Who has the final authority?

[VaultHunter]

When it comes to honoring past players and coaches? This is getting ridiculous I love West Virginia and WVU but I'm getting sick of this. You don't want to retire Major Harris's jersey fine but can we at least have something to honor him? Tavon Austin, Pat White, Geno Smith ect deserve some sort of recognition. There has to be some kind of high standard obviously but it's not hard to separate Legendary from Great from Good. I mean what exactly is keeping WVU from honoring a player like Chuck Howley?

 

[VaultHunter]

The powers that be need to understand not only do some players deserve this recognition but it also helps with recruiting. If I'm a blue chip recruit visiting WVU and I look at no past great WVU players being honored in any way why would I come here? They would say to themselves If I come here and I'm an All American and a Heisman candidate they won't even do anything to recognize my accomplishments.

 

[xgunnx]

Amazing, WVU has not honored this former Mountaineer.

From Wikipedia:

"Howley is the only athlete in West Virginia University history to letter in five sports—football, track, wrestling, gymnastics and swimming. He won the Southern Conference one-meter diving championship."

 

[dogeered_again]

The powers that be need to understand not only do some players deserve this recognition but it also helps with recruiting. If I'm a blue chip recruit visiting WVU and I look at no past great WVU players being honored in any way why would I come here? They would say to themselves If I come here and I'm an All American and a Heisman candidate they won't even do anything to recognize my accomplishments.

Maybe a statue of someone like Sam Huff would be a decent start!

 

[xWVU2010x]

When it comes to honoring past players and coaches? This is getting ridiculous I love West Virginia and WVU but I'm getting sick of this. You don't want to retire Major Harris's jersey fine but can we at least have something to honor him? Tavon Austin, Pat White, Geno Smith ect deserve some sort of recognition. There has to be some kind of high standard obviously but it's not hard to separate Legendary from Great from Good. I mean what exactly is keeping WVU from honoring a player like Chuck Howley?

Agreed we do a horrible job here. Particularly on the player side. I mean how do you seriously not do anything to recognize Major Harris, Pat White, Tavon Austin, or even guys like Marc Bulger, and Geno Smith? Harris and White need to have their numbers retired, period. The rest there needs to be something around the concourses of the stadium about our history and guys like that. Ever walk around an SEC stadium or Texas? There are tons of visual reminders of past greats. I understand we don't have as much history as Texas or Florida or LSU, but we do have some, certainly enough to create a visual display that we can be proud of in our own friggin stadium. For basketball how does a guy like Kevin Pittsnogle or Mike Gansey, or Joe Alexander or even Da'sean Butler become outsiders to the program? Meanwhile, we name the street around the coliseum after a mediocre coach like Catlett... I mean come on, Da'sean Butler's 4 year playing career dwarfs anything Catlett ever accomplished here and were at a point now where I bet a good chunk of current students have no idea who Butler is and what he did for this program in his senior year.

 

[Rootmaster]

2010...I suspect that is the year you graduated from WVU, high school, or middle school. Believe it or not the history of WVU sports started way before you read your reading primers in first grade. Da'sean was a very good player for sure...but the list of great contributors to WVU athletics is long and proud. Don't be such a young, whinny, child.

 

[xWVU2010x]

2010...I suspect that is the year you graduated from WVU, high school, or middle school. Believe it or not the history of WVU sports started way before you read your reading primers in first grade. Da'sean was a very good player for sure...but the list of great contributors to WVU athletics is long and proud. Don't be such a young, whinny, child.

I didn't realize making the Final Four and winning conference tournaments was such a common occurrence for WVU before my time attending. How many buzzer beaters did he hit that year? Was he not the undisputed leader of that team? Who knows how his pro career would have panned out if it wasn't for the injury he sustained in the Final Four.

We have 20 active players right now in the NFL, there is not a single mention of one of them around our own stadium? Why would we dismiss such an obvious celebration of our program's success and recruiting tool? Makes zero sense when the best teams in the country are doing it.

But I guess your right, an ugly gray bare concourse is a much better idea, the administration has it correct clearly.

 

[Rootmaster]

Let me help you read since that seems to be an issue.

"Da'sean was a very good player for sure...but the list of great contributors to WVU athletics is long and proud."

So where did you get the guts of your last post? Read son. Read. In fact, I agree with the OP, WVU needs to honor contributors...from all eras. WVU sports out date you I suspect. LOL

 

[xWVU2010x]

Let me help you read since that seems to be an issue.

"Da'sean was a very good player for sure...but the list of great contributors to WVU athletics is long and proud."

So where did you get the guts of your last post? Read son. Read. In fact, I agree with the OP, WVU needs to honor contributors...from all eras. WVU sports out date you I suspect. LOL

The point is to honor contributors. Da'sean is one of many basketball players who should be honored, the reason my list of WVU basketball players is so current is because outside of Jerry West's time this has by and large been the golden age of the basketball program, from 2005-present. I suppose you could throw in Jarrod West from the 90s, before that not a single Sweet 16 since the 60s, so who am I missing?

