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WVU Football Trivia
Names, places & events of Mountaineer Football
Who was the first Mountaineer player to play in the Super Bowl?
 A two-way player (tight end & linebacker) from Munhall, PA, Ken Herock played for the West Virginia Mountaineers from 1960 through 1962. Drafted by the AFL's Oakland Raiders, Herock became the first WVU football player to play in the NFL Super Bowl when his Raiders lost to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl II by a score of 33-14. Herock became an NFL exec after his playing days were over, and as Director of Player Personnel for the Atlanta Falcons he traded a Falcons back-up quarterback to the Green Bay Packers for a draft choice. Who was that quarterback? Future Hall of Famer Brett Favre.
Which SEC school nearly pulled WVU head coach Don Nehlen away from the Mountaineers after the 1981 season?
After defeating the highly-favored Florida Gators in the 1981 Peach Bowl, WVU's Don Nehlen was sought out by the South Carolina Gamecocks to become that team's new head football coach. Former Mountaineer head coach Jim Carlen had resigned at USC after the 1981 season, and Nehlen admitted that
he was prepared to leave for South Carolina and take the job in the SEC. But two things happened that changed his mind.
First, then-Governor Jay Rockefeller made a plea to Nehlen, telling him ‘every single time we have a winning season our coach leaves and when we don’t do well he gets fired. If you leave West Virginia now I don’t think we’ll ever be able to build a program.’ Secondly, the South Carolina president’s hard selling also swayed Nehlen to remain at WVU. “(The South Carolina president) wanted me to come immediately and I told him, ‘I am not going to leave West Virginia without getting in front of my team and telling them exactly why I’m leaving because these kids have been beaten up and they are not going to read in the newspaper that I ran for a couple of bucks,’” Nehlen said. “He got all bent out of shape and he kept calling me and calling me." Don Nehlen would of course stay, and he would coach the Mountaineers for 21 years before retiring after the 2000 season.
This Mountaineer player, a Mountain State native, scored the first punt return for a touchdown at 'New' Mountaineer Field.
Who is he?
On September 27, 1980, the Mountaineers hosted the Richmond Spiders in the third game played at 'New' Mountaineer Field. The Spiders held a 21-17 third quarter lead when former Martinsburg Bulldog Fulton Walker ripped off a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown, the first WVU punt return for a touchdown at 'New' Mountaineer Field. Walker was later drafted in the sixth round of the 1981 NFL draft by the Miami Dolphins, and between the Dolphins and Raiders he would play for six seasons in the professional ranks as a defensive back and kick returner. As a kick returner for the Dolphins in Super Bowl XVII, Walker returned a Washington Redskins kick-off 98 yards for a touchdown, the first kick-off return for a touchdown in Super Bowl history.
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