Lifetime Service
December 01, 2004 04:37 PM | General
December 1, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – About a year ago when the Morgantown Touchdown Club was honoring long-time equipment manager Carl Roberts for his many years of service to West Virginia University, WVU Director of Athletics Ed Pastilong got an idea.
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| Carl Roberts pictured with Ed Pastilong and former ADs Fred Schaus and Leland Byrd as well as his son Mike Roberts.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
He decided to establish a place down in the football equipment area at the Milan Puskar Center where student-athletes, coaches and fans could view a permanent plaque commemorating Roberts’ service to WVU.
Wednesday it became a reality.
Several of Carl’s friends including former WVU athletic directors Fred Schaus and Leland Byrd were on hand Wednesday morning for an informal presentation in the Puskar Center equipment room.
"When they introduced Carl (at the Touchdown Club banquet) and mentioned all of his years of service to the University, Carl said something that stuck with me,” Pastilong said. “He said, ‘I’ve worked all of those years and Lucille (his late wife) and my family appreciated every paycheck, but we loved every athlete that I served.’
“The words of dedication, commitment, loyalty and love are something that this gentleman has followed all of his life,” Pastilong continued. “He’s a man who has been an outstanding citizen, and outstanding employee and a person that we love.
“We’ve selected a place in the football equipment room that we are dedicating to Carl for all of his service.”
Buddy Quertinmont, former Mountaineer basketball player and president of the WVU Varsity Club, presented Carl with the plaque.
“This guy is a true friend of the Quertinmont family,” he said. “He became a part of our family, too.”
Roberts, a Martinsburg native, was the equipment manager for the athletic department from 1947-79, working for football coaches Dud DeGroot, Art Lewis, Gene Corum, Jim Carlen, Bobby Bowden and Frank Cignetti, and basketball coaches John Brickels, Lee Patton, Red King, Fred Schaus, George King, Bucky Waters, Sonny Moran, Joedy Gardner and Gale Catlett.
Among other WVU coaches Roberts worked directly with were baseball and wrestling coach Steve Harrick and baseball coach Dale Ramsburg.
“It was a pleasure for me to work with all of the coaches,” said Roberts. “Very seldom did I ever have an argument with a coach. If they asked me to do something to the best of my ability I tried to do it. My wife liked this (job) more than anything else because she got to go to all of the games.”
Carl’s son Mike spoke on behalf of the Roberts family: “I really appreciate Ed Pastilong for what you’ve done for my dad … the way you’ve treated my father. It really means a lot to him and it means a lot to our family and we appreciate everything.”
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| A plaque commemorating Roberts' career will reside at the Milan Puskar Center equipment room. Current WVU athletic equipment manager Dan Nehlen posed for a picture with Roberts.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Eugene “Suds” Powell, former director of University Parking, recalls working with Carl, now 87, at the old football stadium in the mid 1940s.
“When I started at the University in 1945 Carl and I were working together in the stadium and we were lining off the field,” he said. “After watching him, I hoped like hell he was a better equipment man then he was lining off the football field. We went in late and it was dark and we lined the field off with lime and the next morning at 7 o’clock, we came out and took a look at the field and saw that the goal line was 10 yards short on one side. Talk about two guys lining the field real quick.”
Mountaineer athletic club senior director Gary McPherson recalls working with Roberts while he was head basketball coach at VMI.
“We would come into Morgantown to play games down at the old Field House and on several occasions I would call Carl on a Sunday night when we’d get into town and say, ‘Carl can you come down and get us some basketballs so we could have a little shoot-around,’” McPherson recalled. “Carl was always available to come down but the only thing I’m not sure about was if those basketballs that he gave us to practice with were quite as good as what the Mountaineers used.
“I know they weren’t the same ones we used during the game,” McPherson joked.
Leland Byrd, WVU athletic director from 1972-78, remembers always wanting to ride with Roberts to away games when he was an All-American basketball player for WVU in the late 1940s.
“We had Lee Patton, Lowry Stoops and Carl – those were the three drivers for us,” Byrd said. “We always went for Carl. Nobody wanted to ride with Lowry … he was a tough driver and he went everywhere.
“And of course nobody wanted to ride with the coach. So we had some great trips and we’d always reminisce about going down to White Sulphur Springs and always the trips to New York City.”
Fred Wyant, quarterback of the 1954 Sugar Bowl team, said the equipment room was the most popular place for players to hang around.
“You could always go in and get a laugh with Carl and have a good time after you’d maybe been chewed out after a practice,” Wyant said.
“There is no one that deserves anything like this more than Carl Roberts.”
Others on hand for Wednesday’s presentation were football coach Rich Rodriguez, WVU’s Michael Fragale, Bryan Deem and Dan Nehlen, long-time sportswriter Mickey Furfari, and friends Bob Jack and Ben Bailey.
