Jacobs’ Broadcasting Legacy Recalled
October 30, 2023 10:21 AM | Men's Basketball
WHEELING, W.Va. - When Jay Jacobs was inducted into the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame as a broadcaster in September, I told him he earned the honor the old-fashion way - by hard work.
There's no substitute for working hard and Jacobs did that, and much more, during his lifelong affair with WVU sports in general, and basketball in particular, over most of his 85 years. Jacobs has announced his retirement from the Mountaineer Sports Network after analyzing basketball games much of the last five decades.
While I have known Jacobs since 1968 when he was ending a four-year stint as the final basketball coach at old Benwood Union High School, we decided to turn to two people who know him better than most - Tony Caridi, the veteran WVU play-by-play broadcaster, and lifelong Marshall County resident and former WVU basketball player Rudy Zatezalo.
Caridi doesn't mix words in his praise for his "courtside left arm" as I refer to Jacobs and the veteran basketball broadcast duo for the Mountaineers.
"I could not have asked for a better partner during our 35 years together." Caridi told us. "Jay's passion for the game made him the perfect analyst. His love affair with WVU basketball began as a child in Morgantown and then eventually as a player for the Mountaineers. He found his niche in each chapter of his career. From player to coach, and then broadcaster, he left an unforgettable mark. He will never be forgotten in the history of West Virginia University basketball."
Zatezalo and Jacobs became friends while at WVU and seeking playing time for the Mountaineers. That friendship continued when Jay started his teaching-coaching career in 1964 at Union High School in Marshall County, where Zatezalo resided and was also an educator-coach.
Jacobs was the last basketball coach at Union High before the school was consolidated along with Moundsville and Sherrard into the current John Marshall High School in 1968-69. Jay guided two of his four Ironman teams to sectional titles before he left the state for Walkersville, Md., and a teaching-coaching position in Frederick, Md., at Thomas Johnson High. That lasted through the 1973-74 season when he left coaching for an administrative position. In 1996, he retired from his job as assistant principal at Ballengee Middle School to devote full time to WVU basketball.
In Maryland, he broadcast basketball games on cable outlets and was hired by WVU Assistant Athletic Director Paul Miller as a basketball analyst for MSN television in 1977 as part of a three-way pairing with the late Jack Fleming and Woody O'Hara. Jay also did TV work for Home Team Sports, Creative Sports Marketing and ESPN during Sun Belt Conference games. He switched primarily to radio in the mid-1990's when he teamed with Fleming and then with Caridi starting in 1996.
Also a contributor to the WVU weekly basketball radio shows with coaches, the dedicated Jacobs would make the two-plus-hour wintertime drive across the mountains to work basketball games and shows.
"Jay was a trooper when it came to WVU basketball," Zatezalo recalled. "He was like the mail carriers--through rain, sleet, hail or snow, he was going to do his job. He told me once during a snowfall, his car struck a bear on the trip."
Jacobs has been around WVU basketball most of his 85 years. His father, who ran a clothing store on High Street in downtown Morgantown, would take him to many home games at the old WVU Fieldhouse, the site also of the 1956 state High School Basketball Tournament which matched once-beaten Morgantown High vs. East Bank in the largest Class A finals. The future Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry West led East Bank to a 71-56 title win over a Jay Jacobs-led Mohigan team. Both players earned all-tournament and 1st Team All-State honors before becoming Mountaineer teammates. Jay graduated as the all-time leading scorer at MHS.
"Jay's passion for WVU basketball runs deep," Zatezalo says. "He's well-liked and witty and has a good relationship with a lot of ex-players he's befriended and mentored. He would attend practices and do prep work on opponents. He and Tony were a good broadcast team."
In the WVU news release on Jay's retirement, it noted he would be part of one final men's broadcast when the Mountaineers host St. John's on Dec. 1 and would be recognized on the Coliseum floor during a timeout.
"I want to thank West Virginia University for allowing me to be part of Mountaineer Athletics for nearly five decades," Jacobs said. "To the fans who follow the Mountaineers, I just want to say, 'I was a fan just like you, but I had a microphone in my hand."
