MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Last week, we detailed the fascinating story of how Mountaineer Field came to be – the political maneuvering and jostling that took place during the 1977 West Virginia legislative session that ultimately produced a new football stadium.
 
One critical account in that story was missing – that of Dr. Leland Byrd, West Virginia University's director of athletics at the time.
 
Dr. Byrd, now 93 and self-quarantining in Morgantown, returned my call on Thursday morning to share what he remembers about that momentous time.
 
So, as the late Paul Harvey used to say, and now, the rest of the story …
 
"In 1974, the Morgantown Code Enforcement notified the athletic department and the WVU Physical Plant that unless immediate repairs were made to the west side of the stadium, it was going to be condemned by the city," Byrd recalled. 
 
The department made the necessary repairs to keep it open, but instead of adding yearly expenses that would have totaled several thousand dollars a year, Byrd thought it better to have a feasibility study done on the stadium to see if it could be renovated at a reasonable cost.
 
So, with WVU president James G. Harlow's permission, he contacted the original construction firm that built the old stadium to see how much it would cost to repair the facility and add a second deck with 10,000 additional seats to increase its capacity to 45,000.
 
"They came back with a plan that they could renovate the stadium and add 10,000 seats by constructing an overhang on the west side of the stadium overtop of Campus Drive," Byrd said. "They estimated the plan would cost about $10 million.
 
Byrd also asked them to provide a ballpark estimate on how much it would cost to build a 50,000-seat stadium at another location in Morgantown.
 
They said it would cost approximately $20 million but would not include land acquisition or any additional prep work needed to get the site ready.
 
That's how the seemingly arbitrary $20 million figure was attached to a new football stadium.
 
"When went to see Dr. Harlow about approaching the Legislature for funding the project, he said his hands were tied because all college presidents in the state at the time had been notified that they could not go to the Legislature to do any sort solicitating," Byrd said. "However, he told me if I wanted to go down there and put my (foot) in the ringer I had his permission to try."
 
So, in the spring of 1977 during the legislative session, Byrd, assistant athletic director Paul Miller and football coach Frank Cignetti went to Charleston to spend a week lobbying legislators to fund the stadium project.
 
And while Byrd, Miller and Cignetti were promoting their proposal, there was another group backed by the Elks Club that wanted a new football stadium.
 
 
"We had overwhelming support in the House, but we were not sure what the Senate would do," Byrd recalled. "At that point there were two proposals – one for $10 million to renovate the old stadium and add seats and the other was $20 million for a new stadium.
 
"We had a lot of support from our fans, along with the state newspapers and various civic groups throughout the state. The Elks Club was very instrumental in this process by sending letters to their individual legislators in support of a new stadium," Byrd said.
 
It looked like the bond proposal was going to die until Senate President William Brotherton Jr. proposed an amendment to consider just funding for a new football stadium.
 
It was then the process began to crystalize.
 
"Brotherton said, 'We are not going to repair a dilapidated, old, rundown stadium. Let's all vote for a new stadium,'" Byrd said. "And that was it. It passed.
 
"What made it a lot easier for them to pass it was there were several other proposals before the Legislature, including new basketball arenas for Marshall and West Liberty, and some campus buildings for a couple of other schools in the state," Byrd said. "That made it a lot easier for all members of the Legislature to vote for it because there was something for all different parts of the state."
 
Byrd said he recalls the total figure passed for the stadium bond bill was in the neighborhood of $65 million - $20 million for a new football stadium for WVU, $10 million to Marshall for a new basketball arena and roughly $15 million to the smaller colleges seeking funds for their capital projects.
 
An extra $20 million was added on to that for taxes that would be incurred, bringing the total amount to approximately $65 million.
 
Once the stadium bill passed, the real work began. Newly elected Gov. Jay Rockefeller took a passive role when the bill was debated, but was all-in once it passed.
 
He was a key part of the site selection process once the stadium planning committee had come up with a design.
 
"We visited the University of Kansas, Iowa State and even the Buffalo Bills stadium looking at various ideas of stadiums to give us an idea of what we wanted," Byrd said. "We really liked the Iowa State stadium. They had just completed it and we liked the seating plan of the Bills stadium and we also liked the outdoor practice facility that Kansas had."
 
From there, the West Virginia State Planning Board selected Finch-Heery of Atlanta to do the architectural work and Gates Engineering of Beckley to construct the new stadium.
 
The site for the new stadium was the final piece to the puzzle.
 
Byrd said Rockefeller was extremely helpful, particularly when it was determined the old University golf course near the medical center was the best place to put it.
 
"We toured four sites and only two options were really available – the Mileground and the old golf course," Byrd said. "We looked at everything and our engineering people told us there had been some undermining on the Mileground site, and they felt that land was bad and there might be a lot of problems out there in terms of landfills," Byrd said.
 
"At that point the governor decided the golf course site was the best place, and he made the final decision on that."
 
Getting the hospital on board was another major issue. Of course, the hospital's concern was parking, especially on game days.
 
Byrd said Rockefeller adeptly navigated that one. 
 
"What he did was he brought up the State Road commissioner to meet with several of the area road supervisors to get their input on traffic flow," Byrd said. "The State Police commissioner was brought up to meet with the city and county police, and they assured the hospital that Route 705 would be expanded to four lanes and maintained from the hospital all the way to the Mileground."
 
What the hospital got out of the deal was a new four-lane highway close to its front door! That ended up solving the hospital issue.
 
This is where Byrd left things for new athletic director Dick Martin and new University president Dr. Gene Budig when he resigned in the fall of 1978 to become commissioner of the Eastern Eight Conference.
 
"All of the preliminary work was finished," Byrd noted.
 
In end, the entire process worked. With the benefit of 40 years hindsight, Byrd admits building a new football stadium was the right decision and choosing the golf course land next to the hospital was also the correct choice.
 
"It has really worked out well," he noted. "I don't think enough credit has been given to Frank Cignetti and Paul Miller for the work they did in really pushing this with the Legislature. We were down there for an entire week, and Frank was really able to explain why we needed to do something about our stadium for recruiting purposes and for our fans. 
 
"And, of course, Paul Miller knew a lot of the legislators, and he worked pretty much with them on the funding aspect of it and what it would take to do it. They were really instrumental in helping the Legislature come to the decision they did."
 
As did Leland Byrd, who admits West Virginia University would be in a much, much different place today if the outcome was different.
 
"We wouldn't have been in any shape to get into the conferences we got into with the old stadium the way it was," he explained. "We were very fortunate to get a new stadium."