West, Hot Rod, Schaus, Nehlen ... Its All in Mickeys New Book

Summary

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For nearly two-thirds of a century, the one constant surrounding West Virginia University athletics has been Mickey Furfari. Theres not much that Furfari, affectionately referred to as the dean of West Virginia sportswriters, hasnt done or seen during the 62 years that hes covered Mountaineer athletics. Furfari, who turned 85 in July, began his writing career as a student at WVU where he was on the staff of The Daily Athenaeum. He and broadcasting legend Jack Fleming served as co-sports editors of the student paper in 1946 after both had returned home to Morgantown from service in World War II. After graduation, Furfari typed thousands of stories about Mountaineer athletics for more than 40 years before retiring from The Dominion Post of Morgantown in 1989. But even retirement couldnt curtail Furfaris love of writing and Mountaineer athletics. Over the past 19 years, Furfari has worked fulltime as a syndicated writer. He has covered West Virginia sports for papers such as the Beckley Register-Herald, Fairmont Times West Virginian, Martinsburg Journal, Elkins InterMountain, and Charleston Daily Mail. Through thick and thin, Furfari has stayed true to the Mountaineers and to the newspaper industry that he so loves. Its only now that Furfari decided to finally put his memories, both good and bad, into book form. After years of balking at the idea, Furfari, with the help of Publisher Frank Wood and Executive Editor Butch Antolini of the Beckley Register-Herald, finally agreed to author to his first book. The result is Mickeys Mountaineer Memories, a 136-page retrospective that covers a wide range of WVU athletics with the insight that only Furfari can provide. The book ($24.95, plus $5.00 for tax and shipping) is currently available by calling the Beckley paper at 304- 255-4400 or going to www.register-herald.com. For a period of years now, people have been asking and trying to get Mickey to write a book and hes always shied away from that opportunity because hes more about the day-to-day coverage of sports, Antolini said. Its really a piece of Mountaineer athletic history. Mickey has covered the school extensively over the past six decades, but the book also covers some of the guys that were around before he was. There are a lot of profiles that fans will enjoy. There are stories about guys like Jerry West, Hot Rod Hundley, Chuck Howley, Don Nehlen, Fred Schaus and people like that. Its really, really interesting. If youre a Mountaineer fan, you really dont want to miss this. Surprisingly, paring down the content of the book from decades of columns and stories was relatively easy for Furfari. It was really not that hard to decide what to include in the book, Furfari said. I tried to get a cross section of different sports. Through the 62 years thereve been certain columns and certain stories that kind of struck my fancy a little better than some of the others. Those are the ones that are in the book. There are also a dozen or so stories and player profiles written specifically for the book. I wrote about the rifle team winning 13 NCAA championships, Furfari said. Theyre the only team thats ever won a national championship, except the two basketball teams in 1942 and 2007 that won the National Invitation Tournament. I combined those two basketball teams into a story. Theres a chapter about the two WVU soccer teams that were both nationally ranked this past year and how they now have Top 25 programs. I wrote a story about the wrestling program and Greg Jones being a three-time NCAA champion. Theres something about the Queen of Gymnastics. Thats Linda Burdette, whos coached gymnastics at WVU for 34 years and has more than 500 wins. She was a gymnast herself and she just has a great program. There have just been so many things that Ive seen. There are plenty of other stories in the book, which includes a forward written by Jerry West, who met Furfari in 1955 when he was a student at East Bank High. It meant the world to me for him to write that, said Furfari of Wests participation in the book. Jerry West can write his own ticket to anything and name his own friends. For him to take the time to do that was really special. Two of Furfaris favorite stories in the book concern run-ins Furfari had with a pair of legends in Syracuse football Coach Ben Schwartzwalder and Kentucky basketball Coach Adolph Rupp. Both had taken exception to stories hed written. The book also features Furfaris all-time WVU football team. He also lists his top 25 WVU basketball victories. Im sure that there are people that will agree with my football team and my top wins, but Im sure theres some that wont agree, Furfari said. As I point out in the book, it was very, very difficult to compile. But the good thing about them is that if you dont like mine, pick your own.

Photo Prior to WVUs football victory over Auburn on Oct. 23, Mickey Furfari presented the first copy of his new book to Gov. Joe Manchin. On hand for the presentation were WVU Athletic Director Ed Pastilong, First Lady Gayle Manchin, Furfari, Gov. Manchin, and JoAnn Wood, wife of Beckley Newspapers Publisher Frank Wood, far right. Wood was instrumental in getting "Mickey's Mountaineer Memories" published.

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West, Hot Rod, Schaus, Nehlen ... Its All in Mickeys New Book

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