(This is the fourth in a series of profiles of the 2015 Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame inductees)

Ed Marsh was a highly touted all-state quarterback from Vernon, Texas, when he came to Baylor in the fall of '67. But his future changed on the luck of the draw and a bad break.

"Delaney Cook, Mike Beane, Steve Stuart and I all came in as quarterbacks," Marsh said. "Catfish Smith was our freshman coach at the time. Before our first game that year, Catfish put four numbers in a hat and said whatever number you draw, I'm going to let each one of you play a quarter. I drew No. 4, then started at cornerback and broke my hand the first series. And that ended that."

Marsh came back to play a little bit of quarterback as a sophomore on the varsity team the next season, but "I transferred over to defense and loved every minute of it."

While he started at cornerback on defense, what got Marsh elected to the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame as part of the 2015 induction class was punting. Not only did he lead the old Southwest Conference in punting average his last two seasons, Marsh had the national-best average as a junior in 1969 (43.6), a mark that stood as a Baylor single-season record for 13 years.

Playing for teams that won just five games in his three varsity seasons, Marsh still holds the single-season record with 88 punts (in an 11-game season) and ranks in the top 10 with a 41.51-yard career average.

"I guess you can look at it two ways: I either messed up my average by punting that many times, or I got a lot more practice," he said.

Despite the team's lack of success on the field, Marsh still says, "I would do every bit of it again."

"I don't know how to explain it, but they were just a great group of guys to play with," he said. "It was difficult losing all the games and disappointing the fans, but I never saw any quit in anybody I played with. Everybody was doing the best they could."

As a quarterback growing up, Marsh had never played defense until he got to Baylor. But he broke into the starting lineup as a sophomore when another player got injured and "just kind of hung on." Undrafted, he went to a rookie camp with the Denver Broncos and spent a week with the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers in 1971. "I got cut by those three teams and come home and went to work. I had a good week at Pittsburgh, but it was just one of those things. The timing wasn't right, I guess."

With a degree in business management, Marsh spent three years in the insurance business in the Dallas/Fort Worth area before returning home to Vernon to run the family's farm and ranch business. He and his wife, Jan, have six children between them.

"Of course, I always loved that, just working with the cattle and everything," said Marsh, now 66. "With the droughts, we've cut way back on the farm and agriculture land, just down to some grass pastures. And I'm getting to that age where I want to slow down a little bit, anyway. But I've enjoyed every minute of it."

Nearly 45 years removed from his playing days, Marsh said he never even dreamed of getting into the Baylor Hall of Fame.

"I told my wife, I don't get excited about a lot of things, but that really was an exciting thing and a humbling thing to me," he said, "because I know there's just so many guys and gals that have come through there that are just awesome athletes. It was really a shock to me, but I can't tell you how appreciative I am of an honor like that."

Joining Marsh in the 2015 Hall of Fame class are football's Tom Muecke, basketball's Danielle Crockrom and Terry Black, golfer Jimmy Walker, soccer's Molly Cameron, track's Bayano Kamani and Benedikt Dorsch from men's tennis.

The banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, at the Ferrell Center. Tickets are $50 each and can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at tammy_hardin@baylor.edu.