Football Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Encore: The Love Of Competition, Inside Appalachia

Appalachians love to compete. Whether it’s recreational league softball, a turkey calling contest or workplace chili cook offs, Mountain folks are in it to win it. But there’s more to competing than just winning or losing. In this show, we’ll meet competitors who are also keepers of beloved Appalachian traditions.

Appalachians love to compete. Whether it’s recreational league softball, a turkey calling contest or workplace chili cook offs, Mountain folks are in it to win it.

But there’s more to competing than just winning or losing.

In this show, we’ll meet competitors who are also keepers of beloved Appalachian traditions.

In This Episode:

Musgrave Reports From The Mountain Mushroom Festival

Tina Caroland shows off a morel mushroom at the Mountain Mushroom Festival in Irvine, Kentucky. Caroland has demonstrated how to fry morels at the festival for about 15 years. She purchased morels for a recent year’s cooking demonstration because Caroland and her family were slow to find morels at the start of the season.

*Credit: Nicole Musgrave/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Each spring, people take to the woods in search of morels, a seasonal favorite throughout Appalachia, and they inspire all kinds of competition.

Folkways Reporter Nicole Musgrave went to the Mountain Mushroom Festival in Irvine, Kentucky and found people looking for the most mushrooms — the biggest mushrooms — and the tastiest way to eat mushrooms.

An Accident Of Appalachian History Led To A New Style of Pizza

In Wheeling, West Virginia, people are passionate about their pizza. People there say that an accident of history led to a new style of pizza – Appalachia’s contribution to America’s great regional pizza traditions. Folkways Reporter Zack Harold visited DiCarlo’s Famous Pizza to find out more.

*Credit: Zack Harold/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Ever live in a place where there’s a competition between two restaurants, and people sort of decide which team they’re on?

Folkways Reporter Zack Harold says people in Wheeling, West Virginia are passionate about their pizza. That’s because an accident of history led to a new style and who’s better/who’s best contest that’s been going on for decades.

Brave Kids Continue Eisteddfod Tradition

Eisteddfod is probably not a word that rolls off the tongue of everyone in Appalachia. But in Wales, it refers to a traditional music competition that goes back nearly 1,000 years. Immigrants brought the tradition to southern Ohio, where it has endured for generations. Thanks in part to some brave kids.

Folkways Reporter Capri Cafaro has this story.

Playing To Eat And Eating To Play

Jared Kaplan holds the game he designed with Chris Kincaid.

*Credit: Clara Haizlett/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Another competitive tradition that’s endured for generations is weekly board game night. Whether with family or friends, we play Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, and sometimes even Candyland.

Folkways Reporter Clara Haizlett reported on a board game that matches West Virginia’s favorite cryptids with some of its favorite places to eat.

A Southern Ohio Town Honors The Appalachian Connection To The NFL

Appalachia’s connection to professional football has always been a little loose. Lots of pro players have come out of Appalachia, but there’s really only one Appalachian NFL team — the Pittsburgh Steelers, or two if you count the Atlanta Falcons, as a listener recently argued we should.

It turns out, at least one other professional team has Appalachian DNA — the Detroit Lions. That franchise began as the Portsmouth Spartans in Portsmouth, Ohio, just across the river from Kentucky.

Sports fan and WVPB Reporter Randy Yohe has this story.

——

What about you? What kind of competitions are happening in your neck of the woods? Maybe you know about a sport or contest we’ve never heard about. Or someone there makes pizza like nobody else. Tell us about it. Email us at InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Charlie McCoy, The Steel Drivers, Larry Groce, David Mayfield, and Dean Martin.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode.

You can find us on Instagram, Threads and Twitter @InAppalachia. Or here on Facebook.

Sign-up for the Inside Appalachia Newsletter!

Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

How Two Rival Football Teams Came Together In A School Consolidation

There’s nothing hotter than a high school sports rivalry. For Mason Adams, that meant the Alleghany Mountaineers versus the Covington Cougars. Adams was a Mountaineer, and beating the Cougars was a top priority in every sport — but especially in football.

