WVU Sports Hall of Fame
An outstanding basketball player and coach, Benwood, West Virginia’s Rudy Baric will forever be remembered by Mountaineer fans for his efforts in helping WVU capture the 1942 National Invitation Tournament title in New York City.
A team captain for Coach Dyke Raese, the 6-3 center helped WVU to a 16-4 regular season record with valuable wins over the likes of Penn State, Pitt, Army, Washington & Jefferson and Duquesne.
Seeded last among the eight-team NIT field, WVU posted a first-round upset of No. 1 seed Long Island, 52-49 behind the stellar play of Baric.
After that victory, the Mountaineers topped Toledo 51-39 before defeating Western Kentucky 47-45 in front 17,000 fans at Madison Square Garden to capture the tournament. Baric garnered MVP laurels in leading West Virginia to its first national championship in basketball.
Baric assumed the WVU head coaching duties the very next year, leading the Mountaineers to a 14-7 record. The record is all the more remarkable when realizing only one player, Scotty Hamilton, was back from the previous season.
The team was comprised of mostly sophomores during the first season that scholarships were offered in basketball at WVU.
A three-year letterman who helped the Mountaineers to a 45-20 record during his three years as a regular, Baric is a member of the West Virginia all-time team.
Baric was a highly sucessful prep basketball coach 1984 inductee into the South Jersey Basketball Hall of Fame. He died April 5, 1993, in Carneys Point, New Jersey.
