Coach Fred Schaus, left, chats with star player Jerry West, who went on to play in the NBA after his time at West Virginia University. Courtesy photo

MORGANTOWN — The villages, the hamlets and the towns were small.

The roads were merciless. The coal mines were often flourishing with their two or even three work shifts.

But the basketball wasn’t small . . . or insignificant.

There was a high school at virtually every county crossroad. And those high schools poured their best players into WVU’s arms, to be molded into conference champions by Fred Schaus, a coach whose own days of playing for the Mountaineers were headlined and chronicled as some of the university’s best.

Schaus took the players from all over the state and blended them with athletes from nearby states to construct his fire and brimstone teams that had the fervent backing of the entire state.

The print media tried to send the latest news about Schaus and his teams to the adoring public. And so did radio announcer Jack Fleming and his polished enthusiasm.

The fast-breaking Mountaineers were members of the Southern Conference, a grouping of teams from Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Virginia Tech, Richmond, Washington & Lee, Davidson, Furman, The Citadel, Virginia Military Institute, William & Mary, George Washington and WVU were the conference teams. They all traveled the roads in buses or vans and nobody ever flew to regular season games.

Yet, WVU did fly. The Mountaineers went three straight seasons in the mid- to late-1950s with unbeaten conference records.

Even when the team went 9-2 in the 1959-1960 season, it still won the all-important conference tournament to once again qualify for the NCAA Tournament in Jerry West’s senior year.

West was from Chelyan and attended East Bank High School. Bucky Bolyard was from tiny Aurora, Bob Smith from Charleston, Willie Akers from Mullens, Ronnie Retton from Fairview, Don Vincent from Shinnston, Bob Clousson from Clarksburg and Butch Goode from Pineville.

Lloyd Sharrar, Jim Ritchie and Joedy Gardner came from Pennsylvania and Lee Patrone from Ohio.

Schaus wanted his teams to be like terriers and greyhounds, playing with a quick tempo on both offense and defense and literally attempting to drain the emotion and energy of the opponents.

The Mountaineers completed the 1957-1958 regular season with one loss and the No. 1 ranking in several national polls. The next season the team reached all the way to the NCAA national championship game before falling by one point to California.

In West’s senior year, the team finished with 26-5 overall record.

Schaus left for the NBA and the Los Angeles Lakers the same year West began his lengthy professional career with the same team.

West Virginia had won seven of eight Southern Conference championships.

The villages, hamlets and towns were still small and soon became less numerous. The roads were a little more accommodating, with the development of the interstate system. The mines had yet to see a decline. But WVU basketball would never be the same . . . and the Golden Era was no more.