This story originally aired in the Jan. 28, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.

There’s nothing hotter than a high school sports rivalry.

For me, that meant the Alleghany Mountaineers versus the Covington Cougars. I was a Mountaineer, and beating the Cougars was a top priority in every sport — but especially in football.

So, returning for Alleghany’s 2023 homecoming game feels weird. The fight song is different, the team is going by a different name, and the game is at Covington’s home field.

That’s because this game is part of the Alleghany Cougars’ inaugural season. Previously separate, the Alleghany and Covington school systems consolidated in the ‘23-‘24 academic year. Which meant this was the first homecoming game of the newly merged Alleghany Cougars.

A view from the home stands during Alleghany High School’s 2023 homecoming game.

*Credit: Mason Adams/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

In truth, the merger has been a long time coming. Alleghany County sits on the Virginia/West Virginia border along Interstate 64. Its economy was built largely around a paper mill and the railroad. However, neither are the dominant employers they once were, and the county’s population has declined from its height in the mid-20th century.

School enrollment dropped, too. Covington High School mostly remained small but stable, while Alleghany High School lost about 1,000 students over the last 20 years. After decades of debate and years of planning, Alleghany and Covington agreed to merge.

But it was a tricky process. The schools are still making tweaks and adjustments, and probably will be for years to come. And a lot of people still have mixed feelings.

In fact, many people at the game are still wary about talking on the record about the consolidation. They seem nervous about saying the wrong thing, and getting people all fired up again.

The Alleghany High School band plays during the homecoming game.

*Credit: Mason Adams/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

But there are also signs that people are coming together around the merger. Take the fight song, for instance. Writing the new song involved a lot of negotiation and compromise.

“We had to bring together all of the old fight songs and make something new for this group to hold on to,” says Alleghany Band Director Adam Eggleston. “We hired some composers we’d worked with before, some arrangers that we trusted, and so we let them piece it together very carefully.”

The same goes for choreography.

“The first count that we do in the fight song is from Alleghany, the first eight counts,” says Laura DeSilvey, Alleghany’s color guard instructor. “Then the next eight counts is actually the kick line from Covington. Then we made a whole new section for the last half. The kids actually got to come up with that.”

The color guard cheers during Alleghany High School’s homecoming game.

*Credit: Mason Adams/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

The cheerleading team also developed chants and cheers that blended what the two high schools used previously.

But the main thing for a lot of students is that the consolidated football team is really good. They roll over Carroll County High School, who, like a lot of Alleghany’s opponents now, traveled from more than two hours away.

“Covington had a lot of athleticism, and Alleghany had a lot of strength and size,” says Nick Frye, a junior in the Cougar Maniacs student section. “So the merger is the two things you need in football put together: athleticism and size. It’s amazing.”

Olivia Bell and Nicole Frye show off their Alleghany Cougars face paint.

*Credit: Mason Adams/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

There are plenty of other signs of how students are weathering the merger. Juniors Olivia Bell and Nicole Frye wear face paint featuring the team’s new color scheme. The transition is “not the best, but we’re getting through it,” Fry says. “We gotta have that Cougar spirit!”

They both appreciate that the newly combined school has retained elements from the separate schools. “It’s good not having a full change,” Bell says.

Other traditions continue unabated — like a group of students wearing “senior jeans.” Senior Kaidence Nicely says they picked up the tradition from seniors the previous year.

Alleghany students show off their “senior jeans” at Homecoming.

*Credit: Mason Adams/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

“The way I would describe senior jeans, you put your grade on ’em, your school, what sports you play, your name, your initials, mascot — whatever you want to put on you can,” Nicely says. “I put pom-poms on mine, and I love them.”

Talking to students makes it easy to catch school spirit. There’s the band, the cheers, the game on the field, and especially, the student cheering section, led by the self-identified Cougar Maniacs.

