When Men Were Men
BY TODD MURRAY
He sits just inches away from the television set in the kitchen of his home on the grounds of the Preston Country Club. Homer Hayhurst Hogue clutches a magnifying glass in his left hand and peers intently at the screen as the WVU football game unfolds before him.
"If I hold the magnifying glass up close to the screen, I can see much better," said Hogue, who suffers from macular degeneration, which affects his vision in both eyes.
Hogue has more than a fleeting interest in Mountaineer football. He's a true fan who is there in good times and bad. In fact, he has been there for WVU longer than anybody alive. WVU is his alma mater, and he once played football for the Mountaineers.
Hogue, who turned 98 on December 28, is WVU's oldest living football letterman. He lettered during the 1927 and 1928 seasons as a 5-foot-10, 175-pound guard. He also lettered for three years in track and field, where he threw the hammer, discus, and shot put.
Hogue played football at WVU for the legendary Ira Errett Rodgers in the early years of old Mountaineer Field. AstroTurf, lights, face masks, and any extra padding on one's body were unheard-of commodities.
"If you didn't get your nose bloodied on the first play or two, you weren't playing right," said Hogue, his lips curling into a grin as he raises his right forearm. Hogue is an extraordinary man with an endless supply of football memories he willingly shares with visitors who are warmly welcomed into his home.
His life has become lonelier since the death of his wife of 68 years, Helen Keefer, in 1997. Their one child, a son, was stillborn. Yet Hogue summons the courage to continue on.
"He says his greatest therapy is talking to somebody," longtime friend Howard Hartley said. The subject of WVU football always brings a smile to Hogue's face.
Hogue was the fifth of seven sons born to James Lee and Maggie Ellen Hogue. The Hogues raised their boys on a farm in Pennsboro, in Ritchie County. The long-life genes run in the Hogue family. Both of his parents lived into their 90s. He has one surviving brother, Lee Hogue Jr., 95, who lives in Oklahoma. Hogue has spent the last three holidays at his brother's home in Tulsa.
Hogue's father was a road supervisor in the Clay District who made $4 a day, while his mother tried to keep her sons in line. "What a bunch of beasts she had to take care of," Hogue said, chuckling.
The boys played football and baseball on the farm and in their community. The notion of Hogue attending WVU, let alone playing football there, seemed outlandish until his father broached the subject one day.
"When I finished high school, my dad said, 'You want to go to college?'" Hogue recalled. "I said, 'What are you talking about? It takes money to go to college.' He said, 'I'll manage somehow.' I didn't say any more."
While at work one day, the elder Hogue met a man who knew Harry Stansbury, WVU's athletics director at the time. "He told the man that I was a football player," Hogue said. "The man said they were always looking for players."
Although he fretted about finances for college, Hogue traveled to Jackson's Mill, where WVU held its pre-season training camp. He took a train to Clarksburg and then a streetcar to Jackson's Mill. "I'm here to play football," Hogue replied when an upperclassman asked him what he was doing there.
His college football career almost came to an abrupt halt shortly thereafter. The freshmen challenged the varsity in a scrimmage, and the newcomers were trounced royally. Hogue wanted to quit. As fate would have it, when Hogue got back to Morgantown he encountered an old friend from Pennsboro, Burl Cox, who encouraged Hogue to stick around. Cox invited Hogue to live at his fraternity house.
Hogue consented. He received $25 a month from WVU. He spent $15 of that for his room rent and worked at the fraternity house to earn more money. "I waited tables and washed dishes for my education," he said.
Playing for Rodgers, a WVU first-team all-American in 1916 and 1917, was an education in itself. Rodgers wasn't big on rah-rah speeches. His mere presence commanded the respect of his players. "He was a powerfully built man," Hogue said. "The only thing he ever said to me was, 'You missed a couple of tackles.' I told myself I better not miss any the next game, and I didn't."
Football was, in many ways, much tougher then, when there was limited equipment and no such thing as a specialist. "You played when you had the ball and when the other team had the ball," Hogue said. "You played the whole damn game."
