June 16-21 Blog
June 19, 2008 11:44 AM | General
WVU's Sharp Honored
Posted By John Antonik: June 20, 2008 (9:53 am)
West Virginia University Associate Athletic Director for Business and Administration Russ Sharp was recently recognized by the College Athletic Business Management Association (CABMA) as its Business Manager of the Year.
Sharp was recognized along with Colorado Associate Athletic Director Clayton Hamilton at its annual convention in Dallas earlier this month.
Congratulations to Russ for his contributions to the CABMA and to West Virginia University.
Ford Tough
Posted By John Antonik: June 19, 2008 (11:44 am)
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| Larry Ford |
Asking junior defensive end Larry Ford how much he weighs is about like asking your wife how much she weighs. Ford admitted last week that he’s, um, getting fed up with the questions.
“That’s like my biggest thing,” he laughed. “I’m starting to get sensitive about it actually. When I get it I guess everybody will shut up then.”
For the record the 6-foot-3-inch Ford weighs 234 pounds right now with the hope of reaching 245 or 250 by the beginning of fall camp in August.
“They want me in that range because of my speed,” Ford said. “I’m not trying to get up to 260 or 270, not right now at least.
“Two-forty will look a lot better than 234 so I’m just waiting to add those six pounds,” Ford said.
Ford possesses outstanding ability and could fill the role of an edge pass rusher that the Mountaineers had last year with Johnny Dingle, another undersized converted linebacker who successfully made the move to defensive line.
Ford says this is the first time he has ever been involved in an advanced weight training program so gains could come pretty quickly.
“At my JUCO the coaches would be in the weight room but they didn’t really watch us or were on us like the strength coaches are here,” Ford said.
Odds and Ends …
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| Jedd Gyorko |
The second baseman was also recently honored as the Big East and ECAC rookie of the year after hitting .409 with 95 hits, eight home runs, 17 doubles and 63 RBI. Gyorko was also a second-team all-Big East selection.
Wrote Hall, whose Internet name is Orson Swindle, “He comes with his own gun. He wears oil buckskin and would therefore be very, very difficult to grab in a tussle. He has a thick enough beard to cushion most strikes to the face. His upper-body strength is honed by doing pushups after West Virginia touchdowns; thanks to Pat White, the Mountaineer has done more pushups in the past three years than any human being living. He is a country boy and therefore can survive.”
Number nine on Hall’s list is the Pitt Panther, although I have to question that selection because wasn’t it Ricky Bobby who was able to overcome his fear of racing by driving with a live Panther in the car?
How tough can a Panther be?
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| Joe Alexander |
The top 14 players in the draft are lottery picks and guaranteed money for those picks range from $1.4 million to $4 million for the No. 1 overall selection.
Alexander recently signed with agent Doug Neustadt, president of the Neustadt Group. Neustadt said on the Metro News statewide sportsline that he believes Alexander’s childhood experience in China could make him marketable for endorsements in that country.
Klausing spent six years on Bobby Bowden’s staff at West Virginia from 1970-75, serving as the school’s defensive coordinator. Klausing was a popular coach with the players at WVU who would often come to practice wearing Army boots and combat fatigues. Klausing later spent 10 years as head coach at Carnegie-Mellon.
Another Hall of Fame inductee with WVU ties is Jim Karwoski, who will be enshrined in the inaugural Freedom County Hall of Fame. Karwoski was a football and track letterman at West Virginia who later coached cross country and baseball at Penn State-Beaver.
Dudley was a great promoter, spending the week leading up to the event claiming that tickets for the WVU-Utah game were going like hotcakes. In reality no one wanted to go to Atlantic City to see a college football game in the middle of December at the same place where the Miss America Pageant was held. Less than 6,000 showed up to watch Utah beat West Virginia over the head with a chair.
Dudley had special lights installed to help grow the natural grass that was placed overtop the Convention Center’s concrete surface. New York City columnist Phil Pepe joked that when the game became boring fans could simply watch the grass grow for entertainment.
A Philadelphia writer remarked during the opening coin toss that West Virginia chose to defend the Miss America Pageant stage while Utah opted to defend the boardwalk.
Near the end of the game the PA man announced, “Two minutes remaining – thank God!”
The pageant people didn’t want the game to be played there and were concerned that flying footballs were going to damage the new lights the Convention Center received after serving host to the 1964 Democratic Convention.
Former West Virginia Sports Information Director Eddie Barrett said many of the WVU players were upset when they found out about all of the nice gifts the Utah players received when the two teams got together for the banquet the day before the game.
Gail force winds coming off the Atlantic Ocean kept everyone indoors. Only Utah seemed to enjoy the time spent in Atlantic City.
Dudley took his lumps and put on a happy face, saying afterward that the television coverage was the best he had ever seen for a college football game.
And the following year he moved the game to Memphis.
