MORGANTOWN — — It was Aug. 3 in the Orwellian year of 1984, a time not unlike today, 40 years later, with the world as badly divided and seeking a hero.
It was an Olympic year, as it is now. Four years earlier, in 1980, the United States had boycotted the Moscow Olympics, so now Moscow and the Eastern Bloc countries were boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
That was an Olympic year that West Virginia would never forget, a year when a 4-foot-9-inch heroine captured the same spirit that had come to the United States four years earlier in the Miracle on Ice in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.
Her name was Mary Lou Retton and if you lived in Fairmont, she might well have been your neighbor, your friend.
But she would not be the only person with West Virginia connections to win gold in 1984 as the West Virginia rifle coach, Ed Etzel, himself a former NCAA champion while a student at WVU, also would capture the gold in a 50-meter free-prone rifle event.
Imagine, if you can, that in the same Olympic games two athletes from within 15 miles of each other in the land, they call “Almost Heaven” had their prayers answered in Olympic Gold … Retton with a perfect 10 and Etzel with a nearly perfect score of 599, his one point deduction being so close of a shot that in today’s electronic scoring he might have been given credit for his perfect score.
Two athletes, two Golds, two different worlds
Mary Lou Retton, you know about. She became America’s Sweetheart with a heroic performance, topped off by winning not only the vault but the Olympic All-Around with that perfect 10 on an imperfect knee, sticking her landing, her arms spread eagle, her smile bright enough to light up the darkest night to Moscow.
America had never won Olympic gold in gymnastics before and Mary Lou was celebrated through the land.
Etzel’s performance, as strong as it was, just didn’t have the public relations sizzle that Mary Lou Retton’s did, even though he did get publicity he never thought he’d ever see and celebrated with as much fervor within far less reaching circles.
Mary Lou made appearances on the “Tonight Show” and a star-studded Los Angeles gala hosted by Bob Hope.
Ed Etzel made an appearance on “Good Morning America”.
“I remember having to get up at midnight to do ‘Good Morning, America’ with David Hartman on ABC. They drove us in a limo from the USC to Hollywood. That show was live on the East Coast at 6 in the morning, but it was 3 a.m. there,” Etzel remembers.
He’s not complaining, mind you. Not one bit. His memories are every bit what Mary Lou’s were, but there’s something about a 16-year-old American heroine who goes head over heels to make America go head over heels for her.
Mary Lou wound up on a Wheaties box among hundreds of other offers.
Etzel had one endorsement deal with CBT Bank.
And, when they went to the Chevrolet dealership together to be honored for their gold, Mary Lou was given a red Corvette, Etzel a handshake, and an appreciative thank you.
But something tangible would come of it for Etzel as a friend got together with several Coors distributors to put up $500 each.
“They presented me with a 1984 Ford Bronco and I’m eternally grateful for that,” Etzel said recently, his car then having been broken down. “Frankly, that’s the only new car I’ve had in my life and it was given to me.”
To Etzel, it was all a wonderful experience. He’d had his moment in the sun, even if it were the midnight sun, and his shooting resume’ was complete.
He would take up psychology and become an adviser within the WVU athletic department, aiding hundreds of athletes through the all-too-often forgotten psychological challenges that developed over the college years.
What a week it was for Mary Lou and friends
Mary Lou became a celebrity. The little girl who had left Fairmont as a child to go to Houston to work toward Olympic fame under the celebrated coach, Bela Karolyi, a man who would coach many European, Olympic, and World Champions such as Nadia Comaneci, Julianne McNamara, and Kerri Strug.
She won with the heart of a West Virginia champion and did as much for West Virginia tourism as white water rafting itself.
Scott Sears, a friend of the Retton family who would one day become the mayor of Fairmont but then was just entering adulthood, lived through that period as a member of the Retton inner circle.
“It was probably one of the most exciting times of my life,” he said, about to tell the story of what it meant to him, their friends, and the Retton family, including dad, Ronnie, one of the greatest athletes ever to play at WVU and was Jerry West teammate, and his wife Lois.
Just recently, he saw a clip on YouTube of Ronnie Retton dribbling out the final seconds of a key victory on West and West Virginia’s 1960 run to the NCAA Tournament final game.
“I don’t know if the film was in fast motion, but I never saw anyone so fast,” Sears said, about to launch into a description of what went on that week behind the scenes in Fairmont.
“This is a true story and I’m not exaggerating any part of this whatsoever. When Ronnie and Lois went out to LA, Jerry West hooked them up. They might have even stayed with Jerry,” Sears said. “Once they took off for L.A., all of us who grew up together, with Ronnie and his brother, Donnie’, we moved into the Retton house for the whole week. We packed our bags, went down to the house, and just stayed there the whole week of the Olympics.”
He was 21 at the time.
“It was a party, a celebration,” he said.
“When Mary Lou came on other people would filter into the house. We always had 15 close friends there each day,” he said. “The title night I’ll never forget. Back then, big-screen TVs were rare. I think the Rettons were the only people I knew who had a big screen TV, so we’re watching on that.
“When she stuck it (the last perfect 10) … It was unreal. It was one of the greatest things I ever experienced,” Sears went on. “I can still see it like I’m sitting there right now. Imagine, here you are with people who have been together all their lives and you’re with her brothers and from that moment on it was crazy.”
