MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It’s been 94 years full of memories, which Lou Birurakis keeps very close to his heart.
It doesn’t matter if it were his days growing up in Liberty the son of Greek immigrants who ventured to West Virginia for the coal mining industry, his days as a WVU football player in the 1940s or his brief military career after being drafted into World War II, Birurakis can take you back to that time and pinpoint details not many would remember.
Sunday is his 94th birthday, and while Birurakis’ passion for the Scott’s Run is what he is best known for in his later years as the community’s lead historian, his impact on the local sports scene is still felt today at both University High and WVU.
After finishing at Osage Junior High, Birurakis went on to UHS, and though he clearly had the athleticism to play a multitude of sports, the athletics opportunities at the time were limited at UHS. The school had football until 1930 but decided to drop it, so he took to the basketball court as his lone athletic venture.
But when Birurakis graduated in 1944 and decide to enroll at WVU for summer school, a friend of his from Fairmont said he should try out with him for the Mountaineers. Because of World War II, many players were drafted into the United States military, so there were openings on the roster that needed to be filled.
Coach Bill Kern was also called to duty, so former star running back from the 1920s, Ira Errett Rogers, was promoted to interim coach after serving as an assistant under Kern.
Problem was, Birurakis didn’t have a lengthy football background. While growing up in Scott’s Run, he and his friends played football, but instead of using a real football, they had to use a milk can wrapped in tape to throw around.
“A real football wouldn’t last long on the surface of the ground in Scott’s Run because it was mostly coal and slate, and a football would hit that slate and rip it,” he said. “They wouldn’t last long, so we used a milk can. I call them ‘Scott’s Run footballs.’ We wrapped them in tape because most of the coal miners had access to tape in the mine and it didn’t cost anything.”
Birurakis claims the can was a good imitation of a football because it could be lateralled and thrown, but it couldn’t be kicked. If someone wanted to punt on 4th down, they had to throw it high and far.
Outside of pick-up games in Scott’s Run, the only other football experience Birurakis had was following West Virginia as a fan. He would sneak into Old Mountaineer Field through the fence, and also sold Coke as a kid just to get a closer look. So when the time came to try out and meet with Rogers, the nerves began to set in.
After working out with the team for a few days, Birurakis’ friend decided to quit, so the thought entered his mind to do the same. Instead, other players convinced him to stick it out, but another obstacle got in the way when Birurakis didn’t know what position to play.
When players were asked to move into position groups, Birurakis hesitated before eventually going with the skill players.
“The coach asked us to get into our stance and right away he could tell I had never played before,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Still, Birurakis was given his first shot as a fullback and donned No. 35 to begin tryouts. But after another few days, the coaches met and decided, with his inexperience in the backfield, that Birurakis move to the defensive line. When the coaches announced the final roster, Birurakis was listed as a left tackle on the defensive linee: He had made the team.
During an open practice to reporters and the public at Old Mountaineer Field, Birurakis made his presence felt. On a hand off, he exploded past scholarship players to bring the running back down in the backfield. On the next play, he did the exact same thing.
“Coach Rogers had a baseball hat on and when I hit the guy the second time in the backfield, he took his hat off, threw it on the ground, said a cuss word and ‘There’s a guy who’s never played any football and you guys can’t block him out?’ He then told me, ‘Birurakis, if you play like that, you’ll never miss a game.”
During Birurakis’ freshman season, the Mountaineers went 5-3-1, but pulled off an enormous upset over Penn State, 28-27 — the Nittany Lions’ first home loss in six years.
But the highlight — or lowlight — came in the season finale trip to Kentucky to face the Wildcats. On a four-game winning streak, including wins over Penn State and Temple, the Mountaineers were riding high.
WVU took a train from Morgantown to Cincinnati for an overnight stay before a final trek to Lexington, Ky. The second train was “special,” with a coach class and dining car, and at lunchtime, the wait staff placed silverware in front of everyone, but also put extras in the center of the table.
“It was as if they were saying, ‘Souvenirs,’ ” Birurakis said. “We all grabbed one, but when we got back to our regular car, the athletic director was talking to a staff member from the dining car. He talked to coach (Rogers), and Rogers asked for our attention because there was a bunch of silverware missing from the dining cart. He put a box out and said that no one will say anything about it, we’ll move on, but he wanted that silverware in that box.”
Eventually, after a few threats and some coaxing, all of the silverware was returned, but Birurakis claims that incident knocked the Mountaineers off their game. Favored against Kentucky, WVU eventually lost 40-9.
“I think Kentucky should thank the railroad people for beating us and beating us bad,” Birurakis said.
After his freshman season, though, Birurakis was next to be drafted and was assigned to the U.S. Army Horseback Cavalry. He was then transferred to the Signal Corps and Counterintelligence Corps, where he specialized in foreign languages, mainly his native Greek and Russian.
However, not long after completing his training in 1945, Germany surrendered and Japan followed suit not long after.
Due to the G.I. Bill, Birurakis was able to come back to WVU to finish his degree and at the same time, was able to rejoin the football team. After a three-year hiatus from the game, Birurakis got another chance in 1948 under coach Dudley DeGroot.
That season ended with the Mountaineers going 9-3, earning a trip to the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. The invitation was originally supposed to go to Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., but the school decided it would not play after the Sun Bowl committee wouldn’t allow David Showell, a black player, to participate since Texas was segregated. The invitation was then given to the Mountaineers.
While WVU walked out with a 21-12 win over UTEP — the program’s second-ever bowl win — the extra curricular activities of the trip stand out to Birurakis.
“Some of us went to Mexico to watch a bull fight,” he said. “On the way back, there were a few players ahead of me, and when they got to the border, the American guard checked them, and allowed them to go through. They threw a hint to the guard that the guy behind them was Mexican (due to his Greek complexion). I got up there and they hesitated letting me through. When I showed them proof that I was here for the Sun Bowl, they knew that the guys ahead of me were not on the up and up.”
After showing all of his credentials, Birurakis was let through for the game.
WVU took a turn south in a 4-6-1 season in 1949 and then 2-8 in 1950 to end Birurakis’ playing career, but during the final years of his degree, he student-taught at UHS. With no prior wrestling experience, Birurakis took over the Highlanders’ (now Hawks) wrestling team. That year, three went on to win state championships.
Since there wasn’t football at UHS while he was there, Birurakis also organized support and funds to bring back football, and he was able to do it.
He entered a professional career as a teacher at Hannan High in Ashton for a few years, then moved to Kittanning, Pa., for a higher paying job to help support his family.
Birurakis eventually returned to Morgantown as an iron worker, going back to his days during the summer as a student when he did the same. Birurakis worked on the first Star City Bridge, the Interstate 79 bridge that extends over the Monongahela River, the Coliseum and Milan Puskar Stadium.
Now, he is one of the oldest living WVU football alumni and is doing his part to keep the memories of his playing days, as well as his home in Scott’s Run, alive and well.
Tweet @SeanManning_DP
