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The Official Web Site of the WVU Varsity Club |
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Profile: Dick Leftridge
It was Dick Leftridge. Ford and Leftridge made up one of the school’s most formidable backfield tandems in 1965. When Ford came to WVU from Washington, D.C., in 1964, one of the first persons he was introduced to was Dick Leftridge. The other was the late Roger Alford. Those two were the first African-American players to receive football scholarships at WVU in 1962. “Dick wasn’t the type of guy to be philosophical,” remembered Ford, “but he did show us younger guys around.” Almost 40 years later, perhaps sensing his time was running short and wanting to clear up some loose ends in his life, Leftridge once again tracked down his former teammate with whom he had lost touch after leaving school. “Hey, Ford,” he whispered into the phone, “I haven’t talked to you in a long time and I want you to know I’ve wasted a lot of time being angry about things and I want you to know I am really sorry. I just wanted to tell you I love you.” That call will always be Garrett Ford’s lasting memory of his teammate, who died Friday, Feb. 27, 2004, just weeks before his 60th birthday. “When you get to be our age you really get emotional and you want to clear up all of the loose ends,” said Ford. Ford believes Leftridge finally made his peace. “He talked to his minister and he kind of got his life together,” he said. Leftridge, one of 10 children, came to Morgantown from the southern part of the state, his life being formed at a time when America was splitting apart at its seams. At the very moment Leftridge, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound fullback, was settling in as a member of the WVU freshman team in 1962, 48 federal troops were needed to maintain order in Oxford, Miss., when James Meredith became the first African-American to enroll at the University of Mississippi. The now infamous Bull Connor was hosing down children in the streets of Birmingham, Ala., in 1963, and two years after that in 1965 rioting in Watts left 35 dead and more than $200 million in damages. With all that was going on in the country and the disproportionate number of African-Americans heading off to Vietnam, it was a hell of a time to be a black man in the United States. “Everyone was making adjustments,” remembered Ford. “There were some people who really weren’t ready for us to come here.” Leftridge, the son of a railroader from Hinton, and Alford, a National Honor Society student and the son of a steelworker from Wintersville, Ohio, just across the river from Weirton, came to West Virginia University during a period when the school was bypassing some very talented local African-American ball players. Among them were offensive lineman Charlie Cowan and wide receiver Lionel Taylor from Logan County, Shepherdstown running back Bob Gaiters, and Weirton’s Bob Jeter. Cowan and Taylor went to New Mexico Highlands, Gaiters played at New Mexico State, and Jeter wound up at Iowa. All four played professionally and all four could have very easily played at West Virginia University. Leftridge and Alford often jokingly referred to themselves as “pioneers” at WVU, but to younger African-American players like Ford and John Mallory, it rang true. “They set the tone for all of us and in reality if it wasn’t for Dick and Roger I’m not sure any of us would have stayed,” said Ford. “We all got homesick our first semester here and wanted to leave but Dick and Roger kind of helped us through that." “I don’t recall there being any major incidents,” remembered former Wheeling Intelligencer sports editor Doug Huff, a WVU student at the time. “The blacks on the team pretty much kept to themselves.” Leftridge wasn’t the type of person who was going to organize a protest down on the courthouse square, but at the same time he also wasn’t going to turn the other cheek if someone had something unpleasant to say to him. He was proud of who he was. “Dick didn’t take anything from anyone,” said Ford. “He had a presence on campus and he could take care of himself.” For the most part, Dick Leftridge did his talking on the football field. He became the team’s leading rusher as a sophomore in 1963 and had another fine season in 1964, gaining 534 yards on 125 carries and helping West Virginia to a 7-4 record and a berth in the Liberty Bowl to play Utah. He ran for 73 yards in the loss to Utah and also had a fine game against Pitt on regional television that season. But Mountaineer fans expected much more from him. Leftridge’s biggest obstacle proved to be his weight. “He seems to gain weight just looking at food,” remarked Coach Gene Corum back in 1965. Leftridge was able to get a handle on his personal battle of the bulge as a senior in 1965, arriving at training camp at Jackson’s Mill weighing less than 230 pounds. Not coincidentally, Leftridge had the most productive season of his career. Teaming with Ford, Leftridge ran for 774 yards and scored nine touchdowns in helping the Mountaineers to a 6-4 record. The two combined to run for more than 1,800 yards and 18 touchdowns as one of the East Coast’s best backfield tandems. Their combined figures that year compared favorably to Syracuse’s outstanding tandem of Floyd Little and Larry Csonka, both of whom combined to run for 1,860 yards and score 18 touchdowns. Leftridge’s best game was against George Washington when he rushed 19 times for 160 yards, but Ford says the performance he most remembers came that same year against Pitt. “He ran off tackle and he had one of the greatest 16-yard runs I’d ever seen,” said Ford, who spent a season in the AFL with the Denver Broncos in 1968. “He must have had eight guys bounce off of him before taking it to the end zone.” “He knocked me out cold in practice once,” remembered Donnie Young, a guard who later became a long-time assistant coach. “He could really play.” Leftridge finished his WVU career rushing 348 times for 1,701 yards and 21 touchdowns. He was named the state’s Amateur Athlete of the Year and was the first African-American to play for the South team in the North-South Shrine Game in Miami, Fla. The Pittsburgh Steelers thought enough of him to make him their first pick (third overall and the second running back taken) in the 1966 NFL draft, but soon realized they may have made a mistake when they took a good look at him when he arrived for training camp. “He weighed about 300 pounds when he showed up,” Ford laughed. Leftridge appeared in just four NFL games, running eight times for 17 yards before, as one Pittsburgh writer put it, “eating himself out of the league.” “The thing that got him drafted so high was his size and his athletic ability,” said Ford. “He was like a bunch of us during that time. We never played to our potential and we never worked as hard as we could have. We just made it on our natural ability.” Leftridge never made it back to the NFL. Later he spent time in prison on a drug charge but eventually was able to overcome that and turn his life around. “Roger was the one who stayed in touch with Dick all the way through,” said Ford. “He was trying to help young kids,” Ford added. “And he loved his grandchildren. Last year I got him a No. 31 jersey and he took it to the house for his grandkid to wear.” According to Ford, Dick Leftridge was one of the best he ever saw play at WVU, “In my time here Dick and Jim Braxton were in the same category,” he said. More importantly, Ford maintains that Leftridge made it easier for other African-Americans to play at West Virginia University and that ultimately opened up doors that even he didn’t consider at the time. “I didn’t realize how important it was to other African-Americans in the state that we were here playing,” said Ford. “I met some people later who told me how much they looked forward to coming up here and seeing us play.” And it was Dick Leftridge who helped make that all possible. |
Before
West Virginia went down to Charlotte to play Virginia in the
Continental Tire Bowl, Associate Athletic Director Garrett Ford got
a telephone call from a very unlikely person. |
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