For much of Ernie Salvatore's half-century of Huntington sportswriting, the Thundering Herd football team fell considerably short of respectability.

And so Salvatore, who died at his Huntington home Friday morning at 87, boldly confronted the necessary task of reporting the truth, unpleasant though it may have been to the Herd faithful.

In those days, he once recalled, he was often accused of being negative, but he never wavered from what he knew was his obligation to uphold the standards of sports journalism, even if the nation's sports pages had not always been associated with such standards.

"One of the early things he taught me,'' said former colleague Lowell Cade, "was that when you entered the press box, you forgot that you had attended such-and-such school.''

In addition to delivering objectivity and dignity to decades of Huntington-area sports fans, Salvatore set himself apart for his elegant prose, his prolific output of columns that extended far beyond Marshall sports and, in the segregationist era of the mid-1950s, his recognition of Hal Greer.

At the time, Greer was a budding basketball talent at all-black Douglass High School in Huntington, and, defying the sentiments of the day, Salvatore assigned a sportswriter, Don Hatfield, to cover the team and pay special attention to Greer, who later enrolled at Marshall and ranks as the greatest name in Marshall basketball history.

In the 1970s, Huntington officials renamed 16th Street in Greer's honor. Greer was named one of the NBA's top 50 all-time players in 1996.

Salvatore always took special satisfaction in recalling that the Douglass students and fans appreciated the sportswriter's presence at a time when white newspapers generally limited their coverage to white sports. "The people at Douglass welcomed having him there,'' he said proudly. 

Salvatore also wrote extensively about Huntington's era of black baseball before the sport was integrated.

A Connecticut native, he grew up a Yankee fan and enjoyed reliving his childhood memories of Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio and once thought he would attend Columbia University in New York City.

But he chose Marshall College almost by happenstance. A faculty member at his high school, Fred Wilson, a West Virginia native who had played football for the Mountaineers, distributed college-entrance material at the high school, including information on Marshall that caught Salvatore's attention.

Shortly thereafter, he boarded a train for Huntington, took up residence at Hodges Hall on the Marshall campus, earned a degree and, in a sense, never left. He worked for nearly 60 years as a writer and editor for the Huntington Advertiser and later The Herald-Dispatch, two newspapers that consolidated in 1979.

For much of Ernie Salvatore's half-century of Huntington sportswriting, the Thundering Herd football team fell considerably short of respectability.

And so Salvatore, who died at his Huntington home Friday morning at 87, boldly confronted the necessary task of reporting the truth, unpleasant though it may have been to the Herd faithful.

In those days, he once recalled, he was often accused of being negative, but he never wavered from what he knew was his obligation to uphold the standards of sports journalism, even if the nation's sports pages had not always been associated with such standards.

"One of the early things he taught me,'' said former colleague Lowell Cade, "was that when you entered the press box, you forgot that you had attended such-and-such school.''

In addition to delivering objectivity and dignity to decades of Huntington-area sports fans, Salvatore set himself apart for his elegant prose, his prolific output of columns that extended far beyond Marshall sports and, in the segregationist era of the mid-1950s, his recognition of Hal Greer.

At the time, Greer was a budding basketball talent at all-black Douglass High School in Huntington, and, defying the sentiments of the day, Salvatore assigned a sportswriter, Don Hatfield, to cover the team and pay special attention to Greer, who later enrolled at Marshall and ranks as the greatest name in Marshall basketball history.

In the 1970s, Huntington officials renamed 16th Street in Greer's honor. Greer was named one of the NBA's top 50 all-time players in 1996.

Salvatore always took special satisfaction in recalling that the Douglass students and fans appreciated the sportswriter's presence at a time when white newspapers generally limited their coverage to white sports. "The people at Douglass welcomed having him there,'' he said proudly. 

Salvatore also wrote extensively about Huntington's era of black baseball before the sport was integrated.

A Connecticut native, he grew up a Yankee fan and enjoyed reliving his childhood memories of Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio and once thought he would attend Columbia University in New York City.

But he chose Marshall College almost by happenstance. A faculty member at his high school, Fred Wilson, a West Virginia native who had played football for the Mountaineers, distributed college-entrance material at the high school, including information on Marshall that caught Salvatore's attention.

Shortly thereafter, he boarded a train for Huntington, took up residence at Hodges Hall on the Marshall campus, earned a degree and, in a sense, never left. He worked for nearly 60 years as a writer and editor for the Huntington Advertiser and later The Herald-Dispatch, two newspapers that consolidated in 1979.

"He came from Connecticut and always had a warm spot for the big city, but he was a West Virginian,'' said Cade, who first met Salvatore as a Marshall journalism student in 1957. "He met his wife here and loved Marshall.''

"It's a sad day,'' said former Marshall football coach Bob Pruett. "He was here when I was a player, he was here when I was an assistant coach and, of course, he was here when I was head coach. I considered him a friend. He may not have always written things the way I wanted them written, but I always respected him. He did a good job for a long time. He reported the news and didn't try to make the news. And he never tried to ambush you. And those of us on the coaching side always appreciated that.'' 

Another former Marshall football coach, Stan Parrish, called Salvatore his favorite sportswriter. 

"Ernie is one of that breed of old-school writers that you don't find anymore,'' said Parrish, who's now the head coach at Ball State University. "He had a gift for making everyone feel important. No one had the ear of the Thundering Herd fan more than Ernie. He made Marshall athletics bigger than life because he cared about the people so much. I've been around a million different writers in all different levels of sports that I've coached, and Ernie was my favorite."

In a 2007 Gazette interview, Salvatore said he had a special fondness for boxing, largely because it offered hope for youngsters in tough environments.

"I covered Marshall football and basketball. I covered the Golden Gloves. I covered a lot of golf. Boxing was my favorite,'' he said. "It's a primal sport. I could identify with these kids coming out of working families and looking for something to do. This was a way out for them. It's always been a way out for people. Even today.''

Last year, the Joan C. Edwards Stadium press box was named in Salvatore's honor, and the school endowed a sports journalism scholarship in his honor. Last year, he received a Distinguished West Virginian Award, the highest award a state resident can receive.

He also was featured as one of the characters in the Warner Brothers film "We Are Marshall." He was played by Mark Oliver.

Arrangements are being handled by Klingel Carpenter Mortuary in Huntington.

Reach Mike Whiteford at 304-348-7948 or mikewhitef...@wvgazette.com. Freelance columnist Frank Giardina contributed to this report.