The highlight of Hogue's WVU career came during his senior season on October 13, 1928, against the rival Pitt Panthers in Pittsburgh. The Panthers had embarrassed WVU, 40-0, during the Mountaineers' 2-4-3 season in 1927. WVU wasn't expected to have much better luck with Pitt in 1928, but the Mountaineers pulled off a stunning 9-6 upset that propelled them to an 8-2 season.
"That was the damnedest game I ever saw," Hogue said, shaking his head. The contest turned on a special teams play, as Pitt attempted to punt from its own end zone. Hogue remembers talking with fellow lineman Louis Meisel before the Panthers' kick. "I'm going to give you an alley back there," Hogue said. "You have a chance to block this damn punt."
Hogue will never forget what happened next.
"The center threw it clear over the punter's head," he said. "He goes back and picks it up and tries to punt it. He saw Meisel bearing down on him, and he stepped out of bounds. Safety. We got two points and won."
Hogue played the final game of his Mountaineer career on November 29, 1928, as WVU wrapped up the season with a 14-0 whitewashing of Washington and Jefferson.
Hogue earned his bachelor's degree in agriculture in 1930 and he and his wife moved to Masontown. He coached football, basketball, and track at Masontown High for five years. He received his master's degree in education in 1936. Then he served as principal of Masontown High for 30 years. During this time, he qualified for his pilot's license and enjoyed his new hobby.
After retiring from his principal's post, Hogue worked for the West Virginia vocational education program in Charleston for five years until 1970. The Hogues moved back to Kingwood. They spent their summers there and their winters in Florida.
Hogue's physical condition for his age is nothing short of remarkable. He suffers from poor vision and hearing, but each day he climbs up and down the steep flight of stairs in his home at a pace that would wear out people half his age.
"He's very self-sufficient," said Hartley, who runs an insurance agency in Kingwood and first met Hogue in the 1940s, when Hogue was principal at Masontown High. "He takes care of himself. He gets up in the morning and fixes his own breakfast. I usually take him down a sausage and gravy biscuit from Hardee's five days a week. My wife, Shirley, takes him for drives on weekends, and on Sundays we take him to dinner."
Hogue is a huge sports fan who watches all the WVU games on television and listens to Preston High School's athletic contests on the radio. "He gets enjoyment out of it," Hartley said.
"He looks forward to things like that."
Reprinted courtesy of the Morgantown Dominion Post.
Physical Education Alumni Honored
Charles "Chuck" Howley, a former
WVU and Dallas Cowboys football player, has been named an Outstanding
Alumnus by the WVU School of Physical Education. University of
Cincinnati men's basketball coach Robert "Bobby" Huggins,
WVU Foundation financial officer Craig Walker, and retired Penn
State University recreation professor Fred Coombs have been inducted
into the school's Hall of Fame.
Chuck Howley earned a bachelor's degree in physical education
from WVU in 1958. He was a 1957 football all-American. After
graduating, he was drafted by the Chicago Bears and played linebacker
with Dallas for 13 years.
Bobby Huggins received a bachelor's degree in physical education
in 1977 and a master's degree in health administration a year
later, both from WVU. He played for the Mountaineer basketball
team and was a two-time all-American. He has coached men's basketball
at the University of Cincinnati since 1989, and his 276-86 record
makes him the most successful coach in the school's history.
Craig Walker earned a bachelor's degree in business administration
in 1977 and a master's degree in sports management in 1981, both
from WVU. He has been vice president for finance and administration
and corporate treasurer for the WVU Foundation since 1995. Before
then, he worked in the WVU Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Fred Coombs graduated from WVU with a bachelor's degree in physical
education in 1933. He went on to earn master's and doctoral degrees
in education from New York University. He retired in 1972 as
professor and chairman of Penn State's Recreation and Parks Department.
New Sports
Hall of Fame Members
Brian Jozwiak, an all-American offensive lineman for the Mountaineer
football team in the 1980s, is among the latest inductees to
the WVU Sports Hall of Fame. Other members inducted recently
are Ross McHenry (football), Joe Okhakhu (soccer), Art Smith
(track), and Jimmy Walthall (football, basketball, and baseball).