
To his left was Chris Snee, an All-Pro offensive guard for the New York Giants as well as a two-time Super Bowl champion. To his right sat Darrelle Revis, a first-ballot inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2023. And all around him stood exceptional athletes who made up the "whose-who" of their respective sports in their respective eras: Phillies legend Larry Bowa, Roman Catholic graduates-turned NBA players Marc Jackson and Mike Bantom, field hockey legends Nancy Stevens and Kelsey Kolojejchick, just to name a few.
To say it was humbling experience would be an understatement -- even for a coach of 43 seasons.
"I would say from that standpoint, it was intimidating," Shirley said. "But once you got to meet everybody and you got to talk, it was just like you were in the playground at recess. But at the end, it was just a bunch of folks that happened to be getting honored that night."
That didn't mean, however, that Shirley wasn't a little bit starstruck himself.
"I grew up with Larry Bowa and I'm familiar with Snee and Revis," Shirley said. "I mean, Joe Crawford is in the Naismith Hall of Fame as an official. So being around those people that I kind of grew up with was pretty neat."
Over a 40-plus year career in the profession, Shirley has delivered a Hall of Fame caliber resume, both as a coach and administrator. His many honors, in addition to now being a Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Famer, also include the 2024 Collegiate Coach of the Year from the Philadelphia Coaches Conference and Philadelphia Sports Digest, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association, and a nomination for the NCAA 50th Gold Award. Earlier in his career, Coach Shirley was recognized as the CACC Athletic Director of the Year and received the NACDA Northeast Athletic Director of the Year Award, reflecting his sustained influence in intercollegiate athletic administration.
Upon his induction, Shirley gave a short speech, thanking those who influenced him like John O'Connor, his grade-school CYO coach who introduced him to the game, and Speedy Morris, a local legend to Northwest Philadelphia who he's tried to emulate throughout his career.
He also spoke about his humble beginnings at Ford Motor Company and how he ultimately transitioned to coaching.
"I focused on the fact that I have had the same general manager for 45 years, which is my wife," Shirley said. "Then I talked about the fact that I got my mother's blessing, I got my wife's — then fiancée, now wife's — blessing, and my father literally asked my mother if she dropped me on my head when I was young and didn't tell him, because I took a 62% pay cut to go from Ford to Allentown College (DeSales University).
"That, and I had a new car every 3,000 miles at Ford. Now, I'm in a used Maverick."
As he enters his 37th season at the helm of the Rams, Shirley's legacy, as iron clad as it is for all he's accomplished, is still being written. The coach currently sits at 922 wins, putting him on a collision course with both history and, potentially, a milestone 40th season down the road. In the short-term, the Rams will have plenty to prove this year as they look to regain national relevance after posting a 46-3 CACC record between 2022-23 and 2024-25.
Nevertheless, Shirley was as present as ever for the moment, which he calls one of the highlights of his career.
"I've been inducted to my college and my high school and some local area chapters, but this is at a higher level, so I'm honored," Shirley said. "I have total respect for the fact that this is an individual award shared by many -- shared by everybody in our department. It's an institutional award that I happen to get my name on. I will never lose sight of that. [It's also] an honor for my assistant coaches, and most importantly, the players, because I have zero career points.
"So, nice to have 900 wins, but, you know, no points."
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