Schaus

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Media maven Jack Fleming tried to put his utmost attention on everything West Virginia University.

Fleming was a graduate of WVU. When he commanded the radio airwaves for the broadcasts of both football and basketball, his unabashed rooting for the Mountaineers was as evident as a blast from the rifle of the school’s Mountaineer mascot.

He always made mention of the hollows, hamlets, crossroad junctions and small populated areas of his beloved Mountain State. He kept the legions listening, as his enthusiasm spilled over in his broadcasts.

If it was a basketball game at night in the 6,000-seat Field House hard by the Monongahela River, Fleming knew loyal fans working the next day in the state’s far-flung coal mines were hanging on his words. Those people couldn’t get to faraway Morgantown and then return to Gary, Red Jacket, Cucumber or Coalwood in time for the next day’s work shift.

There were no interstate highways. Only the two-lane highways where the deer were thick alongside the many curves and mountainsides.

West Virginia University and Marshall were the only two NCAA Division I schools. And West Virginia was beating the stuffings out of its Southern Conference opponents.

Winning basketball . . . and enough football quality to gain bowl games or positive publicity from the media.

Fleming catered to the people’s loyalty. He knew his audience might not be wearing gold and blue, but they would bleed the school’s colors if that were necessary to win games.

Football Mountaineers came from the state’s high schools to play for Art “Pappy” Lewis and his successors. Even a higher percentage of basketball players from the state’s high schools ran themselves ragged if need be for Fred Schaus and then George King.

The put-’em-on-a-pedestal athletes came from Chelyan, Fairview, Aurora, Clarksburg, Mullens, Charleston and Pineville. They never seemed to waiver in their drive and need to please both coach and the state’s fan force.

Lots of wins in Southern Conference basketball. Lots of league championships.

Basketball was an essential deflection from the hardscrabble everyday work life. And basketball in the state’s high schools was important to the wellbeing of the small communities that all had teams galvanizing their fan bases.

Winning in Fellowsville and Tunnelton was as important as winning at Charleston High or Beckley Woodrow Wilson.

Cable networks carrying national games had not come along as yet. Television was in its infancy when it came to carrying games to Welch, Sophia or Harts.

Even today when other forms of entertainment have monopolized people’s recreational dollars, West Virginia University has kept its fan base enough to draw sellout crowds to its 14,000-seat Coliseum. Several times this season, crowds of 14,000-plus crammed in to see the Mountaineers go after the likes of Kansas, Kansas State or Texas.

West Virginia played 26 games in the gold-tinged years of Coach Fred Schaus. It played 31 regular season games this season.

The roads are markedly improved. The arena now seats 8,000 more than since-named Stansbury Hall.

The winning is not nearly as consistent as it once was when trumping Davidson, George Washington or Richmond, but the loyal crowds are just as fervent and just as washed in everything West Virginia University.