Dick Polen

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When you’re in this line of work, having someone like Dick Polen to go to in a pinch is like handing the football off to Steve Slaton and getting out of the way. Dick understood the business and he was always willing to help deliver a good story.

Like the time he was once directed by WVU President James Harlow and Athletic Director Red Brown to put together a comprehensive plan of what it would take for the athletic department to get on par with schools like Texas, Ohio State and Alabama.

“We spent six months on that thing and when Harlow saw what we were recommending and how much it was going to cost, we never heard a word about it again,” Polen laughed. “That thing is probably still down at Stewart Hall somewhere collecting dust.”

Polen also recalled sitting in the press box and watching West Virginia’s implosion at Pitt in 1970.

“We had built up that big lead and all of the West Virginia sportswriters were cheering after the good plays,” Polen said. “Dean Billick, Pitt’s SID at the time, got on the press box PA and said, ‘There will be no cheering in the press box!’ He was really mad.

“Well, in the second half when Pitt started turning it around and the Pittsburgh writers began cheering, Billick just stood up there as silent as a tree.”

Last Tuesday night, Nov. 25, Dick Polen died at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He was 62.

Polen, a Belle Vernon, Pa., native, was a former sports reporter for the Valley Independent and the Pittsburgh Press before joining the WVU Sports Information Staff in 1968. The WVU School of Journalism graduate eventually was named Sports Information Director and provided publicity for all six of Bobby Bowden’s years with the Mountaineer football program.

“Dick wasn’t into the flamboyant stuff,” recalled Steve Douglas, President and Chief Executive Officer of the WVU Alumni Association. “Ron Steiner was the exact opposite. Those were two crazy parallels there.”

It was Dick Polen who gave Mike Parsons his start at WVU in 1975.

“I was only a sophomore at Morris Harvey when Dick offered me a graduate assistant position,” Parsons said. “Somehow he worked it out.”

Longtime sportswriter Mickey Furfari said he always had a great working relationship with Dick.

“Shorty Hardman called him ‘No Notes’ because he wouldn’t come up with enough notes for us,” Furfari laughed. “In those days we wrote note columns. I was writing a column everyday back then, including Sunday.”

	Dick Polen, center, pictured with Eddie Barrett and Red Brown to his right and Ben Lusk and Roger Ruhl to his left. WVU Sports Communications photo

Dick particularly enjoyed being around Furfari when Mickey would lose his temper at a game or function. It was during those times when Dick began referring to him as the “The Friendly Scribe.”

“He still called me that,” Furfari said.

In 1975 Polen left the athletic department to work for the WVU Alumni Association. Eventually promoted to alumni director, Polen remained in that role until taking a similar post at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, in 1988.

“He was a die-hard Mountaineer,” said Douglas. “Although he lived in Athens and worked at Ohio University the past 20 years, his loyalty and Mountaineer spirit never ceased.”

According to Douglas, it was Polen who first initiated the extravagant bowl parties Mountaineer fans have grown to enjoy.

“Largely because of Dick the alumni association has had a pre-game event for every football game, home and away. He is the guy that started it,” Douglas said. “We’re well into 30 years and we have never missed a football game for Mountaineer fans and alumni. I’m not sure how many alumni associations around the country have that kind of record.”

Polen also created the popular Crabfeast Alumni Event that remains a yearly staple in Washington, D.C.

“One of the biggest highlights of the year was always Dick Polen’s party,” said Douglas. “They would play the song Duke of Earl and he would come in a tuxedo and a cape. He would play the 45s himself and he wouldn’t let anybody touch them. We would just have a great evening.”

Dick’s only daughter, Alison Renee, he took to calling “Peaches” because she was born right around the time of the 1972 Peach Bowl game against NC State.

Even while working at the WVU Alumni Association, Polen continued to serve as Jack Fleming’s spotter for radio broadcasts.

“If you listen to Jack Fleming’s call of the Bill McKenzie field goal there is someone in the background screaming and that was Dick Polen,” Douglas said. “Dick was an SID and he knew to be quiet in those situations but that game was unbelievable and he just couldn’t help himself.”

After taking early retirement in 2000, Polen worked at a men’s clothing store in Athens until it closed earlier this year. In the meantime, Dick would frequently email WVU stories that he thought were interesting. That was simply the old SID in him.

“As a tribute to Dick the final song played at his funeral was Country Roads,” Douglas said.