There was no sports journalist more wired to West Virginia University than Mickey Furfari. Ever. If you wanted to know something about the Mountaineers, then Mickey was ALWAYS your first phone call.
I called him so many times through the years that I could recite his telephone number backwards: 0-5-3-2-2-9-2-4-0-3.
See, told ya.
His body of work was prodigious – he churned out perhaps more than a couple million words worth of copy during a distinguished journalistic career that spanned 65 years - almost entirely in Morgantown with the exception of his years working for Stars and Stripes during World War II and his one year working for the Associated Press in Charleston.
And virtually all of his prose had some sort of WVU angle.
Sure, he covered local high school sports, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers on occasion and took the bowling, little league and golf scores when no one else at the paper was around to do so, but covering West Virginia University athletics, his alma mater - especially Mountaineer football and basketball - was always his No. 1 love.
It was a shared love of the Mountaineers where our interests intersected and why we always got along so well.
If you were lucky enough to pin Mickey down for any amount of time, you could get a book’s worth of material out of him. I can attest to this because I’ve got four of them out there so far, thanks to Mickey’s willingness to share many of his life’s experiences covering the Mountaineers.
I grew up in the Ohio Valley where I was raised on Bill Van Horne’s lengthy sports columns in the Wheeling New Register, but Bill’s knowledge of the Mountaineers was not nearly as extensive as Mickey’s, nor, for that matter, was Charleston’s Shorty Hardman’s, nor Bluefield’s Stubby Currence’s, nor even Fairmont’s Bill Evans.
Mickey outlived them all, and his mind was sharp as a tack right up to the end.
At 92, it only took a couple of little reminders to get Mick’s memory revved up. Like the time legendary coach Adolph Rupp refused to let him cover the Kentucky Invitational one year because he found out Mickey had written a column accusing his players of purposely trying to break Jerry West’s nose.
“I called up Kentucky’s sports information director to get my credential for the KIT and he said he couldn’t give me one until I talked to Coach Rupp first,” Mickey recalled. “I said, ‘Hell, I don’t need one then. I will buy a ticket and cover the damned tournament from the stands.’ He said I couldn’t because the tournament was already sold out.”
So Mickey had to wait on hold until Coach Rupp got on the phone.
“I HEARD YOU’VE BEEN WRITING BAD STUFF ABOUT ME, BOY,” Rupp shouted from the other end of the line.
“That’s not true, coach,” Mickey replied. “What I wrote was that some people have made the accusation that your players employed rough tactics in order to try and take Jerry out of the game, not that you ordered them to do so.”
“Well, it’s not true,” Rupp answered.
“I would be happy to clarify that in my next column then,” Mickey said.
“That would be fine, boy. You can get your credential for the tournament,” Rupp said.
Or, the time Lefty Driesell hounded Furfari in the press room after a WVU-Davidson game demanding that Mickey explain what he meant when he wrote that Driesell was “controversial.”
“What the hell does ‘controversial’ mean?” Driesell asked Furfari.
“Well, Lefty, it means you are controversial,” was Mickey’s reply.
Or, the occasion during a cocktail party at the Hotel Morgan the night before a Syracuse-West Virginia football game when a slightly over-served Ben Schwartzwalder took a swing at Mickey for something he had written about him in the paper.
For many years afterward, the two old friends always got a big laugh out of that whenever they got together.
For those who worked at WVU in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and even into the 2000s, Mickey was known as the “Friendly Scribe” because of his sometimes cantankerous demeanor, which could erupt with volcanic force during press conferences whenever young journalists (or, more likely young television journalists) would try and muscle their way closer to the front toward their interview subject.
Of course, there is a backstory to how the “Friendly Scribe” came to be, too.
West Virginia had lost miserably to Virginia in the Tobacco Bowl in Richmond in 1965 and Mickey was in need of a ride back to Morgantown, so he tagged along with WVU administrators Eddie Barrett and Lowry Stoops, and School of Physical Education dean Ray Duncan.
As the story goes, Mickey insisted that he pick up the dinner tab when the group finally stopped to get something to eat during their long drive home.
“Gentlemen, that’s the least I can do for you letting me ride with you,” Furfari proclaimed.
Mickey interviews Mountaineer coach Don Nehlen, circa 1988.
“My, you are one friendly scribe!” exclaimed Stoops, who, according to Barrett, was well-known throughout town for his frugality.
