Fleming

Pressure defense. Fast breaking whenever possible. Team-oriented. Full of commitment to each other and emitting a feeling that those watching from the sidelines or leaning in to listen on the radio were important to any success they attained.

West Virginia University’s basketball team had the state’s emotions stacked high in their corner of the world.

Coal miners, truck drivers, mom and pop grocers, crossroads diner owners, railroad workers, highway repairmen, educators, salesmen, carpenters, electricians and construction laborers all tried to will the Mountaineers to victory.

The fervent backers of everything “West Virginia” had to glean their information from radio accounts or next-day written reports filed by Mickey Furfari or Tony Constantine. It was no small feat just getting to Morgantown over the narrow, winding and often dangerous winter roads the faithful would have to navigate.

Constantine

But whether your shift in the mine had you rising from your company-owned home at 5 a.m. or your turn at the railroad yard started a 6 a.m. you knew nearly everything worth learning about last night’s 87-65 win over Davidson or Virginia Military Institute of the Southern Conference.

The schedule was bound to lead to a tournament championship sponsored by the conference . . . and then into the fabled NCAA Tournament.

They all had the allegiance of the state.

Bucky Bolyard from tiny Aurora. Willie Akers from the basketball hotbed known as Mullens. Ronnie Retton from the coal village named Fairview.

Jim Warren from Clarksburg, the same locale that gave WVU Bob Clousson.

Furfari

Butch Goode was a southern coalfield product who hailed from Pineville. Bob Smith and Nick Visnic were from from Charleston and Wheeling, respectively.

And the legend-to-be Jerry West came from the sidehill town known as Chelyan.

The only out-of-staters were Lee Patrone (Bellaire, Ohio), Jim Ritchie (Drexel Hill, Pa.) and Joe Posch (Riverside, N.J.).

Wage earners in West Virginia earned their keep. Mountaineer basketball earned their wins with equal amounts of sweat, effort, grit, a chafing defense and a humility, where the players often credited successes to their teammates.

It seemed nothing came easy to the workers from all around the state. And it seemed little came easy to the scrambling, mid-sized players of coaches Fred Schaus and George King.

Winters were hard. Travel could be dangerous. Listening to the often glowing and always pro-Mountaineer broadcasts of Jack Fleming became a way of life for the state’s sports fans.

The populace often thought of themselves as underdogs. Fleming had them in an “us against the world” mode.

And the ever-hustling Mountaineers became an embodiment of the state’s ability to overcome adversity and uphill climbs.