Fun With Numbers
September 03, 2007 08:49 PM | General
September 3, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Have you ever wondered who WVU played in its first bowl game? Better yet, do you know the name of the bowl and the final score? Have you ever found yourself arguing with a buddy over which game marked the Mountaineers’ first official football win?
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| WVU graduate Mark DeVault has developed an online encyclopedia of WVU sports statistics at wvustats.com.
Submitted photo |
Fear not. Thanks to WVU alumnus Mark DeVault, West Virginia fans across the country and throughout the world now have a convenient, in-depth web site full of Mountaineer sports history.
DeVault’s website, wvustats.com (formerly mountaineerstats.com and now under the West Virginia University athletics web site umbrella), was born out of curiosity.
“It was four or five years ago and we were just sitting at one of the basketball games and I asked Joe Swan where they kept their old statistics,” DeVault explains.
The Morgantown, W.Va., native was looking to compare stats for basketball legend Jerry West. Unable to do so easily, DeVault decided to put his computer science degree to use and start his own website that would include all of the stats in WVU basketball history.
“He said they had filing cabinets with everything in it and I said that with the Internet I thought we could do something I little better than that,” DeVault said.
Basketball was the first sport he tackled and while a few holes still exist, DeVault says he has all but eight box scores online from every WVU basketball game dating back to the inaugural 1903-04 season.
While DeVault used the file cabinets in the WVU Sports Communications Office to uncover stats back to the mid-1950s, the older games were discovered spending long days at the University library.
“It was a matter of looking at the newspapers. It wasn’t too tough,” DeVault said. “I could go to the library, spend a few hours there, and print out the box scores for several seasons.”
After doing women’s basketball, an admittedly easier sport to track because its history dates back only to the 1970s, DeVault then took on the daunting task of tackling football.
“Once I started football, I realized it would be much more complicated than I had initially thought,” DeVault said. “There are just so many more stats in football than in basketball.”
The football aspect of the site has been a labor of love for DeVault. The page includes such fun facts as the season-by-season statistics and an area to view everything that occurred on a specific date in history, including past players birthdays.
“I have all the games in there. I’m still filling in players’ jersey numbers and still filling in home towns in some cases. As far as the game-by-game stats I’m only back to 2001,” DeVault said. “I’m still filling in all the 100-yard rushers and the entire 200-yard passing games. I have some of the records in there.”
DeVault readily admits that the work is never done with the site. His fascination with sports statistics fuels the effort he puts in each day to keep the site as up to date as possible. The site currently contains information on football, men’s and women’s basketball and women’s soccer. DeVault hopes to tackle men’s soccer next.
“When I was little I was the type of kid that would sit there and look at the baseball standings and player statistics,” DeVault said. “I’d look at a player and he might be third in the league in batting and I would figure out what he had to bat over the next few games to move up. I’ve always enjoyed fooling around with stats.”
Last spring the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics decided to assume site hosting to help attract visitors. DeVault’s work has already been an invaluable resource for many in the WVU Sports Information Office (including myself). It is the perfect tool for finding a quick statistical note or for comparing players of different eras.
“At first I think everyone just thought Mark is having some fun,” DeVault said with a laugh. “People have started to realize that this is useful. Statistics are available right there and people can come up with some interesting, off-beat stats.”
By the way, West Virginia beat Gonzaga 21-13 in the East-West Bowl on Christmas Day in 1922 for its first bowl victory. And the first win? WVU over Mt. Pleasant, 12-0, on October 7, 1893.
Happy hunting!
