Fred Schaus
December 17, 2002 10:58 AM | General
Mickey Furfari At-Large
Mountaineer
Illustrated
Fred Schaus was highly successful during his outstanding career as a basketball player, coach and administrator at the college and professional levels.
"I've been lucky, very lucky," he said recently. "I've said many times that I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."
Indeed, Schaus has excelled at every turn of his sports-filled life. It all started with a hoop on the family farm outside his native Newark, Ohio, when he was just five or six years old.
He was captain of his state championship junior and senior high school teams, then after Navy service he enrolled at WVU. He helped Mountaineer teams to 19-3, 17-3 and 18-6 records before departing in the spring of 1949.
Schaus had earned All-America acclaim, served as student body president and received his bachelor's degree in just three years. What's more, he met wife Barbara, a Morgantown native.
After playing in the NBA for the Fort Wayne Pistons and New York Knicks, he returned to his alma mater in 1954 as head basketball coach at the age of 29. His teams combined for a six-year record of 146-37, six Southern Conference titles, and six NCAA tournament appearances.
The 1957-58 team finished the season ranked No. 1 in the polls but was upset in the NCAA tournament first round. The next year WVU was national NCAA runner-up, losing by just a point to California in the finals.
"Rod Hundley already was here, then we got Jerry West to take over when he left," Schaus recalled. "So, there again, I was in the right place at the right time."
It was pretty much the same situation when he left after the 1959-60 season to coach the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers. West and Hundley also were among his players there. So was Elgin Baylor, like West an all-pro for many years.
Schaus coached the Lakers for seven years, then spent the next five years as the club's vice president and general manager.
But he and Barbara got the urge to return to a college environment. That took them to Purdue, where former WVU coach George King was athletic director. Schaus guided the Boilermakers for six seasons, winning a National Invitation Tournament crown, then served three years as associate AD.
"That enabled me to get more experience as an administrator," Schaus noted. "And that, along with the front office service in L.A., helped me when I came back here."
WVU appointed him as athletic director on September 1, 1981, and he served eight years before retiring on June 30, 1989.
Asked which stint he enjoyed most, Schaus replied:
"That would be hard to say. It's almost like playing several sports and you happen to like the one in season. I really enjoyed each of the things I did, and so did Barb.
"But she and I have felt over the years that very possibly our neatest stretch of service was here as director of athletics. So, again, I was so fortunate to be in the right place at the right time."
Indeed, it was WVU's stroke of good luck to have him. WVU was having serious financial problems in the athletic department.
"But Don Nehlen was here and turned the football program totally around with the new stadium and everything," Schaus said. "Until then, we didn't have enough money to pay our room and board for the tuition scholarships.
"We had to pay them in three or four different installments. But it's a different ballgame now. Barb and I both feel the eight years we spent as AD were very special to us."
They like Morgantown so much they still reside here.
Schaus is a member of the WVU and state Sports Halls of Fame. He's also on the school's all-time team as a player.
