BOULDER — Deon Figures, a first-team All-America defensive back, and Bob Beattie, a ski coach turned TV analyst, are two of the nine former Buffaloes who will be inducted Oct. 30 at the Coors Events Center as the 10th class in the University of Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame.
Figures won the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s best defensive back after his senior season in 1992 and played five seasons in the NFL. He was a first-round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Beattie was only 23 years old when he was named coach of the CU ski team in 1957. His 1959 team won the first national championship for Colorado in any sport, then repeated the feat the next season.
Beattie left Boulder in 1965 for the U.S. Ski Team, and later was the color commentator on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” program and was the network’s ski commentator for the Winter Olympics from 1976-84.
The 2014 class will tie for the third-largest inducted into the Hall of Fame since it was conceived in 1998.
CU athletic director Rick George announced that the Buffaloes will be inducting Hall of Fame classes annually instead of every two years, which had been the case since the third class was inducted in 2000. Denver Post staff
The 2014 class
• Bob Beattie, ski coach (1957-65)
• Forrest B. “Frosty” Cox, basketball coach (1935-50)
• Jim Davis, basketball (1961-64)
• Deon Figures, football (1988-92)
• Bob Jeangerard, basketball (1952-55)
• Linn Long, wrestling (1952-55, 1961-68)
• Don Meyers, track and field (1959-62, 1968-75)
• Herb Orvis, football (1969-71)
• Yvonne Scott, track (1992-96)