It touched everyone in and around Fairmont
Ron Everhart has known his share of fame. He became a basketball coach and was the head coach at Duquesne and at McNeese State, and Northeastern. A native of Fairmont, he became his childhood friend Bob Huggins’ assistant at WVU.
“She’s my first cousin,” Everhart said of Mary Lou Retton.
He was playing then at Virginia Tech, 21 years old, but had a home in Fairmont for the summer.
“We as a family celebrated it … wildly,” Everhart said, withholding the details. “Everybody went nuts. It was unbelievable, unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”
He, of course, is speaking as a relative, but also as a coach. He has a different kind of appreciation of Mary Lou Retton than many do, for he saw her from her earliest days.
“I think a lot of people forget, but she had a knee injury, maybe about a month before the Olympics,” Everhart recalled. “It was between the world championship, when she made the team in Jacksonville, Fla., that summer.
“She was injured in a workout and had arthroscopic surgery.”
But sometimes, he knows, you have to play through the pain and he saw Mary Lou do that.
“I remember thinking how wonderful it was. I kept telling guys on the team at Virginia Tech at the time, the Dale Currys and them, that my cousin was going to win the gold medal at the Olympics. Like most kids that age, you talk a lot of bull, but at the same time I believed that because I knew what a great athlete she was.”
He held vivid memories from his own Little League days when he and Mary Lou’s brothers, Ronnie and Donnie, were teammates.
“Between innings, she’d get out at home plate and do back flips down the right-field line to the wall. Then, the next inning, she’d run out there again and do back flips down the left-field line,” Everhart related.
“When she left at 15 to go to Houston, we all thought that was neat. She was, in our unbiased — but educated — opinions as kids, she was one of the better athletes in the world; certainly, one of the better athletes we’d ever seen.”
Before she went to Houston, she competed at home.
“She was so small but so explosive,” he said. “I remember being there when she was in a meet on an elevated stage and we were sitting in the first or second row. She came across a floor exercise and did one of her signature flips. I guess at that time it was two-and-a-half flips.
“In my world, you kind of judge things by the level of the rim or the level of the backboard or the level of the net, us being all basketball guys, but I’m going to tell you her head and her rear end were higher than 10 feet when you were looking straight up.
“That struck me … holy cow was she high. That was mind-blowing to me. I wish I could have recruited her.”
The fame came but Mary Lou Retton handled it the way you’d want her to.
“You will never find a better person or a more humble person that has accomplished what she’s accomplished on a national level … I guess on a world level,” Everhart said.
Mary Lou’s homecoming
The Olympic games ended and Mary Lou Retton spent some time in LA but soon would return to Fairmont.
“A couple of days later we got word she was flying back into Clarksburg but no one knew when. So, Ronnie and Donnie, and Mark Oliver, a friend, went down to Lakeview to play golf. We got down about 11 in the morning,” Scott Sears said.
While they were out on the course, Lakeview pro went out from the pro shop and told them Mary Lou would be landing in Clarksburg within a couple of hours.
“I say OK, but it was a competitive game. With the Rettons, it was always competitive; doesn’t matter if you are shooting marbles, it’s competitive and somewhere along the way there is going to be a fight,” Sears said.
“So, I go up to Ronnie and tell him we’ve got to get the heck out of here and get back to Clarksburg because Mary Lou is going to be landing soon. And Ronnie says, ‘Hey, we aren’t leaving yet. There’s only two or three holes left. You guys are beating us and I want to have a chance to come back. Mary Lou can just wait until we get there.’”
So much for royalty.
“OK, it’s your sister and she’s only the biggest thing in sports right now, but if you want to finish the game out … it’s up to you,” Sears said.
“So, I finally get them out and we’re driving toward Clarksburg, but the word had gotten out that Mary Lou was flying in so when we got to Saltwell Road, the traffic is way backed up. Now we’re getting nervous because it’s kind of close to her arrival time.”
Sears said he noticed a police car pulled off the road and approached him.
“Sir, you’re not going to believe this story but I’ve got Mary Lou’s brothers in the car with me and we’re trying to get to the airport,” he says. “Is there any way you can help?”
“He says, sure, ‘Follow me,’ and he took us right into the airport, lights flashing, sirens on. We had a personal police escort into the airport. We timed it just about perfect. She lands just minutes later and there’s pandemonium, everyone going crazy. It was so patriotic and everyone was so happy. She comes off the plane and everyone is greeting her,” Sears said.
They drove back to the Retton home.
“The house is down below the road with the driveway leading into it. Well, when we got there, the road up on top is covered with people … hundreds of people. Now, think about this, there wasn’t social media back then and cell phones were still a new thing, but the word spread by word of mouth … ‘Mary Lou is on her way back home,’” Sears said.
“There were mobs of people. We had to call and get some police support on this. The police came and the people are rushing down the hill to see her, so we got her in the house real quick.”
A few days later there was a welcome home parade that hasn’t been matched since in Fairmont.
“It was so deserving for her because of the sacrifices she made. People have to understand, here’s this little girl, leaving home and going out on her own to Houston, never really coming back except for that short stay a few years ago,” Sears said.
“She will always be America’s sweetheart. She will always be Mary Lou.”
