Bulger Family Success
February 11, 2004 02:15 PM | General
February 11, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The last few days have been pretty good to Jim and Patty Bulger. As almost everybody knows by now, those two have presented West Virginians with three pretty special gifts in son Marc and daughters Kate and Meg.
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| Quarterback Marc Bulger fired four touchdown passes in the Pro Bowl to lead the NFC to its first win since 2000. (AP photo) |
After a record setting career at West Virginia leading the Mountaineer football program to two bowl games, Marc became a surprise starter for the St. Louis Rams last year and won the starting job this past season, beating out all-pro quarterback Kurt Warner.
Then just a week ago he was named a late replacement for injured Donovan McNabb on the NFC roster for the Pro Bowl. Marc went into the game in a mop up role in the third quarter with the NFC losing 38-13 and fired a Pro Bowl-record four touchdown passes to lead the NFC to a wild, 55-52 win in one of the most entertaining Pro Bowls ever.
Not only is the former Mountaineer signal caller $35,000 richer for leading the NFC to its first win since 2000, but he also claimed the game’s MVP trophy in the process. He became the first WVU player to earn game MVP honors in a professional all-star game since 1972 when Jerry West was voted MVP in the NBA all-star game.
To even be mentioned in the same sentence with Jerry West says enough about what Marc Bulger accomplished Sunday night.
So what is Marc’s reward for winning the MVP trophy? Probably another full-blown quarterback controversy with Kurt Warner next summer when training camp starts for the Rams.
There are some places in the country where Marc Bulger’s talents ARE appreciated.
Back in Morgantown, Marc’s youngest sister Meg is the odds on favorite to be voted Big East rookie of the year. She has been named Big East player of the week five times this season including the last four weeks in a row.
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| Meg Bulger is a leading candidate to be named Big East rookie of the year. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Meg, a 6-foot sometimes guard, sometimes forward and sometimes center, has played all five positions on the floor for the Mountaineers this year and is averaging 9.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. Several basketball observers believe, barring injury, Meg could be the best player to ever put on a WVU uniform by the time her career is finished.
Then there’s Katie, who is now finally beginning to experience the joy of playing on a winning basketball team. The Mountaineer women defeated a nationally ranked team for the first time in 12 years Tuesday night when they knocked off No. 21-rated Virginia Tech, 69-66.
West Virginia went 36 straight games against ranked teams without a win and Tuesday’s triumph was only the fifth time in school history a WVU team has done that against a rated team.
And Kate Bulger was a big reason why West Virginia won the game. The senior hit two crucial three-point baskets down the stretch … one to pull West Virginia to within four with 2:28 to go and the other to give the Mountaineers their first lead of the second half, 63-61 with 1:22 remaining.
“Those were the two biggest threes I’ve ever hit,” she admitted after the game. Kate is the school record holder with 272 three-point baskets heading into Saturday’s game against No. 25-rated Boston College.
Kate finished the Virginia Tech game scoring 23 points on 7 of 17 shooting; she also made all six critical free throws down the stretch.
Now West Virginia (18-5) is in sole possession of second place in a women’s basketball conference considered one of the three best in the country.
West Virginia’s success is especially pleasing to Kate, who happens to be the team’s last remaining link to the miserable 5-22 season of 2001. There were many times then that she thought about transferring because she couldn’t stand the thought of losing the way they did.
But she loved the school and she stuck it out. Now Mountaineer fans are finally repaying her for her loyalty to WVU.
Yesterday, a loud and supportive crowd of 1,234 showed Kate that West Virginians do appreciate her and what her teammates have accomplished this year.
“It means so much to me,” she said. “I can remember my freshman year playing with five people in the stands … just pretty much my family,” she recalled. “To play in front of a crowd like this … hopefully it will keep on going.”
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| Kate Bulger hit two big threes to help West Virginia down a nationally ranked Virginia Tech team Tuesday night. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
After having been on the bottom and listening to all the jokes around campus about how bad they were, Bulger can now say she is one of the players that helped pull West Virginia women’s basketball out of its dark ages. As her senior season winds down, her last remaining goal is to claim some respect for the program she still believes is lacking.
“I don’t think we’ve gotten any respect this whole year but we also have to prove it against the good teams,” she said. “We’re playing four ranked teams in a row and hopefully we can show people that we can beat them.”
In the meantime, Kate and Meg are two of Marc’s biggest fans, often wearing his team-issued Rams sweats and arranging their schedules as best as they can around his football games.
And Marc makes it a point each year to sneak into the Coliseum to watch his sisters play. He was in town the week before he left for Hawaii to watch them play against Georgetown, and he was on hand when Kate scored her 1,000th career point last year against Notre Dame.
They all share in the pleasure of each other’s successes.
Yet even though Kate says seeing her big brother win the MVP award was pleasing, she admits beating Virginia Tech Tuesday night was an even bigger thrill.
“It was nice to see that and win the MVP but it was a great feeling for me beating Virginia Tech,” she said.
Considering what Katie has been through here at West Virginia, I’m sure big brother Marc probably feels the same way.