“We’ve got the most spirit out of everyone,” says Ayden Roman, a senior. “We’re always chanting.”

“Just trying to make everybody have a good time, enjoy the game,” says Tanner Hoke, a junior.

The new merger, Hoke says, “was awkward at first. But as you can see, we’re all … all…”

“We’re all Cougars now,” says Roman, finishing the thought.

“It seems this merger just brought the whole community together instead of against each other,” Hoke says.

Players watch from the sidelines during Alleghany’s homecoming game.

*Credit: Mason Adams/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Alleghany defeated Carroll County, 47-0.

The Cougars’ season eventually concluded with a loss in the playoffs. The team finished with a record of 9 wins and 2 losses.

——

This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council.

The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.

Encore: The Love Of Competition, Inside Appalachia

Appalachians love to compete. Whether it’s recreational league softball, a turkey calling contest or workplace chili cookoffs, Mountain folks are in it to win it. But there’s more to competing than just winning or losing. In this show, we’ll meet competitors who are also keepers of beloved Appalachian traditions.

Appalachians love to compete. Whether it’s recreational league softball, a turkey calling contest or workplace chili cookoffs, Mountain folks are in it to win it.

But there’s more to competing than just winning or losing.

In this show, we’ll meet competitors who are also keepers of beloved Appalachian traditions.

In This Episode:

Musgrave Reports From The Mountain Mushroom Festival

Each spring, people take to the woods in search of morels, a seasonal favorite throughout Appalachia, and they inspire all kinds of competition.

An Accident Of Appalachian History Led To A New Style of Pizza

Ever live in a place where there’s a competition between two restaurants, and people sort of decide which team they’re on?

Brave Kids Continue Eisteddfod Tradition

Folkways Reporter Capri Cafaro has this story.

Playing To Eat And Eating To Play

Another competitive tradition that’s endured for generations is weekly board game night. Whether with family or friends, we play Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, and sometimes even Candyland.

Folkways Reporter Clara Haizlett reported on a board game that matches West Virginia’s favorite cryptids with some of its favorite places to eat.

A Southern Ohio Town Honors The Appalachian Connection To The NFL

It turns out, at least one other professional team has Appalachian DNA — the Detroit Lions. That franchise began as the Portsmouth Spartans in Portsmouth, Ohio, just across the river from Kentucky.

Sports fan and WVPB reporter Randy Yohe has this story.

——

Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Charlie McCoy, The Steel Drivers, Larry Groce, David Mayfield, and Dean Martin.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode.

You can find us on Instagram, Threads and Twitter @InAppalachia. Or here on Facebook.

Sign-up for the Inside Appalachia Newsletter!

Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Shepherd University Football Team Sees Four Student-Athletes Sign Pro Contracts

Four football players from NCAA Division II Shepherd University were drafted as priority free agents following this year’s NFL Draft. It’s a record for the comparatively small football program.

Four football players from NCAA Division II Shepherd University were signed as priority free agents following this year’s NFL Draft. It’s a record for the comparatively small football program.

Quarterback Tyson Bagent signed with the Chicago Bears, offensive lineman Joey Fisher signed with the San Francisco 49ers, Ronnie Brown signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and tight end Brian Walker signed with the Baltimore Ravens.

“It’s very difficult to even get to where they are, and they need to take advantage of what opportunities they do have,” Shepherd football coach Ernie McCook said. “I always joke that it’s like, you just want to get keys to the facility.”

All four were previously selected as members of the Associated Press’ Division II All-American team. Bagent was selected as the 2021 recipient of the Harlon Hill trophy, Division II football’s equivalent of the Heisman.

McCook says getting to the level where a smaller school can consistently produce NFL prospects is a combination of culture and recruiting. The school relies on talent from in and around the Eastern Panhandle.

“Every one of those players that have signed with NFL teams are all within a two-and-a-half-hour radius of our institution,” McCook said. “And I think we do a good job and create a culture where good players know that they can play football at a high level, they can play where football is important and have a chance to compete.”

