Monongah High’s 1968 state championship football team will be honored Friday, November 30 in Wheeling Island Stadium during the 7:30 p.m. 2018 Class AA state title game between Fairmont West and Bluefield.

Kerry Marbury, on both the 1968 and 1969 Lions state titlists, lined up a bus to take 1968 players to Wheeling. Marcus Lewis, at time_marc77@yahoo.com is handling the reservations for the bus ride return to glory.

Kerry later starred at WVU and was a state track champ in the dashes.

Alabama football coach Nick “Brother” Saban was quarterback of the 1968 team.

Monongah High won state football titles in 1952, 1955, 1968, 1969 and 1973 and the state baseball title in 1955.

The Polar Bears beat three-time state champ Bridgeport in double overtime to reach the title game. Mingo is undefeated.

Other title games in the various classes:

Undefeated Martinsburg, which won its playoff games by a combined 154-0, will meet Spring Valley, making its first title game appearance, in Class AAA, at noon Saturday, December 1. Martinsburg has four consecutive state titles (2010-2013) and is averaging more than 50 points a game for the season. Quite a juggernaut.

In Class A, Wheeling Central vs. Williamstown at 7 p.m. Saturday, December 1.

Monongah’s Lion Kings were in the spotlight again Friday night at North Marion High’s Homecoming game against Clarksburg Robert C. Byrd High School.

Monongah High was consolidated into North Marion in September 1979. Thirty nine years later the Lions still have more state football titles than North Marion, East Fairmont and Fairmont Senior combined.

Monongah won SIX state championships, 5 in football and in 1955 in baseball behind pitcher Frank DeMoss.

The 1968 state football champs were honored during Friday’s game. The 1968 players who showed up included Kerry Marbury, probably Monongah High’s greatest football player who also was a WVU football star and played pro ball in Canada.

Marbury’s quarterback in 1968 was Nick “Brother” Saban, Alabama football coach with five national college titles to his name . . . so far. Marbury also was on the 1969 Monongah state titlists, after Brother graduated, and was a state champ in track in the 100- and 200-yard dashes.

For Kerry and Brother, it began on Nick Saban Sr.’s Pop Warner football team for pre-high school children in Idamay.

"Nick Sr. told us if we started winning he'd take us to the Dairy Queen he had," Marbury recalled. "That motivated us and we started winning so much that he almost went broke." A 38-game winning streak to be exact.

The Black Diamonds once traveled to Pennsylvania to beat a team that had quarterback Joe Namath, later the pride of Beaver Falls High in Pennsylvania, of Alabama and of the New York Jets and in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Kerry and Brother remain friends.

Nick Sr., who passed away in 1973, bought an old school bus to transport his football and baseball players to practice and to games. He bought gloves and shoes for those who couldn’t afford them.

He imbued his values in Brother. Nick Sr. raised his family in a brick split-level behind the filling station, where Brother washed cars while teen girls watched and giggled as the water glistened on his shirtless body.

Julie Angelucci, Larry Rankin and Dennis Jones brought Monongah High the 1952 state title with a Julie pass to Dennis followed by a Dennis lateral to Larry for a touchdown that won the game in the fourth quarter.

Henry “Dinkle” Martin and George Martello were on TWO Monongah High state championship teams in 1955 – football and baseball. Dinkle kicked the game-winning point after touchdown in the title game. Pitchers Frank DeMoss and Bernie Vingle were the stars of the baseball state tournament triumph.

Merlin Davidson was quarterback of the 1955 Monongah High state champ football team and the 1956 state runnerup team. And was on the 1955 state champ baseball team.

Kerry Marbury was on 1968 and 1969 state football champs, with Brother the quarterback on the 1968 team.

Jay Feltz quarterbacked the final, 1973 Monongah High state football champs, completing a circle started by his father, Jim Feltz, coach of the 1952 and 1955 state kings.

Earl Keener, Jim Feltz’ assistant in 1952 and 1955, coached the 1968 and 1969 champs. They played together at Fairmont State.

Monongah ceased to exist after 1979, morphing into North Marion with Farmington, Barrackville, Fairview and Mannington.

But the legend of superior Monongah High football and its Lion Kings will never fade from our memories.

 Friday at North Marion’s Homecoming was proof.

Want to see Monongah’s football title days again?

If you want to re-live Monongah High’s football glory and the 1968 and 1969 state champions, click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkgFrDm8CwA&sns=fb

to see the videos of Nick “Brother” Saban at quarterback and Kerry Marbury as a running back, and both on defense.

