West Virginia History

Gale Catlett, mired in the worst season of his 30-year career, announced his retirement as West Virginia's coach Thursday at Morgantown, W.Va., one day after blasting his team for its poor performance and lack of pride. The 61-year-old Catlett said the retirement would be effective at the end of the season. His assistant and nephew, Drew Catlett, was promoted to bench coach.

Steve Slaton ran for 137 yards and three touchdowns, Noel Devine amassed 125 yards in his first three carries and No. 4 West Virginia cruised past Maryland, 31-14, in a nonconference game Thursday night at College Park, Md. Slaton scored on a 22-yard run, and twice on one-yard runs. He has 41 touchdowns at West Virginia, one short of the team record shared by Ira Errett Rodgers and Avon Cobourne. The 5-foot-8 Devine served as Slaton's setup man.

Steve Slaton ran for 137 yards and three touchdowns, Noel Devine amassed 125 yards in his first three carries and No. 4 West Virginia cruised past Maryland, 31-14, in a nonconference game Thursday night at College Park, Md. Slaton scored on a 22-yard run, and twice on one-yard runs. He has 41 touchdowns at West Virginia, one short of the team record shared by Ira Errett Rodgers and Avon Cobourne. The 5-foot-8 Devine served as Slaton's setup man.

Gale Catlett, mired in the worst season of his 30-year career, announced his retirement as West Virginia's coach Thursday at Morgantown, W.Va., one day after blasting his team for its poor performance and lack of pride. The 61-year-old Catlett said the retirement would be effective at the end of the season. His assistant and nephew, Drew Catlett, was promoted to bench coach.

Just like their infamous ancestors, the Hatfields gathered on the West Virginia side of the Tug Fork Valley, the McCoys across the state line in Kentucky. As they always have, the families talked about coal, about mountain songs, about the dead. Then, unlike their forebears--who for a dozen years in the late 1800s crept through the poison ivy and pawpaw trees to kill each other--the families worked their way peacefully, tentatively at first, to the other side to say hello.

A century-old riddle in the ballad of John Henry, the legendary black railroad man who was so strong he could work faster than a machine, may have been solved by a College of William and Mary history professor who stumbled upon a clue on the Internet. A reference in the song to the "White House" had puzzled historians and folklorists for years because they thought it meant the presidential White House.

West Virginia's financial troubles have eaten up the funds set aside for celebrating the 125th anniversary of statehood this summer. Norman Fagan, commissioner of the state Culture and History Department, said his agency had saved $100,000 for the event. Before any plans could be completed, however, the money was taken to help pay the state's backlog of bills. "We'll have something, but it will be small and modest. But that might be more appropriate," Fagan said Tuesday.

For two weeks in 1984, she was America's Sweetest Heart, everybody's kid sister. She didn't look as if she should be playing with dolls, she looked as if she was one, as if she came to the competition in a pram and bonnet. The Olympic gymnastic competition was a doll's house come to life, and Mary Lou Retton was the most adorable of the lot. Dimpled smile, flashing black eyes, even white teeth, part tomboy, part glamour girl, you didn't know whether to buy her a lollipop or a corsage.

A few more tidbits following an early Tuesday morning interview with Mike D'Antoni, the Lakers' new head coach: -- He says his brother, Dan, will be joining the Lakers' coaching staff but the rest of the staff should remain intact. -- He hasn't talked to defensive-minded coach Nate McMillan, but he says he intends to this summer, although he wouldn't be surprised if McMillan is head coach by that time elsewhere. -- In D'Antoni's first start as an NBA player for the Kansas City-Omaha Kings his assignment was to cover Jerry West.

Leading up to his debut as Richmond's coach Saturday, Danny Rocco braced for what might be in store from opposing quarterback from Virginia. He had watched the young man closely last season, and rooted for him to emerge on top in a three-way battle for the starting position over the past few months. That's because Virginia's quarterback, Michael Rocco, is Danny's nephew. "I just don't need him to play great on Saturday," Danny quipped in the days leading up to the game. Well, so much for those hopes.

Just like their infamous ancestors, the Hatfields gathered on the West Virginia side of the Tug Fork Valley, the McCoys across the state line in Kentucky. As they always have, the families talked about coal, about mountain songs, about the dead. Then, unlike their forebears--who for a dozen years in the late 1800s crept through the poison ivy and pawpaw trees to kill each other--the families worked their way peacefully, tentatively at first, to the other side to say hello.

A century-old riddle in the ballad of John Henry, the legendary black railroad man who was so strong he could work faster than a machine, may have been solved by a College of William and Mary history professor who stumbled upon a clue on the Internet. A reference in the song to the "White House" had puzzled historians and folklorists for years because they thought it meant the presidential White House.

Eighty-six years after the largest armed uprising on U.S. soil since the Civil War, Blair Mountain is once again a battlefield. This time, what's at stake isn't union organizing in West Virginia, but the future use of the site itself. The state Historic Preservation Office will ultimately decide whether to back an application to have 1,600 acres in Logan County named to the National Register of Historic Places.

If trying to drive against traffic is one way you cope with urban life, consider this: Right now more people travel from their homes in Orange County to jobs in L.A., but by 2020 that flow could be tipped in the other direction. That's the prediction of a government study. If it pans out, one big reason for the shift will be available land. Orange County still has room for industrial growth; L.A. County doesn't.