From left, Willie Akers, Coach Fred Schaus and Jerry West pose with a basketball together after a game. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Some players can be remembered by their fans years and years after they scored in a career-ending flourish of points, rebounds or even championships.

It’s the championship players and teams that can be recalled, without so much as a blink of the aging eye.

Look back at those West Virginia University basketball teams that employed Fred Schaus’ fast-breaking and smothering pressure defense, for his six seasons in Morgantown.

Six consecutive Southern Conference championships. Charismatic players dotting his rosters like names picked from history books.

In-state athletes plucked from all around the basketball-loving Mountain State and its nearby states.

Many of them now standing in the university’s Sports Hall of Fame. Many of them memorialized as almost immortal.

Schaus came in. And the conference titles joined WVU history like the Monongahela River joins the Allegheny River to make the Ohio at the Golden Triangle in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Schaus and his teams were publicized as being the pillars that formed the unforgettable “Golden Age” of Mountaineer basketball.

Lithe and supremely competitive Jerry West became a worldwide symbol of accomplishment.

Hot Rod Hundley attained a following for his entertaining ways and his team’s dominance.

Lloyd Sharrar took his cues from Schaus and in his quiet and humble ways helped the high-rising Mountaineers to conference titles. The 6-foot-10 center from Meadville, Pa. was effective enough to help the teams carve out a 72-16 overall record in his three years.

College athletes had only three years of eligibility in the Schaus “Golden Age” years of winning.

Sharrar scored 1,178 career points and claimed 1,101 career rebounds in his mostly silent time as a teammate of both West and Hundley.

Placed in the Hall of Fame along with West, Hundley and Sharrar are Lee Patrone, Don Vincent, Willie Akers, Bucky Bolyard, Bob Smith, Pete White, Ronnie Retton and Paul Popovich — all of whom played on at least one team that Schaus coached to their heights.

The apex came for the 1958-1959 team that strangled the Southern Conference through the regular season and league tournament.

The first eight players on that team were West, Smith, Akers, Bolyard, Bob Clousson, Jim Ritchie, Retton and Patrone. Six of them now reside in the Hall of Fame.

In Richmond, Va. at the conference tournament, WVU defeated Davidson (100-65), William & Mary (85-82) and The Citadel (85-66) to win the championship and get an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Only conference champions from around the country could qualify for the NCAA Tournament in those years.

In New York City, the Mountaineers beat Dartmouth (82-68) and moved on to Charlotte where they eliminated St. Joseph’s (95-92) and Boston University (86-82) to reach the national semifinals played at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Ky.

Louisville, playing on its home court, was trampled by the WVU pressure defense, losing in the national semifinals, 94-79.

California beat Cincinnati in the other semifinal game. The Golden Bears edged the Mountaineers in the national championship game, 71-70 and the season had come to an end with a 29-5 overall record.

Many are there that believe the 1957-1958 team was the best-ever of the Schaus teams.

Senior Don Vincent was an integral part of that team — he suffered a broken leg in the rigors of the conference tournament. West Virginia followed Vincent’s season-ending injury with a win in the championship game, but then only three days later in New York City lost to Manhattan (89-84) in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. There were 32 fouls called on WVU and West, Sharrar and Gardner all fouled out.The loss was only the second of the season for the No. 1-ranked Mountaineers, who were left with a 26-2 overall season record.

Winning brings endearing fame. And those WVU teams were the winningest in the so-called “Golden Age.”