Homer Criddle
November 11, 2002 10:04 AM | General
By Mickey Furfari
Mountaineer
Illustrated
Playing football for West Virginia University in 1962-63-64 admittedly was the best time of Homer Criddle's young life.
So much so, the Huntington native returns to Morgantown nearly every weekend after having retired from high school coaching a year ago. He spent 36 years in that profession, 28 as a head coach.
Criddle, 63, still is teaching at Bealeton High in Virginia. But he intends to retire after two more years and spend more time with wife Suzanne, also a WVU graduate.
"I love to come up and watch the Mountaineers play," he said recently. "It also gives me a chance to visit my two sons, who are graduates of Marshall. Adam lives in Fairmont and Brett is at WVU working on a master's degree in accounting."
Criddle was a Marine Corps veteran when he enrolled here. As a result, he was somewhat older than all of his teammates and four months older than Galen Hall, his position coach. The head mentor was Huntington native Gene Corum.
"We had a lot of good halfbacks, and we played both offense and defense," he recalled. "Also, freshmen weren't eligible for varsity competition then. So we could play only three years."
Unfortunately, Criddle's career was limited to two and a half seasons. He broke his collarbone midway of his senior year, and he missed the team's final five contests and the Liberty Bowl game against Utah.
But he caught a 53-yard pass from Allen McCune for a touchdown before suffering the season-ending injury in a 23-10 victory at Virginia Tech. He also had a 60-yard touchdown toss from Ed Pastilong that year in the opening 20-10 win over Richmond.
In another highlight, Criddle raced 44 yards for the game-winning touchdown at George Washington, 20-16, in 1963. He logged 71 yards on rushes and receptions that day.
It also was as a junior that he caught an eight-yard scoring shot from Jerry Yost in a 34-0 romp at Boston College.
Criddle carried the ball just five times for 14 yards in 1962, 48 times for 248 yards in 1963, and 28 times for 155 yards in 1964. He had five receptions for 141 yards in '63 and 13 for 237 yards in '64.
He was credited with 44 tackles on defense his first two seasons.
"We had a lot of fun and won some big games," he said. WVU posted records of 8-2 in '62, 4-6 in '63, and 7-4 in '64.
Victims included Pitt 15-8, Syracuse 17-6 and 28-27, Vanderbilt 26-0, and Kentucky 26-21.
Criddle received his bachelor's degree in 1965, served as head football coach at Kingwood High one fall while student teaching, then went to Point Pleasant High to serve as an assistant to Dick Ware.
"He urged me to come back and get my master's degree, which I received in 1967," he explained. That also gave him an opportunity to spend a year as a graduate assistant on Jim Carlen's coaching staff.
A three-year hitch as head coach at St. Marys High was followed by similarly successful stints at South Charleston (eight years), St. Albans (five years), and Greenbrier East. His teams played for the state championship three times and the one in 1988 finished undefeated.
Robert Alexander was one of his prize pupils at South Charleston. Among his players at Greenbrier East was Bimbo Coles, who went on to star in basketball for Virginia Tech and play in the NBA.
"I really enjoyed it up here," Criddle said. "Since retiring from coaching, I decided that I was going back as often as I could to where I had the best time of my life."
