Jackie at West's statue
The story is in the stars

Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, who lives in Rivesville, is quoted in Fairmont Times Editor John Veasey’s column about witnessing some really significant events in WVU basketball history.

Jerry West playing for WVU. Hot Rod Hundley, too. The unveiling of West’s statue in front of WVU Coliseum. The unveiling of Hundley’s statue next to West’s.

While an undergraduate at WVU who also worked a 40-hour week for the Morgantown Dominion-News, I took photographs of Hot Rod during Mountaineer games for that newspaper.

After graduation, while working in the Charleston Daily Mail sports department, I watched Jerry West carry the East Bank High School team on his back to the state basketball title.

Paths certainly criss-cross in life. Jackie’s. Mine. Jerry’s. Hot-Rod’s.

Small world. But fascinating.