Doug Huff is former sports editor of the Wheeling Intelligencer, a WVU graduate, and a member of the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame committee.
There's no substitute for working hard and Jacobs did that, and much more, during his lifelong affair with WVU sports in general, and basketball in particular, over most of his 85 years. Jacobs has announced his retirement from the Mountaineer Sports Network after analyzing basketball games much of the last five decades.
While I have known Jacobs since 1968 when he was ending a four-year stint as the final basketball coach at old Benwood Union High School, we decided to turn to two people who know him better than most - Tony Caridi, the veteran WVU play-by-play broadcaster, and lifelong Marshall County resident and former WVU basketball player Rudy Zatezalo.
Caridi doesn't mix words in his praise for his "courtside left arm" as I refer to Jacobs and the veteran basketball broadcast duo for the Mountaineers.
"I could not have asked for a better partner during our 35 years together." Caridi told us. "Jay's passion for the game made him the perfect analyst. His love affair with WVU basketball began as a child in Morgantown and then eventually as a player for the Mountaineers. He found his niche in each chapter of his career. From player to coach, and then broadcaster, he left an unforgettable mark. He will never be forgotten in the history of West Virginia University basketball."
Zatezalo and Jacobs became friends while at WVU and seeking playing time for the Mountaineers. That friendship continued when Jay started his teaching-coaching career in 1964 at Union High School in Marshall County, where Zatezalo resided and was also an educator-coach.
Jacobs was the last basketball coach at Union High before the school was consolidated along with Moundsville and Sherrard into the current John Marshall High School in 1968-69. Jay guided two of his four Ironman teams to sectional titles before he left the state for Walkersville, Md., and a teaching-coaching position in Frederick, Md., at Thomas Johnson High. That lasted through the 1973-74 season when he left coaching for an administrative position. In 1996, he retired from his job as assistant principal at Ballengee Middle School to devote full time to WVU basketball.
In Maryland, he broadcast basketball games on cable outlets and was hired by WVU Assistant Athletic Director Paul Miller as a basketball analyst for MSN television in 1977 as part of a three-way pairing with the late Jack Fleming and Woody O'Hara. Jay also did TV work for Home Team Sports, Creative Sports Marketing and ESPN during Sun Belt Conference games. He switched primarily to radio in the mid-1990's when he teamed with Fleming and then with Caridi starting in 1996.
Also a contributor to the WVU weekly basketball radio shows with coaches, the dedicated Jacobs would make the two-plus-hour wintertime drive across the mountains to work basketball games and shows.
"Jay was a trooper when it came to WVU basketball," Zatezalo recalled. "He was like the mail carriers--through rain, sleet, hail or snow, he was going to do his job. He told me once during a snowfall, his car struck a bear on the trip."
Jacobs has been around WVU basketball most of his 85 years. His father, who ran a clothing store on High Street in downtown Morgantown, would take him to many home games at the old WVU Fieldhouse, the site also of the 1956 state High School Basketball Tournament which matched once-beaten Morgantown High vs. East Bank in the largest Class A finals. The future Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry West led East Bank to a 71-56 title win over a Jay Jacobs-led Mohigan team. Both players earned all-tournament and 1st Team All-State honors before becoming Mountaineer teammates. Jay graduated as the all-time leading scorer at MHS.
"Jay's passion for WVU basketball runs deep," Zatezalo says. "He's well-liked and witty and has a good relationship with a lot of ex-players he's befriended and mentored. He would attend practices and do prep work on opponents. He and Tony were a good broadcast team."
In the WVU news release on Jay's retirement, it noted he would be part of one final men's broadcast when the Mountaineers host St. John's on Dec. 1 and would be recognized on the Coliseum floor during a timeout.
"I want to thank West Virginia University for allowing me to be part of Mountaineer Athletics for nearly five decades," Jacobs said. "To the fans who follow the Mountaineers, I just want to say, 'I was a fan just like you, but I had a microphone in my hand."
Doug Huff is former sports editor of the Wheeling Intelligencer, a WVU graduate, and a member of the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame committee.
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