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Last weekend at Mingo Bottom Golf Club the finishing touches on the inaugural class for the Wirt County Sports Hall of Fame finally came to fruition.
Joey Vincent, the president of the committee and a fellow 1993 Wirt County graduate like myself, deserves a lot of the credit for spearheading this endeavor.
"You know what, it takes a village. It takes a village," admitted Vincent, who responded "it's been good" when asked how the reception has been since he made the announcement a few days ago.
"We had committed individuals come together and arrived at a list, that was in my opinion, the best list we could've come up with. There's a lot of people deserving of the hall of fame, but there's only one list of first ballots that we came up with and it's solid."
Without question, Robert "Bob" Snider was pretty much atop the list of everyone on the committee, and officially he was the first member selected.
Like many in the inaugural class, Snider is an inductee of the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame. The three-sport standout for the Tigers was a four-year letterman at West Virginia University in the 1950s where for 25 years he held the Mountaineers' interception record. Snider was named to the WVU all-time team at defensive back.
Although the original plan was to have 10 total members in the first class, it was decided upon to have a dozen and also name one special contributor, which went to Charlie Burdette.
A lifelong supporter of everything Tiger athletics, if Burdette wasn't mowing or painting fields, he was hauling equipment, filming the varsity football games or acting as treasurer of the WCHS Sideliners.
In no particular order the other 11 members, all of whom are native Wirt Countians, were also more than deserving.
The newest member of the MOV HOF, Dawghouse Gym owner Mike Sheppard, who is also a 1993 graduate, was as big a no-brainer as Sarah Roberts and her father Jim Roberts.
"It was truly an honor and a privilege to be the one to contact most of the folks that will be enshrined," Vincent added.
"Some stories were told, some tears were even shed and I got to inform my longtime best friend (Sheppard), so how cool is that."
Jim was recruited to Ohio State by Paul Brown and was then called to active duty in World War II.
Sarah not only was a member of the first Wirt County girls basketball team in 1971, but she earned a scholarship to Morgantown and played at WVU on its first team in 1973. She lettered all four years and averaged 10 points and five assists.
On a personal aside, two of the Wirt County Sports HOF inductees had close ties to my late mother Carolyn. Sam Williams, the longtime leader of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, and Mrs. November herself Janet Frazier.
My mom used to give Frazier, the matriarch of the orange and black volleyball dynasty, piano lessons, while Williams was always one of my mom's favorite customers at the bank.
Williams is credited with boosting athletics for girls in the Mountain State as he started state championships for them in nearly every sport.
Although the WVSSAC is going to have a state wrestling tournament for the girls, Erica Dye did well in her own regard on the mat against the boys and finished as a state runner-up.
Dye is joined in the first Tiger HOF class along with fellow standout student-athletes Christy Alltop, Erica Whipkey, Mike Goodwin, Rodney Watson and Chuck Mills.
Details aren't currently set in stone, but the class will be honored on Sept. 29 at Wilson-Eismon Field in Elizabeth when Wirt County plays host to Wahama.
"Really, the committee, I think we are all excited to get this first class out and we're excited to be a part of it," Vincent added. "We got a good committee and we've got a great class."
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com