The forgotten meaning behind Howley’s feat at WVU
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. 无毛视频� The word came down from the mountain of the athletic gods who have created West Virginians as Mountaineers and echoed through the hills and hollows that are strung across the state from his native Wheeling all the way to Bluefield.
Chuck Howley无毛视频檚 No. 66 was being retired by West Virginia football.
This announcement, just a week old, came on the heels of Howley无毛视频檚 induction into the National Football League Hall of Fame for his heroics as a Dallas Cowboy and into the West Virginia University 无毛视频 Hall of Fame for an unmatched athletic career at the school, all of which has made his 87th year the most meaningful of what has been the most exemplary life.
Retiring one无毛视频檚 number is the ultimate honor WVU can bestow on one of its own football stars. It made headlines on a level he never imagined it reaching when he was at the university or when he was named Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl V for Dallas, the only man from a losing team to win such an award.
Those were different times and the Super Bowl was still elbowing its way toward becoming the greatest single sporting event in America, and Howley was a man of that time. He didn无毛视频檛 have an agent, wasn无毛视频檛 interested in free agency, never dreamed of being a millionaire athlete turned broadcaster or politician.
Kids still played stickball in streets of New York. They played backyard football across the country come fall, ran and jumped on their way to and from school, swam in the lake in the summer. They weren无毛视频檛 away at 7-on-7 football camps or working with their own trainers in sports aimed at specializing their skills so they could earn college scholarships or create million-dollar professional careers.
They weren无毛视频檛 thinking of being spokespersons for a nationwide hamburger chain, only to save up enough quarters to buy a Happy Meal. Life was carefree and fun as kids were allowed to be kids.
And that is what is being missed in all these honors being heaped upon Howley for his football excellence, for he was never just a football player.
He was an athlete, the kind of athlete you do not see today and, to be honest with you, the world was a better place in which to grow up then.
True, Howley was a uniquely gifted football player, but his greatest accomplishment was not in being a Super Bowl MVP but in the fact he was able to win five varsity letters at WVU, the only man 无毛视频� or woman 无毛视频� to do so.
Today there are headlines being made in Colorado because Travis Hunter plays both offense and defense. Believe it or not, once upon a time football players all played both ways.
Why?
Because they could.
Hunter无毛视频檚 coach at Colorado, Deion 无毛视频淧rime Time无毛视频� Sanders, played both ways in college and went on to play both baseball and football professionally. He was an oddity at the time, pretty much just him and Bo Jackson.
They weren无毛视频檛 really freaks, though. Athletes are athletes, and there are numerous samples of crossover athletes. Bob Gibson was not only a Hall of Fame pitcher but a basketball player in college. Another Hall of Fame pitcher, Ferguson Jenkins, played with the Globetrotters.
Chuck Connors, television无毛视频檚 无毛视频淩ifleman无毛视频� played in both major league baseball and in the NBA, as did pitcher Gene Conley.
Bob Hayes won an Olympic Gold as a sprinter and played as a teammate of Howley无毛视频檚 with the Cowboys.
There were many who played high level sports in college and went on to play professionally in one of them 无毛视频� Kirk Gibson, Dave Winfield, Tony Gwynn, John Brodie, Dave DeBusschere and maybe the best of them all, Jackie Robinson, who earned four letters at UCLA in basketball, football, track and field and, of course, baseball.
And, finally, Michael Jordan.
But what did it take to letter in five sports 无毛视频� football, gymnastics, diving, wrestling and track 无毛视频� as Howley did?
And why did he do it?
Interviewed for an article in Wheeling a decade ago he put it this way:
无毛视频淲ell, I just liked it. There was nothing for me to do during a day无毛视频檚 last period on my school schedule so I decided to try each of the other sports after football. It worked out pretty well for me. I didn无毛视频檛 want to spend time in study hall. I just wanted to play another sport instead.无毛视频�
Out of curiosity last week I thought it might be fun to run a quick social media poll asking the question which sport is the hardest to play at the highest level?
The one dubbed the hardest was baseball, followed by golf, those two taking up three quarters of the votes while football was deemed the next most difficult and basketball last, getting just 7% of the vote.
Anyone who has ever tried to hack at a 100-mph fastball as he would have to do at the top level of baseball 无毛视频� or throw one consistently for strikes 无毛视频� understands why that sport would have been considered the most difficult.
And anyone who has turned in a scorecard of 96 and thought, 无毛视频淢an, that无毛视频檚 great, I broke 100无毛视频� knows the degree of difficulty it takes to get a golf ball from tee to green, then in the hole.
While WVU had a golf team when Howley was earning his letters at WVU, one of them did not come in the sport, but don无毛视频檛 suspect he couldn无毛视频檛 play it. One might surmise it was in his genes considering that his grandson, Steven Fabrik, played four years of varsity golf at Stephen F. Austin University in Texas and managed five top 10 finishes and had a low competitive round of 65.
One would like to see more opportunities to play crossover sports at the college level. It exists, although not the way it did in Howley无毛视频檚 day. A men无毛视频檚 track and field team certainly would offer a boost to its football program by providing a recruiting aid for the fleetest, most athletic of receivers.
无毛视频淚t无毛视频檚 a great sport,无毛视频� Howley said in the interview from his 75th birthday when not having a men无毛视频檚 track team at his alma mater was brought up. 无毛视频淎 man who has the ability should be able to have the opportunity to compete in college track.无毛视频�
This past spring, after completing his basketball eligibility at WVU, Jimmie Bell Jr. looked back to his roots and gave playing offensive line at the school in his final year a shot during spring practice.
The best current example of crossover participation at the high school level is taking place this year not far away in the Pittsburgh area as Jay Wrona of Mohawk High is not only his team无毛视频檚 starting quarterback, but is the No. 1 player on the golf team, according to an article by Mike White in the Post-Gazette.
无毛视频淚无毛视频檝e never known anybody anywhere to do something like this,无毛视频� football coach Tom McCutcheon admitted.
This is a good football player who was averaging four TD passes a game to lead the highly respected and competitive WPIAL while averaging better than 200 yards passing per game.
At the same time, he is trying to qualify for the state golf championship for the second straight year.
无毛视频淚t无毛视频檚 a lot,无毛视频� Wrona told White, 无毛视频渂ut I like it this way. I无毛视频檓 having a blast. It无毛视频檚 as simple as that. I love being round all the guys on the golf team and the football team. For us to have some success in both is pretty special.无毛视频�
That无毛视频檚 what being a kid is all about.