Thanks to Eddie, the nickname “Friendly Scribe” stuck.
Mickey was always looking for notes to put in his Thursday morning tidbits column and if you were a sports information director and you weren’t aware of birthdays, anniversaries, special occasions or anyone who was accomplished with WVU sports ties, then you immediately became known as “No Notes” in Mickey’s book.
Furfari’s Thursday morning column of tidbits became so popular that it was once the subject of a heated disagreement between two old West Virginia media icons - and Morgantown High classmates - Furfari and Jack Fleming.
The “Voice of the Mountaineers” was miffed about something Mickey had written in one of his tidbit columns and Fleming confronted him about it in the press room prior to a West Virginia-Duquesne game at Pittsburgh’s old Civic Arena.
“Mickey, all you do is write a damned gossip column,” Fleming growled.
“Well, Jack, if that’s true then you would be my No. 1 subject!” was Mickey’s terse reply.
Fleming and Furfari loved sharing their versions of that story to get a few laughs.
Sometimes, Mickey’s hair-trigger temper could get the best of him as it once did during a heated encounter with WVU football player Bill Marker following a winning performance at Penn State in the mid-1950s.
“In those days, WVU put out two releases, one early in the week and one on Thursday before the game,” Mickey once recalled. “Eddie Barrett put in one of the releases that Bill Marker had not practiced well and would not start, and might not even play against Penn State.
“Well, Marker wound up having a helluva game so I go down to the locker room at Beaver Stadium and he jumped my ass,” Furfari chuckled. “I said, ‘Wait a minute, you go jump on the coach. Not me. He said that, I didn’t. Don’t get on me, I didn’t put words in his mouth!”
When the two were finished arguing, the campus policeman refused let the Scribe go back up to the press box to retrieve his game materials.
“The cop was upset because they lost, for one thing, but he was also upset because I was a little loud,” Mickey said. “Well, there were other guys that were loud in there, too!”
The late Dick Hudson, Charleston Daily Mail sports editor, remembered a time when Mickey dressed down some four-star generals during a West Virginia-Army football game in 1961.
“Up in the press box there were a couple of retired generals sitting next to us and they thought they were king,” Hudson recalled in 2011. “The Army students were making a bunch of noise during the game and Gene Corum called a timeout and took his team off the field until the people shut up.
“Those generals sitting behind us started complaining about that and Mickey turned around and gave them hell. (Former Army football coach) Earl Blaik was sitting next to them and he joked, ‘That was the first time those generals had been chewed on like that since they were cadets!’” Hudson laughed.
In 1959, Mickey was the first to hear about the unanimous no-confidence vote the athletic council gave football coach Art Lewis, and it was Mickey who confronted WVU President Elvis Stahr about the athletic council's decision when they got into the same hotel elevator during the basketball team’s trip out in California while playing in the Los Angeles Classic.
“Bill Hart was the editor of the Dominion News and he found out at a dinner party that the athletic council had voted unanimously to fire Pappy, so Bill called me really early in the morning and he said, ‘Get ahold of Stahr and ask him when he’s going to act on the council’s recommendation to fire Art Lewis as the football coach,’” he recalled.
So Mickey camped out in the hotel lobby and literally chased Stahr right into the elevator when he first saw him.
“I said, ‘Dr. Stahr, when are you going to take action on the athletic council’s unanimous recommendation to change the head football coach?’ He said, ‘Uh, uh, uh, I’m going to take care of that when I get back.’”
When Stahr arrived in Pittsburgh at the conclusion of the tournament, he was greeted by a horde of reporters at the airport after Mickey broke the story.
Mickey was also the first journalist to know about Penn State’s impending move to the Big Ten Conference in 1988, a year before it happened - even knowing before many of those within Penn State’s athletic department.
Furfari had struck up a close friendship with Penn State athletic director Jim Tarman and during a casual conversation at the Atlantic 10 basketball tournament, Tarman let it slip out that the Nittany Lions were about to make the move to the Big Ten.
Furfari chose to sit on his big scoop and keep his friend’s confidence, much to his chagrin years later.
Mickey even worked undercover once for a competitor back in the days when there were no bylines on stories.
Bill Evans, editor of the rival Fairmont Times newspaper, was covering a political event in Morgantown and he couldn’t be at West Virginia’s 1952 football game at Pitt, so he asked Mickey if he would write a story for the Times in his place.
