Published: July 19, 2008 11:34 pm         

Video specialist in 31st year at WVU

MORGANTOWN — Jim Galusky is in his 31st year as a contracting video specialist for the West Virginia University’s athletic department.

What started out as a hobby with an eight-millimeter camera in the 1970s quickly developed into a lingering labor of love for the well-known 73-year-old resident of Masontown.

Galusky has gone from film to tape and from a drawn-out developing process to an instant digital presentation of his work. The results are utilized by the coaches, mainly in football and basketball. He shoots practice sessions as well as well as games.

Does he still enjoy his job, from atop towers high above the football grass practice field, as much as he did at an earlier age?

He had a ready reply.

“My knees are bad and stadium steps seem to be getting steeper and steeper,” Galusky said. “So I have thought about maybe giving it up, but that would be hard to do.

“I actually look forward to football and basketball seasons. I’m enjoying it. I don’t know what I’d do if they ever said that I couldn’t come back anymore.”

Incredibly, Galusky has missed just one of the Mountaineers’ last 355 football games, dating back to the 1978 season. Of the 354, West Virginia won 217 and had four ties.

“The weather was so bad on Dec. 2 in 2005 that I couldn’t get down to Morgantown in time for the football trip to Tampa,” he recalled. So it was WVU’s 28-13 win over South Florida as his only miss.

Galusky got his start with the late Ernie McKay, then manager of the Hotel Morgan. He was shooting high school games and also those of Potomac State College. McKay had been filming WVU games since 1954.

“McKay recommended me to WVU when he took over the Kingwood Inn and didn’t want to do it anymore,” Galusky recalled. “My regular job was working at Sterling Faucet and later for Cyphert Industries in coal mine machinery.”

His employer would grant him time to shoot action of football practices, and he admittedly could hardly wait for Saturday to roll around. His normal schedule is four practices per week and then the game.

Galusky has been retired from Cyphert Industries for 10 years.

“The Cypherts donated the materials and labor for the towers at the practice field and told me to build them the way I wanted,” he said. “I also built the portable goalposts out there.”

The task is much easier now than it was in the days of filming. Graduate assistants would have to take the film to Pittsburgh after each practice for developing, then get back at about midnight. The coaches then would come in at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning to view the result.

Galusky said after a few years WVU obtained a film processor which would make action of the day’s practice available by 8 or 9 p.m. In January 1989 video tape replaced film. Now there is no wait.

“When you get off the field, it’s all done,” Galusky said. “The coaches have instant viewing available merely by calling up the video on their computers.”

Jim Montgomery, who recently retired as a full-time WVU photographer, worked with Galusky off and on for several years.

“I first started traveling with basketball teams on bus trips. Then after a couple years I made every road game except those conflicting with football,” Galusky said. “I guess I did about 90 percent of the basketball games until last year.

“John McKinney (longtime radio broadcast engineer) and I roomed together on trips for many years. We were like brothers. His recent death was a great shock. John was such a great person.”

Galusky is married to the former JoAnn Cashman of Morgantown. They have three grown sons: Steve, 38; Ernie, 31, and Jamie, 27.