Last night Michael Walker and I went to Big Dawgs Restaurant to meet Oliver Luck, the Athletic Director at West Virginia University. Big Dawgs Restaurant is the place where the WVU Alumni Chapter of Jacksonville meets to watch the WVU football games. Chad Dean is Director of the Alumni Chapter here in Jacksonville and has done a tremendous job with the events. We have been to the restaurant before, to watch WVU play and now we went to meet and hopefully be able to talk with Oliver Luck.
The gathering was great and it was good to hear Oliver Luck’s thoughts about the move to the Big 12 and also their projects for updating their athletic facilities. Also in attendance was JR Rogers, member of Board of Governors for WVU, that he also gave some good insight about the new projects to enhance Morgantown and bring more people to this beautiful city. Oliver Luck was very nice and spent quality time sitting and talking with every WVU Alumni and supporter.
Michael Walker and I also got the chance to talk with Oliver Luck. I had many questions that I wanted to ask but I did not want to ruin his visit to Jacksonville 😉 Michael however asked him a very good question that he did not have an answer for and at the end he told us that he would look into it. Michael’s question was:
Why has the 2007 Men’s Big East Champions Banner been taken down from the Natatorium and nothing has been hung up to replace that banner?
We know that we are not there anymore and it is only history, but I want to believe that it is a big part of the WVU Swimming & Diving History. Hopefully they have a plan to place it back and they don’t take it for granted. The last 5 years in the Big East, they were far from winning a Championship Team Title and it should be there to remind them that it can be done. Just my humble opinion.
Any way I am happy that I kept my mouth shut about my feelings about where the WVU Swimming & Diving Team has gone these past years. We were there only for few years but we will be Mountaineers for the rest of our lives. The three years that I worked there were three amazing years and we build something good and now it seems gone.
My son Cobi, Michael Walker and I will be traveling to Morgantown November 17th to watch WVU play Oklahoma. This is our own way of continuing to be Proud Mountaineers instead of just being Mountaineer History.
If you would like to find Mountaineers in your area go to: http://alumni.wvu.edu/groups
Enjoy the pictures and ONCE A MOUNTAINEER ALWAYS A MOUNTAINEER!
Old Pic of Sean Mahoney, Wizard, Jason Calanog, Cobi, Michael Walker and Me at Big Dawgs
