Last week, Gazette-Mail columnist Mitch Vingle paid tribute to two of our greatest high school tennis players, Cassie Mercer and Hunter Tubert from Huntington High. Mercer now plays at Virginia and Tubert at Ohio State.
One of my favorite all-time state high school tennis athletes actually won an NCAA singles tennis championship. Jeff Morrison played at Huntington High in the mid-1990s. After his sophomore season, he transferred to a public high school in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and trained at a tennis academy after school.
The move paid off. He earned a scholarship to the University of Florida, where he won an NCAA singles title in 1999. In the championship match he shocked the tennis world by beating Harvard's James Blake, who turned pro after the loss and has been ranked in the top 10 in the world.
Morrison turned pro the following year, and in 2002 he became a national fan favorite as he advanced farther than any other American at Wimbledon. In 2011 he was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame and in 2015 he was inducted into the college tennis Hall of Fame.
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It has been an exciting spring for both the WVU and Marshall baseball teams. It reminds me of one of our state's most intriguing baseball stories.
In 1978, the Marshall baseball team was a southern West Virginia Cinderella story as the Herd came within one win of going to the College World Series. Jack Cook's team was paired in the regional in Coral Gables, Florida, with NCAA heavyweights Clemson, Miami and Florida State. It became a national story when Marshall upset heavily favored Florida State and then Clemson.
Locally it was an even bigger story, as the team was made up of a bunch of kids from southern West Virginia. The first baseman, Harry Severino, played at Huntington East. Second baseman "Jeep" Lewis played at Huntington High, shortstop "Moke" Allie was from Logan and third baseman Dave Ramella was from Welch. The left fielder, John Wilson, played at Huntington East and the center fielder, Randy Rosiek, was from Oak Hill. Backup infielders Dave Helmer played at Nitro, David Sullivan played at Ravenswood and Paul Simmons played at Huntington High. Backup outfielders were Rod Butler from Huntington High and Tom Verbage from Huntington East. Our state may never see this again at the Division I level.
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At this week's Fellowship of Christian Athletes dinner, I ran into a former outstanding athlete from George Washington, Martha Thaxton Phillips. She is married to Nitro alum Scott Phillips.
At GW, Thaxton and Patriot teammates Ann Pickering and Julie Silverberg played on teams that won three straight Class AAA girls basketball state championships (1978-80). Her teams lost only two games in those three years.
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Fans in this state love Jerry West. Older fans in the state loved the 1971-72 NBA season when the Lakers won 33 straight games and won the NBA title, giving West his first championship.
Thus, we felt a sense of loss with this week's death of a former Laker starter from that team, Jim McMillian. "Jimmy Mac" helped West get that elusive title by averaging 19 points in the playoffs. I also remember McMillian played in college at Columbia.
He had one of his finest games against WVU on Dec. 26, 1967, when he scored 40 points and the Lions beat the Mountaineers 98-71. Fritz Williams scored 28 for West Virginia.
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The state high school track meet in Charleston is one of my favorite events. At a time before specialization, it seemed all of the state's best athletes ran track in the state meet. I can't name them all, but here are some names I think about.
n Bubby Dent: One of my all-time favorites as a middle-distance runner at DuPont, his 800-meter record in the Gazette Relays has stood since 1984.
n Dennis Eye: A powerful distance runner from GW, he was also a Golden Gloves boxing champ.
n Kim Nutter: Distance running star from Parkersburg High in 1972.
n Steve Smith and Wilson Smith: Outstanding distance runners from the old Huntington High, Wilson Smith ran with Marty Liquori at Villanova.
n Mike Tyson: Incredible sprinter and long jumper from Charleston High. Keith Pritt always had great sprinters like Tyson, Melvin Riggins and Stuart "Chop Chop" Jackson.
n Tom Reid: Sprinting star from Beckley in the early 1970s. He, Kerry Marbury from Monongah and other former stars were back for the state meet two years ago.