MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The WVU Varsity Club has been around for years in some manner or form going back to the days when the late Donnie Young was overseeing it out of the Mountaineer Athletic Club.

From then until now, it has always been the goal of the Varsity Club to keep former Mountaineer student athletes and administrators connected to West Virginia University and its athletic teams.

The Varsity Club was recently moved out of the MAC's orbit and now resides as its own entity in external affairs, which is overseen by deputy director of athletics Matt Wells.

Among his many roles here, Matt took on the important responsibility of organizing and coordinating some of the department's most significant dedication ceremonies and events in recent years.

He was the liaison to the Hundley family when Hot Rod's number 33 was retired in 2010 at halftime of the Ohio State game, and it was Matt who was responsible for perhaps its most poignant moment when he handed Hot Rod a basketball to attempt one final shot – which he made!

Matt was heavily involved in the Rod Thorn, Major Harris, Chuck Howley and Darryl Talley number retirements, the 2005 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight reunion and the Jerry West family dedication earlier this year.

Therefore, it was only natural to move the Varsity Club under his purview.

Recently, former WVU staffer and Pine Grove native Kevin Johnston was hired to oversee the Varsity Club on a daily basis, also a natural choice considering his longstanding love and devotion to Mountaineer athletics.

This is Johnston's second stint with the athletics department. After earning bachelor's and master's degrees from WVU, he worked in the Coliseum as an assistant equipment manager for WVU's Olympic Sport teams and coaches, as well as the men's and women's basketball programs.

Although he left the department in 2009 to work in the private sector, Mountaineer Athletics never quite left him. And now that he's back, he's anxious to continue to grow the WVU Varsity Club into something meaningful to everyone.

"Really, percentages are more important to me (than overall numbers)," Johnston said recently. "From what I've looked at so far, a huge portion of our membership is from football, which is understandable based on sheer numbers.

"However, it's a little more lopsided than I would like it to be, so I want to really focus on growing membership in those other sports while still continuing to grow our football numbers," he noted.

Johnston inherited a WVU Varsity Club membership of approximately 400 that also includes some lifetime members.

His initial task was to get a handle on the database and the key alums in each sport who have helped organize team reunions in the past - former athletes such as Brian Jozwiak in football, David Liguori in men's basketball, Kevin Olkowski in baseball, Lori Quertinmont-Martin in women's basketball and Lisa Scott-Schneider in volleyball.

From there, a new webpage was developed within WVUsports.com that can be easily reached through the Athletics pulldown menu or by typing https://wvusports.com/feature/varsity-club.

Contained within the page are Join Today and a Renew Membership buttons that former athletes and administrators can click to sign up for only $50 per year. 

An annual membership gets former athletes into any University-sponsored pregame tailgate to all Mountaineer football home games as well as special ticket opportunities. All Varsity Club pregame tailgates are made possible through an exclusive partnership with Coca-Cola.

There is also a brief form at the bottom of the page for former athletes and administrators to provide their updated personal information.

Additionally, the WVU Varsity Club social media account on X has remained active and is currently posting updates and photos on a regular basis.

So far, Johnston already organized a successful Mountaineer football team reunion at last Saturday's Gold-Blue Spring Showcase. He hosted a small private event for some of the players who came into town early at Kendrick Family Ballpark and a much bigger brunch the next morning at Milan Puskar Stadium.

"They had a great time," he said. "The pregame hospitality event in the training table area was really neat to see the players experience how much things have changed from when they played.

"For those guys who played in the 1980s and 1990s here, the training table was much different, and then for Coach Rodriguez and Wren Baker to spend time with them beforehand was super well-received by everyone."

On the immediate horizon is a baseball team reunion coming up the first weekend of May for the Texas Tech series. The focal point of this event will be the 40^th anniversary celebration of the late Dale Ramsburg's 1985 Atlantic 10 championship and NCAA Tournament regional squad.

This fall, the Varsity Club is planning a special event to commemorate Steve Slaton's induction into the College Football Hall of Fame that will coincide with the 20^th anniversary of the 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl championship team. Johnston is  working on organizing a reunion for the 2000 Music City Bowl Champions, legendary coach Don Nehlen's final team.

Also, a 50^th anniversary celebration of the 1975 Peach Bowl championship team and a Bobby Bowden-era reunion of all Mountaineer players from 1970-75 is being planned.

Johnston said other sport reunions are currently being identified and arranged as well.

"I would like to have some reunions for teams and programs that have not been recognized yet," he explained. "We want to do something for rifle to celebrate its 20^th national championship and maybe recognize those other national championship teams going back to the first one in 1983.

"I'm also working with Sean Covich on doing a 10-year Mountaineer golf reunion," he added. "We feel like there are enough golfers from that time period since the return of the sport to have something really meaningful for them."

Johnston believes the relationships that he formed during his prior stint working in the department will be helpful today.

His primary goal is to locate displaced former athletes, get them reconnected with their alma mater and increase their involvement and engagement as much as possible.

"They are a part of who we are now," Johnston explained. "They helped build this into what it looks like now. We've had many former athletes who have experienced success on and off the field. I think it's really important for our current players and staff to connect with them as well.

"There is a lot we can offer through the WVU Varsity Club for former and current WVU student-athletes," Johnston concluded.

Former Mountaineer athletes and administrators wanting to learn more about the WVU Varsity Club are encouraged to email Kevin Johnston at Krj0004@mail.wvu.edu.