In 1975, the college football landscape was much different than it is today.
Today. every team with six wins expects a bowl bid. In 1975, bowl bids were actually earned as there were only 11 bowl games.
The landscape was also different at WVU. Facilities were lacking, coaching salaries were small and bowl games did not happen every year. Oh, there was an occasional bid as WVU played in bowls in 1954, 1964, 1969, 1972 and 1975.
In 1975, the Mountaineers were coached by Bobby Bowden and earned a bid to play North Carolina State in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta. The two teams had played in the 1972 Peach Bowl and Lou Holtz and the Wolfpack won easily 49-13. The Mountaineer fan base wanted payback in 1975.
West Virginia trailed 10-6 late in the game but Dan Kendra hit former Mountaineer basketball player Scott McDonald with a long touchdown pass to win the game 13-10.
The 1975 team is having a reunion on Sept. 25-26. Here are some of the folks who are returning.
n Bobby Bowden - Rumors had his seat in Morgantown being fairly hot in 1975. I am not sure that was really true, but he went on to be one of college football's all-time great coaches at Florida State.
n Frank Cignetti - An assistant under Bowden, he had a Hall of Fame career at Indiana (Pa.).
n Steve Dunlap - The Hurricane native was a senior linebacker on the 1975 team.
n Joe Jelich - The Ravenswood native was a freshman on this team along with current Marshall head coach John "Doc" Holliday.
n Dan Kendra - The starting quarterback was named Offensive MVP of the Peach Bowl.
n Steve Lewis - Another Hurricane native, Lewis went on to a good career at WVU.
n Scott McDonald - The former basketball player turned football hero had the game-winning touchdown catch.
n Bill McKenzie - The biggest memory of the season was a 17-14 upset win over Pitt in old Mountaineer Field. The Warwood High grad kicked the game-winning field goal.
n David "Duck" Riley - One of the all time great athletes from Northfork, Riley played in the USFL and was a longtime coach in New Jersey.
n Heywood Smith - A former Dunbar Bulldog great, Smith was a senior running back.
n Danny Williams - A legend in the eastern end of the Kanawha Valley, the Campbells Creek native was the first high school player to win back-to-back Kennedy Awards. He went on to be a Rhodes Scholar and is now a doctor in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Both Peach Bowl head coaches would leave their schools after the game. Holtz left to coach the New York Jets while Bowden left WVU for Florida State and became a national legend.
One other note: WCHS-TV televised the Mountaineers game at Penn State that year, a 39-0 loss to the Nittany Lions. The play by play announcer was Wade Utay. The color analyst was Gov. Arch Moore.