Tribute to John Olesky from Mickey Furfari

Mickey Furfari, nonagenarian sportswriter and icon in covering WVU, wrote this article about me that will appear in the Wednesday, Aug. 26 newspapers that carry Mickey’s columns.

In my final semester at the WVU School of Journalism, I also worked 40 hours a week at the Dominion-News, which meant I didn’t get much sleep but did get a lot of valuable experience.

Unfortunately, the managing editor was an alcoholic who wasn’t much help if he returned from his “dinner” or just showed up hours later, so Mickey took me under his wings.

That is Mickey. He’s a legend in West Virginia, but he has an “aw, shucks, I’m nobody special” attitude about it. Yeah, right, Mickey.

Former players respect and love him so much that they run to return his phone calls when he wants to interview them.

He has hearing and sight problems, but Mickey will write about WVU sports until the undertake carts him to his final resting place.

We phone each other every month and chat about WVU sports and life events and health. After all, between us, we’ve lived 172 years!

Thanks, old friend, for including me in the pantheon of WVU greats you have written about.

Here’s Mickey’s generous story about me:

 

John Olesky, former sports writer,

still follows WVU closely

By Mickey Furfari

MORGANTOWN – John Olesky grew up in Monongah, West Virginia, and helped me six months while I was a young sports editor for the Dominion News, as a journalism student at West Virginia University.

He’s come a long way since then, Olesky, who turns 83 on Nov. 5 and now lives in Tallmadge, Ohio. He actually wrote sports for only 18 years. But he has loved following college football in particular – and still does.

His first job after graduating from WVU was as sports editor of the Williamson Daily News after graduating in 1954 from the School of Journalism.

Olesky had graduated from Monongah High in 1950, unable to be an athlete, he served as team manager for football and earned a letter. George Ross was the Monongah coach then.

After being at the Williamson Daily News for 2 years, Olesky joined the Charleston Daily Mail staff in 1955 and worked there four years.

Then he went to the Dayton, Ohio, Daily News and worked there for 13 years. Then he was hired by the St. Petersburg Times in Florida.

Then the last large newspaper for Olesky was the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio. John loved it so much there he stayed for a total of 26 years.

That’s when he served as an editor. That long stretch of his career brought Olesky to his retirement in 1996.

In all, he spent 43 years in the newspaper business. Asked whether he enjoyed all of his different jobs, he replied: “I loved all of them. It was great for me to move around.”

While John still resides in Ohio, he remains a Mountaineer fan of every respect. So much so, he hasn’t missed a football home game in the last 200 games.

“It’s been long ago, but I loved my years at WVU, the West Virginia papers I served, and also those in Ohio.”

He’s proud especially of his 43 years in the newspaper business.

Olesky said he doesn’t know what he expects of the West Virginia football team this fall. He’s anxious to see how it fares in the Big 12 Conference.

“I do know we have a lot of experience on defense,” he said. “On offense, the quarterback always is the key.”

Olesky is not worried that the Mountaineers didn’t score many points in the spring game.

“That doesn’t mean much,” he said. “They put everybody out there.

“I want to see it when it counts.”

Olesky’s wife died in 2004. He has a friend with whom he travels with since his wife has been deceased.

John has three grown children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

“I loved going to WVU,” Olesky said.

He mentioned in closing that he has traveled to many different countries (53) since he has retired.