"YOU CAN'T play football for me. You're too fat,'' said Eddie King, the Morris Harvey football coach.

It was the spring of 1949, and King was sitting in his campus office talking with 20-year-old Leon McCoy, who had approached the coach about an opportunity to play for the Golden Eagles.

King knew that McCoy had been an exceptional football player at Charleston High and had excelled for one season at the University of Tennessee, but he also knew his reputation as an undisciplined boozer, brawler and ne'er-do-well. And in calling him fat, the coach was indulging in some age-old sports psychology. He was appealing to McCoy's competitive instincts, challenging the young man to prove that he not only could lose weight and play football but also resurrect his character.

It worked splendidly, thus earning McCoy's gratitude that has remained for more than half a century.

But resurrecting McCoy's character required more than just a brief conversation with the coach. McCoy did, in fact, play football for Morris Harvey (now the University of Charleston) and earned his degree in 1952, but along the way he would periodically lapse into the same boorish behavior that had marked his teenage years on Charleston's downtown streets and thwarted a promising football career at Tennessee. As a freshman in Knoxville, McCoy started at center and linebacker for coach Bob Neyland and was considered a possibility for eventual All-America honors.

McCoy, however, returned to Charleston after one year and worked briefly at the Arcade Poolroom on Virginia Street until he came to his senses and walked into King's office.   

And whenever McCoy reverted to his old behavior at Morris Harvey, King was there to counsel him and exact discipline. One minute King would be delivering fatherly advice; the next minute he would be sitting in a folding chair as McCoy, paying the price for his repeated indiscretions, ran laps around the practice field.

The school, of course, later named its gym for Eddie King, honoring the man who had made such a difference in the lives of McCoy and others and compiled a 72-31-4 record as its football coach and won three West Virginia Conference championships as its basketball coach. The structure that would be known as Eddie King Gym, constructed in 1947, has been a Kanawha Valley landmark on the University of Charleston campus, accommodating the community as well as the college.

At the moment, however, the University of Charleston is making plans for a new facility to replace Eddie King Gym and might even demolish the 61-year-old building. It's a reasonable decision, especially at a time of rapid UC expansion and modernization.  But if the Eddie King name is to be stricken from the athletic landscape, we need to extend a fitting farewell.

"He took me under his wing and gave me discipline and guidance and instruction,'' McCoy recalled recently, reminiscing about his old coach. "He just adopted me. My dad had been killed in a coalmining accident over in Boone County when I was 3 years old, and I didn't have that male influence in my life when I was growing up. He included me in his family. I was a project for him. He was really, really wonderful to me. I wasn't focused, and I needed the discipline that Eddie King gave me.''

It was the spring of 1949, and King was sitting in his campus office talking with 20-year-old Leon McCoy, who had approached the coach about an opportunity to play for the Golden Eagles.

King knew that McCoy had been an exceptional football player at Charleston High and had excelled for one season at the University of Tennessee, but he also knew his reputation as an undisciplined boozer, brawler and ne'er-do-well. And in calling him fat, the coach was indulging in some age-old sports psychology. He was appealing to McCoy's competitive instincts, challenging the young man to prove that he not only could lose weight and play football but also resurrect his character.

It worked splendidly, thus earning McCoy's gratitude that has remained for more than half a century.

But resurrecting McCoy's character required more than just a brief conversation with the coach. McCoy did, in fact, play football for Morris Harvey (now the University of Charleston) and earned his degree in 1952, but along the way he would periodically lapse into the same boorish behavior that had marked his teenage years on Charleston's downtown streets and thwarted a promising football career at Tennessee. As a freshman in Knoxville, McCoy started at center and linebacker for coach Bob Neyland and was considered a possibility for eventual All-America honors.

McCoy, however, returned to Charleston after one year and worked briefly at the Arcade Poolroom on Virginia Street until he came to his senses and walked into King's office.   

And whenever McCoy reverted to his old behavior at Morris Harvey, King was there to counsel him and exact discipline. One minute King would be delivering fatherly advice; the next minute he would be sitting in a folding chair as McCoy, paying the price for his repeated indiscretions, ran laps around the practice field.

The school, of course, later named its gym for Eddie King, honoring the man who had made such a difference in the lives of McCoy and others and compiled a 72-31-4 record as its football coach and won three West Virginia Conference championships as its basketball coach. The structure that would be known as Eddie King Gym, constructed in 1947, has been a Kanawha Valley landmark on the University of Charleston campus, accommodating the community as well as the college.

At the moment, however, the University of Charleston is making plans for a new facility to replace Eddie King Gym and might even demolish the 61-year-old building. It's a reasonable decision, especially at a time of rapid UC expansion and modernization.  But if the Eddie King name is to be stricken from the athletic landscape, we need to extend a fitting farewell.

"He took me under his wing and gave me discipline and guidance and instruction,'' McCoy recalled recently, reminiscing about his old coach. "He just adopted me. My dad had been killed in a coalmining accident over in Boone County when I was 3 years old, and I didn't have that male influence in my life when I was growing up. He included me in his family. I was a project for him. He was really, really wonderful to me. I wasn't focused, and I needed the discipline that Eddie King gave me.''

  Starting with his arrival at Morris Harvey, McCoy slowly evolved into a football coach himself and, at Winfield High, coached the Generals to two state championships and 11 playoff appearances and taught many of the same principles he learned from King, who died in 1963.

"I saw things in him that I wanted in my life - his knowledge, his handling of young men, the desire he had as a coach,'' said McCoy. "I wanted those things in my life. I could see those things in myself if I could just discipline myself. He influenced me so, so much.''

The University of Charleston's decision to build a gym on campus - instead of a half-mile down MacCorkle Avenue on the Watt Powell Park site, as originally planned - should strengthen the school's architectural image.

UC has always been an attractive, self-contained enclave in South Ruffner, and a new gym, whose design undoubtedly would blend in with the campus's other structures, will take it a step further.

Except for a last-minute change in plans, UC would have another athletic structure on campus. Four years ago, UC President Ed Welch considered building an athletic complex at Blackwell Field (now Triana Field) on the campus's western edge that would have accommodated the Golden Eagles' football team, as well as the soccer and baseball teams.

The UC president wanted something that would have a distinctive look, would seat several thousand spectators and would be fan-friendly for the three sports. He also wanted to clear away the trees and shrubs along the Kanawha River, making the new complex visible from Kanawha Boulevard.

UC, however, dropped that idea in favor of renovating Laidley Field, giving it a new, high-quality artificial surface and playing its home football games there. The new surface is unquestionably safer and has been a godsend to the high school and middle school teams that play on it. All and all, it's worked out well for the Golden Eagles. 

 But Welch's original vision - small-college football in a picturesque setting along the Kanawha River - certainly had its merits.

Reach Mike Whiteford at 348-7948 or mikewhitef...@wvgazette.com.