A column by Bob Hertzel for The Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The road has been a twisting one for Shane Lyons, although he always knew where it would end.
Right from the time he came out of Parkersburg and enrolled at West Virginia University in 1983, he was bound to get himself first involved in sports management with the ultimate goal being to become an athletic director.
And what better place could it be than at his own state university.
Times were good then. Don Nehlen had come to town about the time Lyons entered Parkersburg High. His sophomore year he had watched a quarterback lead the Mountaineers, whom he had come to love as every high school student in the state did, to an unexpected victory over Florida in the Peach Bowl.
That quarterback was Oliver Luck, whom on Sunday Lyons agreed to replace as athletic director at West Virginia, beginning a five-year contract that will pay him $550,000 plus incentives.
Yeah, those West Virginia degrees have some value, don’t they?
Anyway, Lyons got himself a bachelor’s degree in sports management and followed it up with a master’s degree, enjoying himself on Saturday afternoons in the new stadium watching the football team play, a team that for a couple of years included a defensive back who would also find a way to return to WVU after a number of years away…
