MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Harvey Smith faces a bit of a dilemma on Saturday, August 31.

He will be at Milan Puskar Stadium for West Virginia’s season opener against eighth-ranked Penn State, but he’s not quite sure where he’ll sit yet.

He can stay with his family up in the corner of the end zone with the Penn State fans, or he can use his old West Virginia ties to get a little more perspective on the action, and maybe even stand on the sidelines where he once played as a Mountaineers player.

WVU fans old enough to remember Harvey’s game-winning touchdown catch to beat East Carolina during his junior season in 1986. His teammate John Holifield was so happy for his roommate that he jumped on him, dislocating his shoulder in the process.

But what Mountaineer fans may not remember is Smith’s block that helped set up Pat Randolph’s 22-yard touchdown run that scored the winning point in West Virginia’s 17-14 victory over Penn State on October 27, 1984, at Mountaineer Field.

This is the game in which WVU students chased Penn State coach Joe Paterno off the field before the final seconds expired. Among those amid the crowd on the field afterward were Harvey and his cousin Marques Henderson, who played as a backup defensive back for the Nittany Lions that year.

“I stayed as long as I could,” Smith recalled recently. “I wanted to enjoy the moment to the fullest because I knew it was a historic moment. My cousin stayed nearby and he and a couple of other defensemen were very friendly, of course, because I hung out with those guys over the summer.”

Afterward, Harvey admits that he probably celebrated a little more than his Hall of Fame coach Don Nehlen would have liked. Anyone who played for Nehlen knows his oft-repeated advice to his players on celebrating: “Drink the first, sip the second, and turn down the third,” he would say.

Well, that just wasn’t expected after his boys beat Penn State for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Harvey was the first in his family to become a Division I athlete, doing so as a walk-on, something that surprises some of his former Mountaineer teammates today. Smith was named All-Conference at Gateway High in Pittsburgh, but local college recruiters were lukewarm on the 6-foot-3, 175-pound player out of high school.

Smith’s college football options were limited to either walking on at Pitt or West Virginia or accepting a scholarship to play in California or Pennsylvania. Harvey took a chance on himself and tried out at WVU, where the Mountaineers were once again a factor in Eastern football under Nehlen.

When Smith left for college, his father, Harvey Sr., a former athlete at Geneva College before earning his bachelor’s degree at Penn State, dropped him off at Towers and gave him a roll of quarters and some good life advice.

“Don’t call unless it’s an emergency. And I expect you to graduate in four years,” he told his eldest son. “It’s going to be tough, but you’ll get through it.”

The walk-ons of the past were not the same as the walk-ons of today. Those who were lucky enough to make it through the tryouts got their big moment when they were allowed to put on their practice uniforms in the visitors’ locker room.

Scholarship players in the regular team’s locker room.

“I don’t know the numbers, but it seemed like hundreds of guys auditioned separately to even be considered as a walk-on for the team,” Smith said, recalling how they attended tryouts in the Shell Building in front of some coaches to help select the guys they wanted to keep.

“That shaped my whole life because nothing was given for free, you had to work for everything,” he explained. “The scholarship players got multiple chances and I constantly had to compete against new recruits who were coming from Florida at the time. (Former assistant coach) Doc Holliday was absolutely amazing at Florida and brought in good receivers like Robert White, Grantis Bell and Calvin Phillips.”

Two of those walk-ons, Smith and Holifield, became team captains before their careers with the Mountaineers ended, a prelude to the professional successes that were yet to come.

Smith said he had nothing but respect and admiration for his coach.

“When you’re a young guy playing for a legend like Coach Nehlen, you respect him and love him and you’re grateful, but you love it at the age you are and the maturity just isn’t there yet,” Smith explained. “But when you go through life and become an experienced 60-year-old like I am, you’re really grateful. I called Coach Nehlen and thanked him for helping me become the man I’ve become in my life. The father I became to my family and the husband I became to my wife.

“He shaped me into the man I am today based on the things I did during my four years in West Virginia. I am eternally grateful to him,” he said.

Harvey’s post-WVU career includes running three different successful businesses in home care, real estate and cleaning. He admits that his successes were a direct result of his experiences as a college football player at West Virginia.

“You have to perform, and that’s the same in real life when you own and run a business,” Smith explained. “It’s never boring. I’m always playing West Virginia football against Penn State, and if I’m not careful, Penn State will kick me out of the stadium. That’s how I approach my business. My kids always say, ‘I really hope you’re a millionaire, because I’ve never seen anyone work all day like you do.'”

Harvey’s younger brother Terry is Penn State’s longtime cornerbacks coach after a successful career with the Nittany Lions. According to Harvey, Terry also considered WVU before choosing Penn State.

Terry’s freshman year there coincided with Harvey’s senior year at West Virginia, so Mr. Smith took time off from work to spend time with his two boys.

“He said that was the best year of his life because he was always a workaholic and that was the only year he ever had a vacation,” Smith said. “He literally drove back and forth between Penn State and West Virginia to watch our practices, and (on game weekend) he went to whoever had a home game.”

Family reasons drew Harvey to Penn State, where many relatives have since graduated. Harvey’s son Tank was a well-known special teams player for the Nittany Lions, and Terry’s son Justin King was good enough to be drafted in the fourth round by the St. Louis Rams after earning All-Big Ten honors for the Nittany Lions in 2006.

“I have a family with a lot of athletes. Even cousins ​​who now play at Aliquippa are some of the best players in the country,” he explains proudly. “It actually started with me in my family, and West Virginia started it.”

Harvey estimates there will be over 50 family members at Milan’s Puskar Stadium on Saturday, August 31. That’s the beauty of these regional rivalry games. You don’t just get on a plane, fly four hours somewhere, play the game and then turn around and fly home.

These games often involve sons, daughters, brothers, cousins, uncles and high school teammates.

And sometimes the sides are even swapped.

Jeff Hostetler bucked a long-standing family tradition and transferred to West Virginia, while Curt Warner of Pineville, much to everyone’s dismay, crossed enemy lines to become a star player at Penn State.

The same goes for Jeff Woofter of Oak Glen and, a few years ago, Brenton Strange of Parkersburg. The current Mountaineers defensive lineman Fatma Mulbahfrom Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, began his college career at Penn State.

Additionally, former WVU player and assistant coach Ja’Juan Seider now coaches Penn State’s running backs while his daughter Ava attends WVU. If Ava happens to be with the Mountaineer Maniacs, she has to boo her father. That’s in her membership agreement.

Plus, Ja’Juan’s in-laws live in Morgantown!


Smith, who now lives in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, said he was back on campus just last year to help teammate Grantis Bell’s son move into the dorm. He was also here for a recent 40-year reunion organized by teammate Gary “Doc” Basil.


“We had a chance to hang out with coach Nehlen and, man, you talk about memories and just appreciate what you’ve been through and experienced,” Smith said. “I’m a proud Mountaineer and I want to stay connected with them.”


As for securing good cards for the big game, Harvey said he is still looking.


“I’m still hoping to get tickets on the West Virginia side,” he said. “And yes, I’ll get out my old jersey from ’88. I’m not sure if it fits the same, but I’ll definitely get it out and try.”


“It’s going to be a great game,” Smith predicted. “Everyone says it’s a secretly good West Virginia team, but I don’t think there’s anything secret about them.”