 

[Rootmaster]

I agree with "honor the contributors", and WVU since 2005 has had a great run, but things were a lot different before the NCAA Tournament expanded to its current bloated state. It was a lot harder to get into the show when 16 teams was the norm. WVU has a long history of greatness in basketball in particular and times change. There were great coaches and players that fit their times. WVU athletics didn't start with the Big 12-2=10.

 

[Rootmaster]

BTW: To say that one player's contribution "Dwarfs" a former coach's achievements shows a tremendous lack of athletic maturity. Catlett won 439 games as coach and took the team to 15 post seasons.

 

[xWVU2010x]

BTW: To say that one player's contribution "Dwarfs" a former coach's achievements shows a tremendous lack of athletic maturity. Catlett won 439 games as coach and took the team to 15 post seasons.

8 NCAA Tournaments in 24 seasons, only 1 Sweet 16 in 24 seasons. The tournament was in its 64 team format for 17 of those seasons, and between 32 and 53 for the remainder.

In comparison, we are about to qualify for our 9th tournament in 12 years, have made the Sweet 16 5 times and are going to be favored to make it a 6th time in 12 years, not to mention the two Elite 8s and Final Four during the same timeline. Catlett has accomplished nothing of major significance to warrant a road being named after him, yet we did it, meanwhile there is hardly a mention of anyone other than Jerry West around campus or at the Coliseum in regards to former players. Not even saying Catlett is a bad coach, Im just saying if the bar is to achieve legendary heights at the pro level for WVU to commemorate you as a former player, why do we not have the same standard for coach Catlett? If the standard is what Catlett accomplished, then surely we can put something in the Coliseum for our top players over this unprecedented stretch for WVU hoops?

 

[ThePunish-EER]

When it comes to honoring past players and coaches? This is getting ridiculous I love West Virginia and WVU but I'm getting sick of this. You don't want to retire Major Harris's jersey fine but can we at least have something to honor him? Tavon Austin, Pat White, Geno Smith ect deserve some sort of recognition. There has to be some kind of high standard obviously but it's not hard to separate Legendary from Great from Good. I mean what exactly is keeping WVU from honoring a player like Chuck Howley?

im all for honoring legends. However I'm against diluting the honorees with guys who weren't quite at that level. It cheapens things. Jerry West is a true legend. Geno smith? Not so much. Only a few come to mind. Jerry West, Hot Rod Hundley, Rod Thorn, Sam Huff, Chuck Howley, Darryl Talley, Major Harris, Pat White, Joe Stydahar, Ira Rodgers.

 

[coalcountry52]

I don't like retiring numbers unless they were exceptional in their time here and beyond. Only a handful of people count. Retiring jerseys (which I never fully understood) would make more sense to me.

 

[dogeered_again]

Why not designate a "exceptional" jersey... not retired... that a newer, exceptional player could wear with the pride of his previous counterpart?

 

[irishladdy]

The point is to honor contributors. Da'sean is one of many basketball players who should be honored, the reason my list of WVU basketball players is so current is because outside of Jerry West's time this has by and large been the golden age of the basketball program, from 2005-present. I suppose you could throw in Jarrod West from the 90s, before that not a single Sweet 16 since the 60s, so who am I missing?

I think you are proving his point about your age if you picked Jarrod West off that Sweet 16 team... While he made the shot against Cincy, Damian Owens was really the only player close to making an all-time team from those years.

 

[TexasforevEER]

im all for honoring legends. However I'm against diluting the honorees with guys who weren't quite at that level. It cheapens things. Jerry West is a true legend. Geno smith? Not so much. Only a few come to mind. Jerry West, Hot Rod Hundley, Rod Thorn, Sam Huff, Chuck Howley, Darryl Talley, Major Harris, Pat White, Joe Stydahar, Ira Rodgers.

You left off Ron 'Fritz' Williams and Bill 'Golden Delicious' Maphis.

 

[xWVU2010x]

I think you are proving his point about your age if you picked Jarrod West off that Sweet 16 team... While he made the shot against Cincy, Damian Owens was really the only player close to making an all-time team from those years.

I know little of those teams and not trying to act like I do. Before 2005 I was not following the school, although I do have a pretty good idea what happened with football and basketball before I was accepted to WVU in 2005. The point is the school does a really poor job of honoring its greats. A good recruiting tool is to be able to reference past great players so a kid can be like "oh wow I know who that is". The numbers we have hanging now while legendary, make it look like we haven't had a great player here since the 50s. As another poster said, we do not need to outright retire the number of every single player to make it to the next level out of here, but retiring their jersey, or having their name somewhere in Mountaineer field or the Coliseum is a good move. For instance, UNC:

 

[Mog]

The display in the basketball practice facility is great.