West Virginia University: Symbol of Unity in a Sectionalized State

Chapter 15: Into the Nineteen Eighties

Chapter 15 Gene Arthur Budig July 1, 1977-June 30, 1981 Into the Nineteen Eighties A ROTUND MAN WHO ABHORRED physical exer­ cise, James G. Harlow reluctantly presided over the greatest expansion of athletic facilities in WVU history. He asked the Board of Governors to reconsider its plans for the 14,000-seat basketball coliseum, with an eye on making it a more versatile facility. The Board declined. He urged the Board of Regents to approve the construction of the Evansdale Library before the Natatorium. The Regents instead responded to student pres­ sures and built the swimming-diving facility first . He suggested a modest renovation and expansion of old Mountaineer Field; instead the Legislature and the Governor initiated construction of a new $20 million Moun­ taineer Field and a $4.5 million shell building. At state universities, intercollegiate athletics has a life of its own that presidents and gover­ ning boards can hope to influence but rarely control . In 1967 when WVU prepared to enter its second century, the West Virginia Legislature and the WVU Board of Governors judged that it was the proper time to build the Coliseum. The timing seemed perfect - the WVU basket­ ball record was 19-9 in 1967-68. But the 325 326 INTO THE NINETEEN EIGHTIES Mountaineers slid to a 12-14 record in 1968-69, the first year of scheduling after leaving the Southern Conference and their first losing season in twenty­ five years. When Duke University offered WVU head basketball coach Bucky Waters its head coaching position, the increasingly unpopular Waters quickly accepted. He had the lowest percentage winning record of any basketball coach at WVU since World War II, a .631 figure, with an overall record of 70 wins and 41 defeats. The final game played in the old Field House against Pitt in 1970 also ended on a sour note when their arch rival bested the hosts. Little was it then suspected that the WVU record in the old Field House of 374 victories and 77 defeats, an unbelievable .829 percentage produced in more than forty years of competition, was not to be matched in any single season in the new Coliseum during the Harlow years. A return to success in basketball seemed possible when in 1972 Leland Byrd, former WVU basketball All-American, was chosen as athletic direc­ tor to succeed Robert L. Brown, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 for WVU administrators. Nonetheless, both the 1972-73 and 1973-74 teams posted 10-15 records, the worst since 1938. At the end of the 1973-74 season, Sonny Moran, who had succeeded Waters, resigned as head basket­ ball coach. His overall record of 57-68 in four years was the poorest of any multi-year coach since 1907. As it had in selecting Leland Byrd, WVU reached into a glorious past to find a former basketball player who might restore lost lustre to the failing sport - Joedy Gardner, co-captain of the 1957-58 WVU squad, which posted a 26-2 record. Gardner did stop, momentarily, the losing seasons. In 1974-75, he managed a 14-13 winning record; but in 1975-76 he barely improved with a 15-13 season. In 1976-77, however, Gardner's team showed marked im­ provement, with Tony Robertson averaging over 20 points a game and the team posting a final record of 18 wins and ll losses. In that year, the Moun­ tameers surrendered their short-lived independence by becoming part of a new conference, the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League, which included traditional rivals Pitt and Penn State as well as Villanova and Rutgers. In 1977-78, the team's record slid to 12-16, and with the advent of the Budig administration, Gardner became the only head basketball coach openly fired in WVU history. His four-year record of 59-53, although above .500, was not the kind of performance for which the Coliseum had been built nor was it one deemed satisfactory to those with long memories of basketball victories from World War II to the Vietnam War. With respect to footbalL it was Harlow's proud boast to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on April 27, 1977, that the WVU football team had a better won-and-lost record during his ten years as WVU head than during any The 1980s 327 previous administration, with the Mountaineers winning 69, losing 50, and playing one tie...