Don’t forget about Wyant’s accomplishments at WVU

By Mickey Furfari

MORGANTOWN — There has been much written recently about whether Patrick White is the best quarterback in West Virginia history.

Some wonder whether he has been greater during his four years as signal-caller than Major Harris during his three seasons in the late 1980s. The names of Oliver Luck, Jeff Hostetler and Marc Bulger also have been mentioned prominently.

All of those and others obviously were great quarterbacks.

To a guy who’s in his 62nd year on the WVU sports beat, White has to be the best ever seen here. The Alabama native clearly has become to Mountaineer football what the legendary Jerry West was to Mountaineer basketball back in the golden era of the 1950s-60s.

In talking about the school’s great quarterbacks, however, let’s not forget Fred Wyant. He started all except two games as WVU posted 7-2, 8-2, 8-1 and 8-2 records for the years 1952-53-54-55.

That was considered a golden era for WVU football, just as most of the current decade has been.

West Virginia’s record with Wyant as the starter was 30-4. It is still the best in school history, percentage-wise. White does have more wins, though, his record being 32-8 for games he has started.

Wyant, who still resides in Morgantown, did not put together nearly as many achievements as White has. Neither has any of the other all-time greats.

But he should be remembered for at least a few great accomplishments which may distinguish him from all others.

Wyant guided West Virginia to a 16-0 upset of Pitt for the school’s very first victory over a nationally ranked team. The No. 18 Panthers had already beaten Iowa, Notre Dame and Army that year.

The WVU win came in 1952, when Wyant was a freshman. The Mountaineers repeated 17-7 the following year when Pitt was ranked 17th. And both of those games were played in Pittsburgh.

Perhaps even more significant was Wyant leading his team to three wins in a row over Penn State. WVU had never done that previously and probably never will, since the two schools no longer meet in football. The Nittany Lions were ranked No. 9 in 1954 when they lost 19-14 to No. 14 West Virginia. The other wins were 20-19 in 1953 and 21-7 in 1955 in Morgantown.

Another feather in Wyant’s cap was taking WVU to its first major bowl, losing to George Tech 42-19 in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 1954, at New Orleans.

It is difficult to compare teams of different eras, though. The game changes over the years and probably will continue to do that.

In the 1950s, the late Art “Pappy” Lewis had only three assistants for his coaching staff. Today, Bill Stewart has nine assistants. There were just 46 players on the WVU roster during the early 1950s. Today there are 130 players or more.

Another significant difference is that coaches call and signal in all plays. Wyant called every play except one himself during his four years. Of course, Lewis and his QB discussed before a game what they wanted to do.

Players saw action on both offense and defense in those early years. Wyant, at 5-10 and 205 pounds, played safety as well as quarterback. He also returned punts.

Lewis taught the split-T option during his then-record 10 years as head coach. He added the belly series and then a ride series for options to take advantage of Wyant’s talents.

The sole purpose of this column is to urge that we don’t forget Fred Wyant when talking about West Virginia’s great quarterbacks. In no way is it designed to detract from Patrick White’s lengthy list of amazing achievements.