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Much has been said and written in the last two seasons about West Virginia's offensive line - good, bad and indifferent. It seems everyone has an opinion. Well, here's another one.
The Mountaineers' offensive front, no matter how good it is or will be this season, will never measure up in current-time stature to those of the 1950s ... which brings me to a recent loss of one of then-Coach Art "Pappy" Lewis' star front men.
One of those concrete blocks that paved the way to big WVU success in that span - 44-13-1 from 1952-57 (and a Southern Conference record of 24-1) was Joe Nicely, a 1956 and '57 letterman. Nicely, 75, died two weeks ago today in Phoenix.
Nicely was a third-round NFL Draft pick by the Baltimore Colts in 1958. He was the 35th overall pick, just ahead of a future Green Bay Packer of whom you may have heard - the late linebacker Ray Nitschke.
Most notably, however, was that Nicely was part of a great group of linemen at WVU that helped sustain success.
In those aforementioned six seasons (of two-platoon football), WVU had All-SC first team linemen in Bruce Bosley (three times), Gene Lathey (twice), Gene "Beef" Lamone (twice), Chuck Howley (twice), Ben Dunkerley, Chick Donaldson, Bill Underdonk and Nicely (1956).
That's 13 of the 30 line spots on those all-conference teams, over six seasons.
(If you sense a missing big name there, you're right. It's Sam Huff. His uniform number (75) is retired at West Virginia, and he was an All-America selection and is in the Pro and College Football Halls of Fame ... but he never made All-Southern Conference first team.)
Lathey, lettered three years at WVU (1954 through '56) after playing at Dunbar High, and was one year ahead of Nicely in Morgantown. He reconnected for visits and a few lunches with his old teammate in recent years when Nicely lived in Hurricane, before Nicely and his wife, Edna, moved to Phoenix to live closer to their two daughters.
Lathey remembered Nicely for many reasons, one of those because of the latter's nickname.
"We called him 'Nubs' Nicely," Lathey said earlier this week. "It was because he had three fingers cut off. We assumed he got his (right) hand caught in a saw blade when he was young."
Lathey, 76, said what was so different from today was that "most of that bountiful amount of linemen came to West Virginia right out of the state's North-South game."
That included Nicely. He was born and grew up in Trout, in rural Greenbrier County, and played at Rupert High.
"There were a lot of things I learned later about Joe that I didn't know when we were both at WVU," Lathey said. "One was that in order to play at Rupert, he had to walk 6-8 miles home after practice. That's how far out in the country he lived."
According to NFL and WVU records, Nicely was with three NFL organizations (Baltimore, Washington, Dallas), but never played a game in the league, although he was on taxi squads.
He played in the CFL for the Montreal Alouettes in 1958. In 1960, Nicely was chosen from the Redskins' roster in the expansion draft to stock the Cowboys.
Lathey said Nicely's pro football hopes ended when he contracted hepatitis C.
"He told me a great, funny story one time," Lathey said. "Kentucky offered him a scholarship, and he wanted to go there. His dad (Lucian Nicely) wanted Joe to go to West Virginia.
"One morning his dad woke him up, told Joe to get his luggage packed and get into his pickup truck. Joe asked where they were going, and his dad told him, 'You'll know when you get there.'
"It was Sept. 1, Labor Day, and Joe's dad drove him to Jackson's Mill (where WVU had preseason football camp). Mr. Nicely told him, 'You're not going to play for Kentucky; you're going to West Virginia.'
"Then Joe's dad went up to Pappy Lewis, handed him a $20 bill, and said, 'Coach, this is to cover any incidentals that Joe has.' That's how he got to West Virginia."
That's how Nicely became part of that long and starry old gold and blue line.
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ONE PUNDIT who has weighed in heavily on the only team to beat West Virginia this season is Gary Danielson, the veteran telecast analyst for SEC games on CBS. Here's Danielson opining last week on LSU on Tony Barnhart's weekly show on CBS College Sports network:
"I see the best defense I've seen there in three or four years. They've really got it going. They have athletes all over the field. They run extremely well. They will match up with anybody defensively in the country. They will give Florida all they can handle. They will match-up against Alabama.
"They are a dominating defense as good as their national championship teams. If they get any kind of quarterback play, and I've been saying this for two years ... they need just a little bit. If they had a manager of their offense similar to (Alabama's) Greg McElroy, he doesn't have to be that good, just similar, this would be a national contending championship team."
Big East standings
Results, schedule
-Oct. 2
Connecticut 40, Vanderbilt 21
Tulane 17, Rutgers 14
Pittsburgh 44, Fla. International 17
Louisville 34, Arkansas St. 24
USF 31, Florida Atlantic 3
-Today
Connecticut at Rutgers, 7:30 p.m.
-Saturday
Syracuse at USF, noon
Memphis at Louisville, 2 p.m.
UNLV at West Virginia, 3:30 p.m.
Pittsburgh at Notre Dame, 3:30 p.m.
Miami (Ohio) at Cincinnati, 7 p.m.
-Oct. 14
USF at West Virginia, 7:30 p.m.
-Oct. 15
Cincinnati at Louisville, 8 p.m.
-Oct. 16
Pittsburgh at Syracuse, noon
Army at Rutgers, 2 p.m.
-Oct. 22
USF at Cincinnati, 8 p.m.
-Oct. 23
Syracuse at West Virginia, TBA
Rutgers at Pittsburgh, TBA
Connecticut at Louisville, TBA
Photo
Joe Nicely was named to the All-Southern Conference first team as an offensive lineman in 1956. Nicely, 75, died two weeks ago.
Charleston Daily Mail Sports Editor Jack Bogaczyk, in his 41st season covering college football, takes a look at West Virginia, its opponent and the Big East Conference.
