(Publisher’s Note: To make for vacations this week, LEDE News is sharing some our most popular articles. Enjoy.)
It sits there still to this day, lonely, dark and cold, on a small, nondescript strip of Logan Street.
But what a history it had, this tiny gymnasium at dead-and-defunct Bishop Donahue Memorial High School. Basketball ruled at this proud Catholic school, and, sorry to say, winters in McMechen will never be the same.
Bishop Donahue opened in 1955 and was closed in 2017 — thanks to the wicked whims of a since-shamed bishop, but that’s a whole ‘nother story — so if you’ll indulge this old sportswriter, I’d like to kick up some memories of past glories and offer up my All-Time Ever Bishop Donahue Basketball Team.
Feel free to snort, cuss and stick pins in the Joe VooDoo Doll if I left off your favorite player (son or grandson?), but I’m going to have some fun with this one and tender no ill will.
To begin with, I’m starting in 1970. I’m an old fossil, to be sure, but ’70 goes back far enough for me to be able to say I saw every player in that era. I’ve heard great things about Dave Cisar and I’m sure the legendary baseball coach was an excellent athlete, so we’ll offer him up an honorable mention at the very least.
We’ll start at point guard, since BD was unusually strong there through the seasons. Dave Foose, who led the Bishops to the state championship in 1985 and was a three-year starter, is without question the best of a banner batch at BD and belongs on this team. Foose was fast and ruthless, lethal in the lane, precise from the perimeter and a blast to watch. Fun Foose Factoid: In the 1985 state tournament in Charleston, Foose was the best player on the floor all week, regardless of class. Nice and polite and forever smiling, Foose was cut-throat on the court. The Charleston media loved him.
Other notable point guards at Donahue include Dave’s kid brother Huck, who led BD to the state finals in 1989 where the Bishops — without a starter over six-feet — finally fell to Burch and its 6-foot-7 twin towers 70-61 in the finals. But lest you think that the Foose family is the First Family for point guards at BD, I’ll instead offer up their neighbors in Center Benwood, the Norm Smith family.
The late Norm Smith was a basketball savant and coached the grade school and freshmen at BD for years, and he was a wonderful teacher. His oldest son, Normie, was the point guard on the 1975 State Catholic championship team, a pretty big deal back in the day. Kelly Smith was a dazzling ball-handler some three years later, followed by the youngest, Jimmy Smith, who was maybe the best of them all.
Jimmy was just a sophomore in 1981 when he made the biggest shot in Bishop Donahue history, a free throw with no time remaining, staring straight into the Mullens crowd, to lift the Bishops to their first-ever state championship in any sport. To this very day Jimmy can’t pay for his own beer at Benwood or McMechen taverns — it’s an unwritten law. And, of course, there’s brother Dino Smith, the beloved team manager at the school for decades who sadly passed away six years ago. Donahue honored Dino by naming its basketball court after him.
Keeping the pedal to the metal in Center Benwood, we’ll go with skywalker Gary Fonner at one of the forward positions. Fonner was the author of the most prolific scoring season in Bishop history, averaging 33.4 points per game in 1978. Equally adept at playing over the rim as he was hoisting 22-foot daggers, the 5-foot-11 dazzler still holds the Marshall County record for 55 points in one game and had 49 in a memorable outburst against Sistersville at the Wheeling Civic Center, still a record there. Fonner was must-see viewing and packed the gym like like few others. Fun Fonner Factoid: The Intelligencer named him one of the OVAC’s top 100 Athletes of the 20th Century, and he was the only BD athlete named.
At the other forward position we’ll go with Tim Popicg, Class of ’72 and a Southern Illinois recruit. Like Fonner, Popicg was a three-sport standout but really excelled at basketball and poured in a career 1,509 points, averaging 31.2 as a junior, then 25 ppg as a senior when BD won the OVAC Class A championship. Whereas Fonner blew you away with athletic dominance, Popicg worked the understated elegance of the game.
“Tim’s big thing was his basketball IQ,” said Tom Wise, the school’s head basketball coach for its last 17 years. “He could score, pass, create and was so unselfish. Now Gary, he was a supreme athlete. I don’t care what he touched, he was going to be phenomenal.”
Fun Popicg factoid: He quarterbacked the BD football team to the state Catholic championship as a senior, and was all-tourney in the state Catholic basketball event two times, scoring a record 42 in one game. The big moments are made for Tim Popicg.
Safe to say, our all-time ever BD team is pretty fair so far.
So why not dip back into the Center Benwood talent pool for our center? He’s none other than Shawn Straughn, a 6-5 powderkeg of panache from the Class of ’86. A pogo stick leaper and unbridled aggressor on the boards, Straughn averaged 20 points and 13.2 rebounds when Donahue won the state in 1985, then came back as a senior to average 22.3 points and 14.1 rebounds. He went on to a phenomenal career at Wheeling College, finishing his career with 1,920 points (second all time) and 1,110 rebounds (first all time) and having his number retired there. It was Straughn and Dave Foose who teamed up again to lead Wheeling College to the NAIA Final Four in 1989. Winners, as always.
Fun Straughn Factoid: He would bedevil his head coach, Tom Tribett, by purposefully missing a free throw when his sub was awaiting at the table. Shawn Straughn was never one to give in.
Which brings us back to the guard position for the fifth starter on my All-Time Ever Bishop Donahue team: Taylor Straughn, son of Shawn and a completely different player than his Dad by most measures. At 6-3 and silky smooth, Taylor was powerful in the paint but also sported a soft stroke from three and finished his career with well over 1,600 points as Bishop Donahue’s all-time scoring leader.
In a story for The Intelligencer late in the 2017 season, Coach Wise said of Taylor: “He did it with style. A lot of kids take 25-30 shots a game but he only averages around 16 or 17 and still scores about 27 points per game. He can take it to the hole or go left or right. He plays point guard for half of every game. We ask him to do a lot and he has done it well. I am just happy to be a part of it.”
Fun Taylor Factoid: The night his father Shawn was inducted into the BD Athletic Hall of Fame, the Bishops fell down by 19 in the second half against top-ranked Clarksburg Notre Dame. But Taylor and the Bishops came back to win 73-72 because it’s a Straughn thing. Which makes it a Bishop Donahue thing.
So, you’ve got my five starters, and we’ll represent the Smith family with Jimmy as one of the featured reserves on this 10-man unit.
The other four “reserves” are: 1. Frank Yankovich, a delightful player, and the best on the ’81 state championship team; 2. Mark Gordon, a four-year starter who left in ’93 as the school’s top scorer, eclipsed only by Taylor Straughn; 3. A.J. Gordon, another four-year starter and the top player on the 2007 squad that went to the state championship game before falling to Charleston Catholic; 4. Tom Wise, later to become the principal and head basketball coach of the school. Tom was the best player on the 1976 team that went 23-1 and was quite possibly the best team Donahue ever had. Or ever will have.
Some honorable mentions in addition to Huck Foose and Dave Cisar: Tony Reilly, Pat Popicg, Nathan Fallova, Scott and Randy Melko, Joe Wallace, Zac Graebe, Adam Shinsky, Kenny Barrows, Jason Reinbeau, Jesse Padlow, Tom Kulavic, Brian Blake, Josh Miller, Bryce Jones, LA Hampton, John Bonar, Garrett Yurisko, Rusty Davis, Andy Gonta, Chris Kessler, Nick Szymiakis, Steve Musilli, and Phil Nelson.
Did I miss anybody? If so, look me up. We’ll toss a beer and refuse to let the magic of Bishop Donahue die. And we’ll do so at a tavern in Glen Dale, so Jimmy Smith’s buying.
