September 29 Notebook
September 29, 2005 04:50 PM | General
September 29, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Count me among those sad to see the West Virginia-Virginia Tech football series coming to an end. The proximity of the two schools and the passion both have for the game makes it a natural rivalry.
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| Perhaps the closest Bobby Bowden, a devout Christian, ever came to cussing out a ref was at Virginia Tech in 1974.
WVU Sports Communications photo |
Like any longstanding series there are ebbs and flows -- sometimes one team is up and the other is down and vice versa. Regardless of their records West Virginia-Virginia Tech has always been a hard-hitting and hotly contested game, even before Frank Beamer transformed the Hokies into a national power in the early 1990s and Don Nehlen did the same for the Mountaineers in the 1980s.
When the Hokies were called the Gobblers or simply known as VPI, and when West Virginia wore those atrocious white helmets, there were enough things going on between the two schools to keep the games interesting.
Former Mountaineer assistant coach Donnie Young has probably been a first-hand participant in more WVU-Virginia Tech games than anyone else as both a WVU player for Gene Corum in the mid 1960s and as a coach for Bobby Bowden, Frank Cignetti and Nehlen. Young admits the games always left an impression on him.
“The hardest hitting games I’ve ever seen,” Young said. “Even when I was a freshman in college and we played their freshman team it was one of the most vicious games that I had ever been involved with. It was a brutal, physical football game.
“For a young guy from Clendenin that was an eye-opening experience and it kind of set the stage for the varsity games,” he said.
The one West Virginia-Virginia Tech game that really encapsulates this longstanding series came in 1974 when both teams were not very good. First-year Virginia Tech coach Jimmy Sharpe was a Bear Bryant protégé incorporating a new wishbone offense (prior to that Tech had been more of a passing team with quarterback Don Strock and offensive coordinator Dan Henning). The transition led to a disappointing 4-6 record heading into the season finale against the Mountaineers.
West Virginia, meanwhile, was mired in a disappointing 3-7 season and fifth-year coach Bobby Bowden was simply looking to hang onto his job for another year. There wasn’t a person living anywhere close to West Virginia in 1974 ready to proclaim Bowden the game’s next great coach – far from it. In fact, in Morgantown it was said that Bowden and Billy Graham were the only two people that could make a crowd of 50,000 jump up and yell, ‘Good God!’
Consequently, pride was really the only thing on the line in this epic ‘74 meeting. Of course pride means just about everything to both schools.
West Virginia got a 99-yard interception return from Marcus Mauney and an 85-yard touchdown run from Artie Owens to build a 14-6 lead midway through the third quarter.
Longtime Virginia Tech sports information director Dave Smith was a college student then and can still recall in fine detail Mauney’s nifty return.
“It wasn’t one of those where he just caught it on the sideline and went all the way down the field; he weaved through about four guys,” Smith marveled. “It was a heck of a return.”
Virginia Tech rallied and West Virginia eventually retook the lead once again late in the fourth quarter when freshman quarterback Dan Kendra threw a 10-yard touchdown to end Bernie Kirchner with 1:28 remaining in the game.
That’s when the game got interesting.
A West Virginia squib kick gave Virginia Tech the football at its own 34. Forty five yards in West Virginia penalties moved the Hokies well into field goal range. Afterward, some solid investigative journalism by longtime West Virginia sportswriter Mickey Furfari was able to unearth the fact that ACC officials were the culprits.
Thirty of those penalty yards came on one play when a fight broke out after a Bruce Arians pass. The Mountaineers were assessed a 15-yard penalty and another 15 was tacked on top of that when Bowden walked out to the middle of the field to protest the first call. It was probably the closest Bowden, a devout Christian, ever came to cussing out a ref.
“They’re marching the ball right out of the stadium!” cried legendary West Virginia radio voice Jack Fleming.
Another Arians pass and a short Roscoe Coles run moved the ball to the West Virginia six with 15 seconds left. It was easily within kicker Wayne Latimer’s range.
“I had left the stadium and was standing up on the steps at Cassell Coliseum looking into the stadium because there was a basketball scrimmage going on after the game,” Smith said. “I saw us moving the ball and I almost felt apologetic because it was all coming on penalty yards. I was saying to myself ‘That’s just not right.’”
Latimer’s first try was blocked but still another penalty was called on the play – the fourth of the drive. A hushed stadium turned into one loud groan when Latimer’s second attempt veered off to the left.
“We had two shots to win in the final 15 seconds and in the game play by play it simply says, ‘Latimer field goal attempt WAY off to the left,’” Smith laughed. “At the end it was almost like we really didn’t deserve to win it anyway.”
Many times in this series it was the other way around. That’s what made West Virginia-Virginia Tech games so interesting and that’s what I’ll probably miss most about it.
Both schools will move on and do well, just as they did back in the late 1960s when West Virginia decided to leave the Southern Conference to become an independent. The first time they parted ways it only took five years for the two schools to resume playing. I hope the same can be said this time as well.
Note: The views and opinions expressed here are not neccesarily those shared by the Mountaineer Sports Network or West Virginia University.
