Hall of Fame
Llewellyn “Tom” Coble, a native of Mercersburg, lettered in track, cross country, and basketball.
Coble was one of the top track athletes in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) in the early 1930s. As a freshman in 1930, he won the PSAC title in the mile run with a time of 4:40.3, which was a meet record. After dropping out of school for a year for financial reasons he returned and competed in track and basketball from 1932 to 1934. In 1933 he won the PSAC crown in the mile run again, finishing in 4:47.0. He also was in third in the two mile run that season. Coble was the only Shippensburg runner to win a distance race at the PSAC championships until Gary Bicking and John Doub won distance races in 1979.
Coble served as captain of the track team in 1934. He lettered eight times during his career, twice in cross country and three times in track and basketball.
Coble is a retired educator. During his career he served as a teacher, principal, and school board member in Montgomery Township in Franklin County and with James Buchanan Jointure. He also was assistant high school principal and athletic coach at Fannettsburg High School, coaching girls’ softball and boys’ baseball. Coble served as an elementary principal in Washington County, Maryland.
Coble was very active in community and in farming. He served on the Executive Committee of the Farmers Union Co-op in Greenscastle, which provided a milk market for more than 900 milk producers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. He served as committeeman to represent Montgomery Township with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and was surveyor and crop reporter for Montgomery and Warren Townships.
Coble also operated a dairy farm and raised pure-bred Ayrshires. He served on the Central Pennsylvania Ayrshires Board of Directors.
