Former Mountaineer Smith to Battle Family Allegiances in Season Opener
August 23, 2024 10:30 AM | Football, Blog
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By: John Antonik
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Harvey Smith has a little bit of a dilemma coming up on Saturday, Aug. 31.
He's going to be in Milan Puskar Stadium for West Virginia's season opening game against eighth-ranked Penn State, but he's not quite sure where he will be sitting.
He can stick with the family up in the corner of the end zone with the Penn State fans, or he can use his old West Virginia connections to get a little better view of things, perhaps even standing on the sidelines where he once performed as a Mountaineer player.
WVU fans old enough to remember recall Harvey's winning touchdown catch to defeat East Carolina during his junior season in 1986. Teammate John Holifield was so happy for his roommate that he jumped on top of him, separating his shoulder in the process.
But what Mountaineer fans might not recall was Smith's block that helped spring Pat Randolph to his 22-yard touchdown run that turned out to be the deciding score in West Virginia's 17-14 victory over Penn State at Mountaineer Field on Oct. 27, 1984.
That's the game when WVU students chased Penn State coach Joe Paterno off the field before the final seconds ticked off the clock. Among those hanging out within all the humanity on the field afterward was Harvey and his cousin, Marques Henderson, a backup defensive back for the Nittany Lions that year.
"I stayed as long as I could," Smith recalled recently. "I wanted to soak in that moment because I knew it was an historical moment. My cousin did hang around and him and a couple of other defensive backs were real gracious, obviously, because I would hang out with those guys during the summertime."
Afterward, Harvey admits he probably did a little more celebrating than his Hall of Fame coach Don Nehlen would have preferred. Anyone who played for Nehlen knows his often-repeated advice to his players on partying: "Drink the first one, sip the second and turn down the third," he would say.
Well, that just wasn't going to happen after his guys beat Penn State for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Harvey was the first person in his family to become a Division I athlete, and he did so as a walk-on player, which is surprising today to some of his old Mountaineer teammates. Smith earned all-conference recognition at Gateway High in Pittsburgh, but local college recruiters were lukewarm on the 5-foot-11, 160-pounder coming out of high school.
Smith's options for college football boiled down to walking on at either Pitt or West Virginia, or accepting a scholarship to play at California, Pennsylvania. Harvey bet on himself and gave WVU a try, where the Mountaineers were once again becoming a factor in Eastern football under Nehlen.
When Smith left for college, his father, Harvey Sr., once an athlete at Geneva College before earning his undergraduate degree at Penn State, dropped him off at Towers with a roll of quarters and some timely life advice.
"Don't call unless it's an emergency, and I expect to pick you up in four years with a degree," he told his oldest son. "It's going to be tough, but you are going to figure it out." Wide receiver Harvey Smith, pictured here playing against Oklahoma State in the 1987 Sun Bowl, caught 59 passes for 1,035 yards and nine touchdowns during his WVU career from 1984-87 (WVU Athletic Communications).
Walk-ons back then aren't like walk-ons today. If you were lucky enough to make it through tryouts, your big moment was getting to put on your practice uniform in the visitors' locker room.
Scholarship guys dressed in the regular team locker room.
"I don't know what the numbers were, but it seemed like there were hundreds of guys who tried out separately to even be considered to be a walk-on for the team," Smith said, remembering going through tryouts in the Shell Building in front of some of the coaches to whittle down the guys they were going to keep.
"That shaped my whole life because nothing was given, and everything was earned," he explained. "The scholarship guys got multiple opportunities, and I had to constantly fight new recruits that were coming in from Florida at the time. (Former assistant coach) Doc Holliday was killing it in Florida bringing in good receivers like Robert White, Grantis Bell and Calvin Phillips."
Two of those walk-ons, Smith and Holifield, became team captains before their Mountaineer careers ended, a prelude to the professional successes that were to come in their lives.
Smith said he has nothing but respect and admiration for his coach.
"When you are a young man playing for a legend like coach Nehlen, you respect him and you love him and you are grateful, but you love it at that age that you are at, and your maturity is just not there," Smith explained. "But when you go through life and you become a seasoned 60-year-old like I am, you are really grateful. I called coach Nehlen and thanked him for helping make me the man that I became in my life. The father that I became to my family and the husband I became to my wife.
"He helped shape and mold me to the man that I am based on the things I did during my four years down at West Virginia; I am forever grateful for him," he said.
Harvey's post-WVU career includes operating three different successful businesses in home care, real estate and cleaning. He admits his successes were a direct result of his experiences as a college football player at West Virginia.
"You've got to perform, and that's what it's like in the real life owning and operating businesses," Smith explained. "There is never a dull minute. I'm always out there playing West Virginia football against Penn State, and if I let my guard down, Penn State will knock me right out of the ballpark. That's the way I approach my businesses. My kids always say, "I sure hope you are a millionaire because I've never seen anybody work all day long like you do.'"
Harvey's younger brother, Terry, is Penn State's longtime cornerbacks coach following a successful career playing for the Nittany Lions. According to Harvey, Terry also considered WVU before picking Penn State.
Terry's freshman year there coincided with Harvey's senior season at West Virginia, so Mr. Smith took some time off work to soak in his two boys.
"He said that was the best year of his life because he was always a workaholic and that was the only year he ever took vacation," Smith said. "He would literally drive between Penn State and West Virginia to see our practices and (game weekend), he went to whoever had a home game."
Family allegiances have pulled Harvey toward Penn State, where numerous relatives have since attended college. Harvey's son, Tank, was a noted special teams player for the Nittany Lions and Terry's son, Justin King, was good enough to be drafted in the fourth round by the St. Louis Rams after earning All-Big Ten honors for the Nittany Lions in 2006.
"I have a family that is deep in athletes, even now with cousins now playing at Aliquippa that are among the top players in the country," he professes proudly. "That really began in my family with me, and West Virginia started that."
Harvey estimates upwards of 50 family members will be in Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 31. That's the beauty of playing these regional rivalry games. You don't just get on an airplane and fly four hours somewhere, play the game and then turn around and come home.
These games often involve sons, daughters, brothers, cousins, uncles and high school teammates.
And, sometimes, sides are even swapped.
Jeff Hostetler bucked longtime family tradition by transferring to West Virginia, while Pineville's Curt Warner, much to everyone's angst, crossed enemy lines to become a star player for Penn State.
Same with Oak Glen's Jeff Woofter, and several years ago, Parkersburg's Brenton Strange. Current Mountaineer defensive lineman Fatorma Mulbah, from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, began his college career at Penn State.
Also, former WVU player and assistant coach Ja'Juan Seider is now coaching Penn State's running backs while his daughter, Ava, is a student at WVU. If, by chance, Ava is in the Mountaineer Maniacs, she's going to have to boo her father. It's in their membership agreement.
Plus, Ja'Juan's in-laws live in Morgantown!
Smith, who now lives in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, said he has been back to campus as recently as last year helping teammate Grantis Bell's son move into the dorms. He was also here for a recent 40-year reunion that was organized by teammate Gary "Doc" Basil.
"We got a chance to hang out with coach Nehlen and, man, you talk about reminiscing and just appreciating what you went through and what you experienced," Smith said. "I'm a proud Mountaineer and I want to stay connected with them."
As for securing some good tickets to the big game, Harvey said he's still on the hunt.
"I'm still hoping I can get tickets on the West Virginia side," he said. "And yeah, I'll pull out my old 88 (jersey). I'm not sure it fits the same, but I'll definitely pull it out and try.
"It's going to be a great game," Smith predicted. "Everybody says it's a sneaky good West Virginia team, but I don't think there is anything sneaky about them."
