MSNsportsNET.com
June 16, 2006

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For decades, Jack Fleming’s voice was the bridge that carried West Virginia University athletic events to distant places. Now people can drive across a bridge named after the late WVU broadcaster.

On Wednesday, the state Senate passed a resolution requesting the Division of Highways name a bridge on I-68 after him. The newly named “Jack Fleming Memorial Bridge” is located just outside Sabraton at the 3.2 mile-marker.

“It’s something I wanted to do,” Sen. Michael Oliverio told the Dominion Post. Oliverio is one of eight senators who introduced the resolution. “We’ve honored Don Knotts and Jerry West. Jack is a guy who had a tremendous impact on West Virginians for decades.”

Oliverio said the decision to name the bridge near Sabraton in Fleming’s honor was a logical choice because many fans travel to Milan Puskar Stadium from that direction.

Jack Fleming was born in Morgantown and attended Morgantown High School and West Virginia University. Fleming joined the Air Corps during World War II and flew 23 missions before a B-17 he was in was shot down over France. During his convalescence Fleming took up broadcasting at the Greenbrier Resort and he became the voice of the Mountaineers in 1947. He was an employee of the Mountaineer Sports from 1947-96 with the exception of a two-year interruption in the early 1960s and a four-year stint as the radio play-by-play voice of the Chicago Bulls in the early 1970s.

Fleming also broadcasted Pittsburgh Steelers games from 1958 until 1993. In 1999 Fleming was the recipient of the Chris Schenkel Award from the College Football Hall of Fame for his lifetime contributions to the profession and the sport.

Two years later Fleming was inducted into the West Virginia University Hall of Fame. He died in January, 2001.