MORGANTOWN — This past weekend Dr. Ed Etzel was inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
Despite the honor, there were places he would rather have been than the gala in which he was inducted.
In fact, Etzel admits that it is fair to call him “the reluctant Hall of Famer.”
It isn’t that he is unappreciative; it’s just that such an honor is based upon what he has done in the past and as he is a person who very much lives in the present.
“I don’t live in the past,” he said.
This, of course, sets him apart from only about 99.8 percent of the rest of the human race. They bask in the warm glow of their accomplishments, knowing how hard they worked to earn them, knowing how hard they were to achieve.
And certainly Etzel was a deserving recipient of this award, going into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame along with Randy Barnes, who was simply the best shotputter the world has ever seen.
Born in New Haven, Conn., educated as an undergraduate at Tennessee Technological University and owner of advanced degrees from WVU, Etzel has been a Morgantown resident and member of the WVU staff for 34 years after being named Mountaineer rifle coach in 1976-77.
If you measure success by wins and losses, Etzel’s record of 103-3 — “or something like that,” as he said — qualifies. So does leading the team to the first five of the school’s 14 national championships.
As for what that means, he is quick to point out that “I never fired a shot.”
He coached only 11 years, giving up the position after the 1989 season, becoming a member of the athletic department as psychologist.
But if he is modest about his accomplishments as a coach, he is downright unbelievably nonchalant about the Gold Medal he won at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Most people in possession of a Gold Medal would flaunt it, if not wearing it to work every day, then, at least, providing a place of prominence in their home to display it to anyone who entered, be it best friend or plumber.
Etzel?
“It’s in a box on top of the refrigerator,” he said.
Honest.
And it’s moving up in prominence, for he used to keep it in a safety deposit box.
In fact, the only reason it was removed from the seclusion of bank vault was … well, let him tell it.
“It was rusting there,” he said. “I took it to jeweler and he got it shining again, but he told me it was only gold plated and probably worth about $30.”
Not that there really is something such a monetary value on a Gold Medal.
In typical fashion, Etzel puts his accomplishment into perspective on a far wider landscape than just the world of sports.
“The Olympics,” he said, “were something I did for just a few days.”
Etzel sees a role for himself and that his background as an Olympic champion helping him accomplish it.
That goal is in helping people.
“Athletes are not heroes,” he stressed. “Surgeons are. Policemen are. Firemen are. Athletes don’t save lives.”
He believes we ask far too much of our athletes, for they are what they are. He understands they live under stress and as his role of working as a psychologist he helps them find the right path through the landmines of school and athletics, leading not only to success in the present but in the future.
He prefers operating in the background, a quiet man who calls himself an “academic” who “has compassion for people.”
He first understood the effect he could have on people when he was in the military at Fort Benning, Ga., during the Vietnam War.
“I wasn’t in combat but I spoke to the returning veterans and that made an impact,” he said.
He probably could have used his education and skills to get a higher-paying position, although he does make a nice living at the university. He notes that many sports psychologists become personal psychologists.
“They are in business and are entrepreneurs,” he said. “I’m a bad entrepreneur.”
He has a cramped office in the Coliseum with old but comfortable chairs, and he spends his time helping young men and women find their way through the formative years of their life.
And now, like it or not, he can help them find their way as a member of the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
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