MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - A quick Memorial Day remembrance.
 
For many years, West Virginia University used to present the Roger L. Hicks Memorial Trophy to the team's most outstanding men's basketball player.
 
The trophy sat in a big display case inside the main entrance to the WVU Coliseum with Hicks' picture prominently displayed behind it.
 
Jerry West won the award twice, Mark Workman, Hot Rod Hundley and Rod Thorn once each.
 
It was presented by Hicks' fraternity, Phi Delta Theta.
 
But why an award for Hicks, known by his teammates as Shorty?
 
What made him so special?
 
The Moundsville native made the deciding free throw to give West Virginia a 47-45 victory over Western Kentucky to claim the 1942 NIT championship at Madison Square Garden in New York City – WVU's only basketball national title.
 
He scored eight points in an opening-round upset of Toledo and added a personal tournament-high 12 points in the semifinal victory over favored Toledo.
 
In the finals he contributed nine points.
 
His 88% career free throw mark was a school record that lasted 60 years, and in 1942, he was named a college basketball all-star.
 
But Hicks' basketball exploits were not the reason the University chose to present an award to honor his memory.
 
It was because he made the ultimate sacrifice during World War II.
 
Hicks, WVU's student body president, president of his fraternity and member of the prestigious Mountain and Sphinx men's honoraries, was destined to have a long and productive life.
 
According to an account published in the West Virginia Historical Society by retired West Virginia State associate English professor Patricia Richards McClure, Hicks was inducted into the Army in the summer of 1943 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the infantry at Fort Benning, Georgia.
 
Nine months later, Hicks headed overseas to France as part of Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army. On the night of Nov. 10, 1944, during a patrol outside of Metz, Hicks and his platoon were pinned down by mortar fire and he was killed.
 
He was only 24.
 
For his courage and valor Hicks was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart.
 
"He didn't have to go (to war)," Hicks' younger brother Hugh told Charleston Gazette reporter Sandy Wells in 2012.
 
Shorty was serving as an instructor at Fort Benning when he volunteered for combat.
 
Following the war, the family had his remains returned to Moundsville where he was interred in Mt. Rose Cemetery along with other family members.
 
Hicks was one of three 1942 NIT team members to die while serving their country. Reserve players George Hickey and Don Raese, nephew of coach Dyke Raese, also perished.
 
Meanwhile, NIT most valuable player Rudy Baric earned a Silver Star for bravery while serving in France during the Normandy invasion.
 
And now you know why Tom Brokaw once proclaimed the men and women of that era "The Greatest Generation!"