Monongah High also won state football titles in 1952 and 1955 when Jim Feltz was the coach, Julie Angelucci the quarterback and Dennis Jones the amazing wide receiver.

And again in 1973 when Jay Feltz, Jim’s son, was the quarterback.

Monongah High also won a state title in baseball, in 1955, the same year the football team won the state championship, with pitcher Frank DeMoss as the #1 reason.

Coach Jim Feltz began Monongah High’s state football championships run in 1952 and 1955. 

His assistant was Earl Keener, who coached the Lions to 1968 and 1969 state titles with Nick Saban as the quarterback (in 1968) and Kerry Marbury as the ghost running back no one could grab (in 1968 and 1969). 

Mary Conaway Saban Pasko with
John Opyoke, his cousin Sandy

Tom Hulderman was Brother’s favorite receiver. 

Charlie Miller, Kerry’s teammate on a winning state championship track relay, also was a halfback.

Harry Davis, Joe Martin, John Fazio and Paul Deahl played major roles, too.

The 1968 and 1969 Monongah champions nucleus came from the Idamay Black Diamonds, a Pop Warner children’s football team that was coached by Nick Saban, Sr. and included Nick, Jr., Kerry and Tom, who went to East Monongah Junior High together before moving on to Monongah High.

Brother’s mother is Mary Conaway Saban Pasko, widow of Robert Pasko, her husband for 21 years after Nick, Sr. passed away. Mary is 84 and still going strong, a Saban tradition.

His sister is Dene Saban Thompson, a Monongah Elementary teacher who gave Nick the Brother nickname that sticks to this day among family and his Monongah High friends.

Both Kerry and Charlie Miller starred at WVU. 28 of the 31 players on the 1968 state championship team either live or died in Marion County. Tom was in the Chicago Cubs baseball farm system for nearly 5 years. 

Brother coached at Toledo, Michigan State and LSU, where he won one of his four national titles before winning three more at Alabama.

When Monongah football was the Lion king

The Monongah High Lions were state football champs in 1952, 1955, 1968, 1969 and 1973.

The 1952 team was quarterbacked by Julie Angelucci, who threw the pass to Dennis Jones that Dennis lateraled to Larry Rankin for the game-winning touchdown.

The 1968 team had both Brother – Nick Saban, today’s Alabama coach with 4 national titles to his name – and Kerry Marbury. 

Saban was gone but Marbury was back for the 1969 title. 

Earl Keener, Jim Feltz’ assistant in 1952 and 1955, coached the 1968 and 1969 champs.

To complete the circle, Jay Feltz, son of Jim Feltz, quarterbacked the 1973 team.

The WBOY-TV story about Monongah’s Field of Dreams:

Fields of History: Monongah Football

By Andrew Clay, WBOY-TV Monongalia and Preston County Reporter

MONONGAH -

Very few things change the landscape of high school athletics like consolidation.

Marion County once boasted nine high schools, now the county has three.

Monongah High School was consolidated into North Marion in the 70's. But still today, the Lions have more state football titles than North Marion, East Fairmont and Fairmont Senior have combined.

"It was tremendous to know you had such a great team here that would be fighting for a state championship each year," said John Veasey, editor for the Times West Virginian.

Where Monongah Football once played their games, now stands an elementary school and playground.

Veasey began covering Marion County sports in 1959. He remembers an era dominated by the Lions.

"They were just better than all the other teams around," he said. "They opened every year against East Fairmont. An AAA team versus a smaller team, and about every year East Fairmont would lose."

Monongah won 5 state football titles. Its most notable alumni led two of them.

Kerry Marbury was a WVU football star who played pro ball in Canada. His teammate Nick Saban needs no introduction.

"I played professional football, I played college football, Pop Warner, and high school," said Marbury. "I played all levels, and the most fun I had was in high school and Pop Warner."

"Kerry Marbury was just a college player among high school kids," said Veasey. "And Nick Saban, Earl Keener would always call him a coach on the field."

Marbury and Saban are still friends. Their bond goes back for years.

"Nick Sr. told us if we started winning he'd take us to the Dairy Queen he had," said Marbury. "That motivated us and we started winning, so much so, he almost went broke."

Monongah spent its latter years playing at East-West Stadium. The field where Monongah Elementary now stands became a practice field.

Today only the rusted out backstop of the former dual-purpose field, and a torn-down scoreboard tucked in the woods still remain.

"Some of the most fond memories I have took place at that field," Marbury said. "The comradery we had, the friendships that were developed there I will never forget."