Artie Owens and Dwayne Woods

Dwayne Woods

Rarely has West Virginia had two backs the caliber of Artie Owens and Dwayne Woods in the same backfield, but that was the case in 1975.

Owens began the 1974 season as the team’s No. 3 tailback behind Woods and Ron Lee, but wound up being the top runner in the East ahead of the likes of Pitt’s Tony Dorsett and Ohio State’s two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin. He finished the year rushing for 1,130 yards and averaging an impressive 6.5 yards per carry.

Owens was by no means an unknown when he arrived at West Virginia in 1972, starring in Pennsylvania’s Big 33 game after scoring 42 touchdowns as a senior at Stroudsburg (Pa.) High School. He picked West Virginia over Frank Kush’s powerful Arizona State program.

“I was real close to my mom and I figured she could see me play,” Owens said. “It only took six hours driving that old 119. If anything happened to her I could get home in a day.”

Despite Owens’ lofty prep standing in Pennsylvania, West Virginia already had a crowded backfield when he came to WVU in 1972 with Kerry Marbury leading the nation in scoring. Playing on the JV team was Woods, a Bluefield native.

“When I went there some of them didn’t even know who I was. They were like, ‘Artie who?’ Everybody knew Dwayne Woods and I said to myself that things will change, just be patient and keep working hard,” said Owens.

Woods was a two-time all-state running back from Bluefield who by his own estimation entertained more than 200 scholarship offers. He narrowed his choices to Ohio State and West Virginia before picking the Mountaineers.

Chuck Klausing, West Virginia’s defensive coordinator from 1970-75, watched his defense go up against Woods everyday in practice.

“Woodsy was a little guy but he made up for his size,” said Klausing. “He was a firecracker kid.”

Neither back was that big, Owens standing 5-feet-11 inches and weighing 175 pounds and Woods standing 5-feet-9 inches and weighing 181 pounds. But both had great quickness and elusiveness and were difficult to catch when they got into the secondary.

Woods claimed the starting tailback job in 1973 and led the team in rushing with 818 yards and six touchdowns. Owens’ role was limited to just a few carries a game as a backup and some duty as a kick returner on special teams.

Then Woods injured his knee on his sixth carry of the ’74 season in the opener against Richmond and was lost for the year.

“I was having a great game until I got hurt in the first quarter,” said Woods

That made room for Owens, who finished the Richmond game with 90 yards on 14 carries. He led all rushers the following week against Kentucky with 100 yards on just seven carries. He exceeded 100 yards five more times in ‘74 and was named ECAC star of the week a total of six times.

With both tailbacks available for the 1975 season, West Virginia coach Bobby Bowden planned to lean on a powerful running game that also included fullbacks Heywood Smith and Ron Lee.

Artie Owens

West Virginia ran for 310 yards in its season-opening win over Temple, added 337 on the ground against Cal and had a staggering 408 at SMU. Owens ran for a career-best 171 and was named AP back of the week against the Mustangs while Woods contributed 103 on 16 tries. Woods said a visit home to see his sick father nearly cost him the trip to SMU.

“I hung around home until Monday morning, thinking I could miss classes and get back to Morgantown in time for practice,” he said. “But the turnpike was under construction and Charleston had heavy traffic. I was out in the middle of nowhere and I couldn’t call the coaches and tell them I was stuck in traffic.

“So Coach Bowden suspended me for a week and I was not going to go on the SMU trip. But I came in Tuesday and had a good practice and I had another good practice on Wednesday and that was probably one of the few times Coach Bowden had a change of heart. He took me down there and it was probably one of the best games I had in college.”

The pair combined to run for 1,548 yards and score 11 touchdowns in 1975. Owens finished his career as the school’s career rushing leader that lasted 23 years until Amos Zereoue finally broke it in 1998. He still ranks third on the school’s career rushing list with 2,648 yards. In 12^th place is Woods with 1,970. He ran for 588 yards and scored a touchdown during his senior season in 1976.

Owens was drafted in the fourth round by the San Diego Chargers following his senior campaign in 1975 and was moved to wide receiver in the pros. He believes the Chargers became interested in him as a receiver after his 39-yard touchdown catch against North Carolina State in the Peach Bowl.

“I think from that time on that is why I got drafted as a receiver,” Owens said. “All those years as a running back and I get drafted as a receiver.”

Owens spent four seasons with the Chargers and another one at both Buffalo and New Orleans in 1980. In 61 career NFL games he caught 27 passes for 418 yards and two touchdowns and returned 96 kickoffs for a 22.4 yards-per-return average and three touchdowns.

Owens played another year of professional football with the Chicago Blitz in the USFL in 1983.

Today he lives in Bethlehem, Pa., where he helps out the Bethlehem Catholic football team as an assistant coach. Also a member of that staff is former WVU teammate Dan Kendra. Mountaineer quarterback Adam Bednarik is a product of that program.

“Every time I go down there the first thing I think about is my decision to go to West Virginia,” said Owens. “You’re a young man and you make that choice and then you’re older now and you think to yourself, things have really changed but I was glad I was a part of that; the new stadium and the fact that the fans are still the same.”

Woods got involved in the construction business after college and is now working for Davis & Elkins College and living in Cross Lanes, W.Va.

“We were a fun group but everyone played hard and practiced hard,” said Woods of the 1975 season. “We all came in at the same time. If a large number of the same class stays that’s really important, and that’s what happened."