WVA

With long time mentor Pappy Lewis gone on rather short notice as the 1960 spring football drills were starting, former Class of '48 WVU player and Lewis assistant since 1950 Gene Corum stepped up to the podium as head coach to try to right the ship. He placed his first mark on the program by making slight changes to the '59 helmet, maintaining the white shell and stripe arrangement, but removing the side numerals. 1959's 3-7 season included four games in which the Mountaineers could not muster a point. While hopes were high, they crashed under the weight of having but sixteen returning lettermen and Corum's first squad tallied a horrid 0-8-2 record and were shut out five times! They scored but forty points for the entire season. Experienced ends Dave Hess and Bob Timmerman were joined by a lot of sophs as Corum tried but failed to improve morale and the level of play.

In '61 there was light at the end of the tunnel as their eighteen game losing streak was snapped and Coach Corum re-introduced the Old Gold helmets. The shells displayed a one-inch navy blue center stripe and navy blue numerals on each side, returning to the look of the 1955 glory days. The losing streak ended four games into the year versus Virginia Tech. Beating favored Pitt and Army with many sophomores in the lineup gave hope for the future. The game versus rival Pitt was highlighted by newspaper quotes that referred to the WVU program as "rebuilding with Western Pennsylvania garbage." Proving that college players can be riled, that mid-season 20-6 victory had a lot of morale value for the team and two weeks later they pulled a 7-3 upset over heavily favored Army. Seniors Bill Winter (T) and Dick Struck (E) had good seasons and QB Fred Colvard emerged. Future Eagles standout Tom Woodeshick and Jim Moss led a resurgent backfield with reserve end Ken Herock showing great potential. Herock of course later played on the Raiders 1967 Super Bowl team but has been better known as an NFL executive and personnel director. The 4-6 record was a nice turnaround and it continued in '62 as they vaulted to an 8-2 mark, led by QB Jerry Yost, the pounding runs of Woodeshick and HB Glenn Holton, the performance of Herock, and the line play of tackle Bernie Carney, end Gene Heeter who later played three years with the Jets, and All Conference center Pete Goimarac. The only losses were to bowl-bound teams Penn State and Oregon State. As in 1956, some of the '62 team members ended the season without the identifying player numbers on the sides of their helmets.