MORGANTOWN — The flag in front of Stansbury Hall was lowered for the final time on Friday as WVU’s Army and Air Force ROTC programs prepare to leave their longtime quarters for new digs on the Evansdale Campus.
The officer training programs have called the building home since 1973 and are the last remaining academic programs in the historic building known as much for jump shots and gym shoes as fatigues and PT.
The building houses the gym in which hoops legends like Jerry West left their mark on WVU. A portion of the old floor will be saved for placement in the WVU Basketball offices.
Along with the ROTC programs, other former tenants of Stansbury Hall have already relocated as the university prepares to demolish the structure to make room for a new business & economics building.
After the colors were retired by a joint Army and Air Force ROTC detail, the flag was passed to Brig. Gen. Wilbur Wolf, who graduated the Army ROTC program in 1985. Wolf then passed the colors to WVU President Gordon Gee for keeping until they can be raised over the new ROTC offices.
Wolf said it was an honor to be a part of the ceremony honoring a building that’s meant so much to WVU athletics, as well as him personally through ROTC.
“It was really neat, personally, to be able to take down, lower those colors one final time and present them to President Gee,” Wolf said.
Asked if he had any particularly interesting memories of the old building, Wolf laughed.
“There was no craziness that happened in this building that I’m going to share with you,” he said. “But I can tell you this, it’s 13 laps around that old gym floor for one mile.”
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