“Morgantown didn’t have a Sunday paper then and they didn’t have bylines then anyway, so he asked me if I would cover for him,” Mickey recalled. “It was a day game and they had a Western Union operator sitting right next to me to file my story.
“Of course, I didn’t tell my employers because they were our competitors, so I got to write on deadline about the first-ever road victory against a nationally ranked opponent in school history.”
Indeed, for parts of eight decades - 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, Mickey Furfari was the guy we all relied on for our Mountaineer sports fix.
He always delivered, right up until his final sports column for the Dominion Post on June 23. He died earlier today following complications from a stroke.
Mickey was the person who always got to ask the first question at WVU press conferences, much the way Helen Thomas was afforded the same status during her later years covering White House media affairs.
It began with Rich Rodriguez in football and continued in men’s basketball with Bob Huggins, two coaches Mickey covered as Mountaineer players.
Mickey covering the WVU Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2004.
Huggins, an avid story teller and consumer of history, always enjoyed hearing what Mick had to say about the various eras, teams, players and coaches.
“I had a really good relationship with Mickey when I played here at West Virginia and that relationship certainly carried on when I came back here as a coach,” Huggins said. “I will certainly miss him asking the first question at every press conference.”
All of us are going to miss Mickey’s first question, among many other things.
Rest in peace, my good friend.
Comments on the passing of long-time, legendary West Virginia sports journalist Mickey Furfari:
West Virginia University director of athletics Shane Lyons -
“It will not be the same without Mickey Furfari covering West Virginia athletics. Often known as the Dean of West Virginia Sportswriters, Mickey was truly a legend. I can’t begin to imagine how many lives he touched with his stories about the Mountaineers throughout his 60-plus years of providing coverage. He was a Hall of Famer, who will never be replaced. We lost a piece of our history with his passing, and he and his writing will be missed.”
West Virginia University men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins -
“WVU Athletics has lost one of its true icons. Mickey and I always had a great relationship to a large degree because he covered my father at Morgantown High. Every conversation that I had with him over the years, he always said, ‘please say hello to your parents for me.’
“He refereed my basketball games when I was 7-8-9 years old when I played games at St. Francis High School and at Spruce Street Methodist Church. I was in awe when I saw him because of the admiration my dad had for him. For a seven-year old kid to have Jack Fleming and Mickey officiate your basketball games, I was an awe.
“I had a really good relationship with Mickey when I played here at West Virginia and that relationship certainly carried on when I came back here as a coach. I will certainly miss him asking the first question at every press conference.
“On behalf of the entire WVU basketball program, our thoughts and sympathies go out to Mickey’s family. People like Mickey don’t come along every day. He was truly a once in a lifetime sports journalist.”
Former West Virginia University and Hall of Fame basketball player Jerry West -
“Mickey loved the University. I know for me he was a big part of my life. He followed me all my career, and he was just one of those guys that you felt good about. He had a great historical background in terms of West Virginia sports. Unlike today’s press, he was not there to critique every performance, he was there to report the game. For me, he was a great resource in learning how to interact with the press that has helped me my entire career. When I was at the University, I was so naïve and backward in dealing with the press, but Mickey proved to be a great resource in helping me learn to interact. He was trustworthy. When you talked to him, you knew you could trust him. It’s a sad day for me and a lot of people who admired and respected him.”
Former West Virginia University and Hall of Fame football coach Don Nehlen -
“Mickey Furfari lived a great life. The one big thing I can say about Mickey was he did what he loved his entire life, he loved writing about West Virginia and did it all the way until the day he died. That’s very special.
“When I came here, the program was down, and Mickey had already been here for a long time. As I look back, Mickey was always fair and consistent with his coverage of our program. He never wanted to coach the team – he would just report the facts. He did a great job covering us, always worked hard and did it with integrity.”
West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee -
"Mickey Furfari has been an institution in West Virginia for more years than many of us have been alive, and there is no one who has served as a more passionate advocate for the state in that time. Mickey was more than a sports reporter; he was a conscience for athletics and athletics administrators, always holding their feet to the fire to uphold the best interests of student-athletes. There will never be another Mickey Furfari."
West Virginia University women's basketball coach Mike Carey -
"Today we lost a dear friend and a great journalist. Mickey's contributions to West Virginia University are endless. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Furfari family."
- Michael Fragale, Bryan Messerly, Mike Montoro, Russell Luna and April Kaull contributed to this story