The Rams made it to the national championship semifinals last season, before losing to the Colorado School of Mines.

“If you were to ask any one of those four guys that just signed, ‘What’s your biggest regret,’ it’s not winning a national championship,” McCook said. “So we have a desire to be great in this program.”

Elsewhere in the state, Huntington native and offensive tackle Darnell Wright was selected tenth in the draft by the Chicago Bears. He went to the University of Tennessee to play for the Volunteers.

WVU defensive end Dante Stills, originally from Fairmont, was also selected by the Arizona Cardinals as the 213th pick in the draft. His brother, Darius, and father, Gary, also played for the Mountaineers before making their way to the NFL. Marshall players Steven Gilmore and Khalen Laborn were also offered free agent contracts.

But both schools are considered Division I, playing in the upper tiers of college football and having access to the money and resources that come with that designation. With NFL-prospect level talent coming out of the much smaller Shepherd University, its athletic department could attract more notoriety – and future recruits.

“Everything that we can sell positively on our football team, we want to be able to do,” McCook said. “Having a pro day the way we did, having four players that were able to sign preferred free agent contracts with the NFL makes other kids look at it like, ‘Hey, man, I can have a shot if I go to Shepherd.’ And that’s what we want to do.”

The Love Of Competition, Inside Appalachia

Appalachians love to compete. Whether it’s rec league softball, a turkey calling contest or workplace chili cookoffs… Mountain folks are in it to win it. But there’s more to competing than just winning or losing. In this show, we’ll also meet competitors who are also keepers of beloved Appalachian traditions.

Appalachians love to compete. Whether it’s rec league softball, a turkey calling contest or workplace chili cookoffs… Mountain folks are in it to win it.

But there’s more to competing than just winning or losing. In this show, we’ll also meet competitors who are also keepers of beloved Appalachian traditions.

In This Episode:

Musgrave Reports From The Mountain Mushroom Festival

Each spring, people take to the woods in search of morels, a seasonal favorite throughout Appalachia, and they inspire all kinds of competition.

An Accident Of Appalachian History Led To A New Style of Pizza

Ever live in a place where there’s a competition between two restaurants, and people sort of decide which team they’re on?

Folkways Reporter Zack Harold says people in Wheeling, West Virginia are passionate about their pizza. That’s because an accident of history led to a new style and a who’s better/who’s best contest that’s been going on for decades.

Brave Kids Continue Eisteddfod Tradition

Eisteddfod is probably not a word that rolls off the tongue of everyone in Appalachia. But in Wales, it refers to a traditional music competition that goes back nearly 1,000 years. Immigrants brought the tradition to southern Ohio, where it/s endured for generations. Thanks in part…to some brave kids. Folkways Reporter Capri Cafaro has this story.

Playing To Eat And Eating To Play

Another competitive tradition that’s endured for generations is weekly board game night. Whether with family or friends, we play Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, and sometimes even Candyland.

Folkways Reporter Clara Haizlett reported on a board game that matches West Virginia’s favorite cryptids with some of its favorite places to eat.

A Southern Ohio Town Honors The Appalachian Connection To The NFL

Appalachia’s connection to professional football has always been a little loose. Lots of pro players have come out of Appalachia, but there’s really only one Appalachian NFL team – the Pittsburgh Steelers, or two if you count the Atlanta Falcons, as a listener recently argued we should.

It turns out, at least one other professional team has Appalachian DNA – the Detroit Lions. That franchise began as the Portsmouth Spartans in Portsmouth, Ohio, just across the river from Kentucky.

Sports fan and WVPB reporter Randy Yohe has this story.

——

Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Charlie McCoy, The Steel Drivers, Larry Groce, David Mayfield, and Dean Martin.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode.

You can send us an email at InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

You can find us on Instagram and Twitter @InAppalachia and on Facebook here.

And you can sign up for our Inside Appalachia Newsletter here!

Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Appalachian Roots Of NFL, Super Bowl Celebrated

On a December weekend, a small town came together to celebrate a legacy of gritty professional football from the early 20th century that endures today.

The football chatter is palpable at the historic Stadium Lunch Tavern in Portsmouth, Ohio. It’s a football Sunday in December and there is memorabilia from two NFL franchises on display.

The crowd has come from nearby Municipal Stadium where the infamous “Iron Man” game was played on Dec. 4. In that contest, the NFL’s 1932 Portsmouth Spartans played the same 11 men the entire game and shut out their bitter rivals, the Green Bay Packers 19-0.

That championship game paved the way to dividing the NFL into two divisions, leading to what we now call Super Bowls.

Detroit sports historian Charles Avison brought his podcast, “Detroit, The City of Champions,” to Portsmouth for a weekend of dedications and remembrances. Portsmouth’s NFL franchise became the Detroit Lions, which won the 1935 NFL Championship. Avison said the 12 or so players who played in both championships deserve to be honored as local football heroes.

“You literally cannot tell the history of the Detroit Lions without factoring in the Portsmouth Spartans team,” Avison said. “It wasn’t like some random team name and they transferred a bunch of equipment in the back of a wagon. These were the players from Portsmouth who came to Detroit and they brought with them the rivalries that had been built in Portsmouth and so that’s when they came to Detroit with some of the greatest players of their era.”

Players like the legendary Jim Thorpe and Dutch Clark.

Avison’s podcast refers to the year 1935 in Detroit, when the Lions were one of more than an unprecedented 30 professional and amateur national and world sports champions including the Football Lions, Baseball Tigers, Hockey Red Wings, Boxing’s Joe Louis and Golf’s Walter Hagen.

To remember the Iron Man game and honor those leather helmet wearing legends, a volunteer group raised the funds needed to replace the old crumbling sign that welcomes visitors to the still-in-operation Portsmouth Municipal stadium.

Prof. Drew Feight, director of the Center for Public History at Portsmouth’s Shawnee State University, has worked tirelessly to insure the Iron Man game, and the Spartans-turned-Lions who played in it, won’t be forgotten,

“Portsmouth really is a football community. It has a really rich history. Its history is tied in with the early days of the NFL. And everybody loves the NFL today,” Feight said. “Just the fact that Portsmouth has such a fantastic team that really went toe-to-toe with the Green Bay Packers and other greats of the time, we are cherishing this history and taking care of our stadium.”

The walls of Portsmouth native Wil Mault’s restaurant, The Scioto Ribber, are covered with Spartan team pictures and memorabilia. Mault is one of many here thrilled with having a weekend of memories turned into monuments.

“I’m overwhelmed. I love the Portsmouth Spartans, and I love the current Detroit Lions which were the Portsmouth Spartans,” Mault said. “We have great camaraderie and great friends from Detroit, and we enjoy ourselves when we get together.”

Also making the trip in from Detroit was 82 year old Tom Eurich. In 1985, as a Motor City radio reporter, Eurich covered the 1935 Lions team’s 50th anniversary reunion. That’s where a few of the old, converted Spartan players felt slighted that the Portsmouth connection to the city of champions was forgotten. Eurich promised them he’d make that right. 88 years later, we’re not just dedicating a new sign this weekend, but putting up plaques honoring those players in Tom Eurich’s name.

”I told them, I would do everything I could, it raises a tear to my eye a little bit, to help Portsmouth know that they were included in the city of champions,” Eurich said. “It’s taken 88 years, but it’s now official. Portsmouth is part of the city of the greatest sports situation ever known.”

Without Eurich’s tenacity, none of this weekend’s small town, big emotion events would have happened.

“Tom Eurich felt that the story of Portsmouth really had not gotten the attention that it deserved, and that was what the old Spartan players felt as well,” Feight said. “Tom made them a promise, years and years ago, that he would do what he could to help keep this history alive. And we’re here today to make that happen.”