The Greatest’ not irreplaceable


"The Greatest," an overworked, self-congratulatory phrase popularized by Muhammad Ali, who wasn't quite, describes the career of Bobby Pruett, Marshall’s now retired football coach. Those of us who covered him or knew him from up close (date that since 1961 for me) sensed, in many little ways, that he was beginning to grow weary of an uneven playing field coaching Marshall football demanded. Weary in terms of salary, resources and in-house support, beginning at the very top whose occupants, with some exceptions, believed in fairy tales, not including the interim president, Michael Farrell, of course.

If you build it. …

Meanwhile, playing second fiddle, or, maybe even third to the Pruett story at Marshall this week is the latest wrinkle in the university’s quest for an on-or-near campus site for a baseball stadium. This one points to the Lefty Rollins Track location squeezed between Cam Henderson Center, the softball field, the Twin Towers dormitories and a maintenance building on 20th Street. The proposal, if that’s what it is, dropped onto Interim Prez Mike Farrell’s desk a few days ago as part of a campus housing expansion plan.