The Times West Virginian

WVU Sports

June 27, 2010

HERTZEL COLUMN: Fan’s ride shows his WVU pride

By Bob Hertzel For the Times West Virginian

MORGANTOWN — There is a website out there in cyberspace entitled “Crazy Fans of College Football” and when it comes up the No. 1 photo is of a West Virginia fan at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl three years between the Mountaineers and Oklahoma.

It is a super close-up of his face, which is painted blue with no fewer than 16 gold flying WVs across his cheeks, nose, chin and forehead.

It is as good a visual of what is truly a fan as you can find.

The word fan, of course, is a bastardization of the word “fanatic”, which brings us to one Michael Witt.

Now we will not make any claims that Michael Witt is the No. 1 Mountaineer fan around, nor that in speaking with him you are overcome with his outward passion for the school that is located in the city in which he lives.

However, if you have seem him zipping around town, you have no doubt where is loyalties lie for Witt drives one of the wackiest, zaniest vehicles you will ever come across.

There are, of course, in Morgantown any number of vehicles with Mountaineer decorations on them, but they mostly are the kind of cars you see every day on the highway, simply wearing a different brand of lipstick, so to speak.

But Witt drives what you can call, for better or for worse, “The Stewmobile.”

“They call it a Wild Fire,” he says, beginning to explain just what this rather bizarre looking automobile is. “It’s a 650 motorcycle. It’s what they use in China for a taxi cab.”

The vehicle is, indeed, an automobile body built over a three-wheel motorcycle, that gets Witt 72 to 75 miles a gallon and that can go up to 80 miles an hour. It is bright red in color and has WVU markings on it, including the Flying WV and the phrase “Stew ’em up, Bill” on the side.

Let us first get into how Mike Witt landed this piece of Mountaineerbelia.

One day he was buzzing by Steve’s Auto Sales up on The Mileground in Morgantown, owned by Steve Bellman.

“There it was, just sitting there,” he said.

Bellman had five of them and says he can special order more.

He decorated this one with Bill Stewart, the Mountaineer football coach, in mind.

“I’d drive it to the football games and park it there for the advertising. I didn’t want to sell it, but I had a knee replacement and I can’t drive a standard shift any more,” Bellman said.

Witt knew right away he had to have it, so he worked out a deal to purchase it.

First of all, it’s a good, economical means of transportation from his home up on Grafton Road to Blacksville No. 2, where he is employed as a coal miner.

That appealed to the practical side of Witt.

But it’s more.

“It’s the only car in town like it. It’s fun,” he said. “Everyone at work loves it. I get crazy mileage, it’s fun and easy to maintain. I’ll be taking it to the games this year.”

Obviously, he has been a Mountaineer fan but now the fire that burned inside him flickers even stronger, especially since the day that Coach Bill Stewart walked into Cheddar’s.

“A friend of mine, she works at Cheddar’s as a waitress, and I guess he came in one day for lunch and she showed a picture of it on her phone,” Witt said.

Stewart’s reaction?

“That’s something else,” Stewart said, laughing at the sight.

And so it is that West Virginia has yet another legend to go with Big Cat and the Mountaineer Maniacs and the zanies who, on occasion get out of hand and give the school, the city and the state a bad name with their behavior.

It is proof that being a Mountaineer fan can be fun and harmless, that it can be a participant sport without a need to call the gendarmes for protection.

And more than that, it can get you from Point A to Point B without using up very much gasoline.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.

Text Only
WVU Sports
  • Jones nears milestone as Notre Dame visits WVU

    That it is a crucial game in a season that seems to have nothing but, today’s 9 p.m. visit to the Coliseum by a streaking Notre Dame team comes with a historical footnote in the history of West Virginia University basketball.
    Kevin Jones enters the game having scored 20 or more points in nine consecutive games.

    February 8, 2012

  • WVU source: Battle to join Big 12 nearing conclusion

    Indications were growing that West Virginia University’s battle to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 in time for the 2012 season was about to be won, possibly as early as today.
    A source within the Mountaineer athletic department said on Tuesday that the matter was nearing a conclusion and also told the Times West Virginian that West Virginia would be reinstating a golf team to compete in the Big 12.

    February 8, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN: WVU, Irish strikingly similar

    Consider, if you will, that it is Nov. 25 past, that the West Virginia University basketball team is running a routine drill four games into its season, getting ready for the Akron game when Kevin Jones goes down in a heap on the floor, his ACL torn, his season over.

    February 8, 2012

  • WVU source: Battle to join Big 12 nearing conclusion

    Indications were growing that West Virginia University’s battle to leave the Big East and join the Big 12 in time for the 2012 season was about to be won, possibly as early as today.

    February 7, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN - Truck drives Mountaineers to needed win

    Perhaps it is what has kept him going through a West Virginia basketball career with as many turns as a trip to Pineville down in Wyoming County, but Truck Bryant enjoys being Truck Bryant.

    February 6, 2012

  • WVU finds a way, wins in overtime

    Truck Bryant made the headline plays, including a 3-point shot with 3.3 seconds left to play, as West Virginia saved its season with an 87-84 overtime victory at Providence, but the subheads had to be reserved for Deniz Kilicli and a pair of freshman guards.

    February 6, 2012

  • Mountaineers face critical test today at Providence

    The schedule tells you it’s another game in the marathon run that is the Big East season, a trip to Providence to play a team with only two conference victories, but somehow everyone connected with the West Virginia University program knows today’s noon meeting with the Friars is much more than that.

    February 5, 2012

  • HERTZEL COLUMN: Jones on the brink of WVU history

    On the one hand there is yesterday’s Warren Baker, who entered the WVU Athletic Hall of Fame in the latest class for the work he did from 1973 to 1976, and on the other hand there is today’s star Kevin Jones, who has emerged from the shadows of the likes of Joe Alexander and Da’Sean Butler this year to carve his own niche in Mountaineer basketball history.

    February 5, 2012

  • WVU backs out of Florida State game

    West Virginia University has canceled its Sept. 8 football game at Florida State.
    Once again, as they have done with virtually everything since announcing they planned to move from the Big East to the Big 12, they did it behind closed doors, without any announcement or statement.

    February 5, 2012

  • WVU women upset Louisville

    It is foolhardy to put it up there with the Baylors and Notre Dames of the women’s world just yet, but really if you look closely and see potential, much of which came out Saturday afternoon when the Mountaineers upset No. 12/14 Louisville, 66-50, you realize that this team is closer to greatness than it is to mediocrity.

    February 5, 2012