Stephen M. Hood

Stephen M. "Sam" Hood is a distant relative of Confederate General John Bell Hood. He is a retired industrial construction company owner and lives in Huntington, WV, with his wife, the former Martha Ann Hager. He graduated from Kentucky Military Institute in 1970 and earned a BBA in Marketing from Marshall University in 1976. Sam served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and has had a lifelong interest in Civil War history and the sport of soccer.

His first book, "John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General," won the 2013 Albert Castel Civil War History Book of the Year Award and the 2014 Walt Whitman Civil War History Book of the Year Award. Sam is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Blue Gray Education Society of Chatham, VA, and a past president of the Confederate Memorial Hall Museum Foundation in New Orleans.

Sam is the founder and former Head Men's Soccer Coach at Marshall University. In the 1980s, he coached Huntington St. Joseph Catholic High School to four West Virginia State Championships. He was named West Virginia High School Coach of the Year in 1990 and 1993. He was a charter inductee into the West Virginia High School Soccer Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2010 and was inducted into the West Virginia Soccer Hall of Fame in 2016.