By Mike Callaway, McDowell County Board of Education

Traditions sometimes resemble living things. Some die quickly, some slowly wither away and some live thrive and live on. There is one tradition, though gone for some time, that has not been forgotten, especially in the storied history of McDowell County athletics, that of the annual Gary/Welch High School gridiron contests for the right to claim the venerable old “Barrel.”

At the time of their last football game in 1977, the Gary/Welch football series was one of the oldest in West Virginia, the first game having been played in 1922. Until 1947 the annual clash between these two southern West Virginia rivals had always been played on Thanksgiving Day, another tradition that died as a result of changing school calendar and SSAC rules.

In 1940, Lilyan England, a student member of the Maroon Wave staff, the Welch High School student newspaper, suggested that the two schools play for a trophy, much like the Old Oaken Bucket of the Indiana-Perdue University or the barrel of the Universities of Tennessee and Kentucky. One of the popular songs at that time, “Roll Out The Barrel” inspired the trophy.


Mr. Bunny Lovett, the manager of Baxter hardware store on Elkhorn St. in Welch donated an old nail keg and
hence a legend was born. (This information courtesy of Nancy Dawson and Don Juan Collins Skuja, head reporters for the Welch High School newspaper for the 1959-60 school year)

Since 1940, until Gary and Welch High Schools consolidated into Mount View High School in 1977, the barrel was the coveted trophy awarded to the winner of the annual football game. If the barrel changed ownership the cheerleaders always repainted it, either in red and black or maroon and white. The barrel probably has over thirty coats of paint.

It seems that the barrel was put in the safe at the board of education offices and as the result of a state take-over and a succession of state appointed county superintendents it remained there in the safe, generally unknown to everyone.

One day the executive secretary asked me if I knew something about an old barrel that was in the safe, so we checked it out and much to my surprise it was the real thing, that coveted old trophy that all of us from Gary and Welch had played so hard for. For years the generally accepted story around the area was that someone had taken it. Many people said that they knew where it was but like most rumors it turned out to be false. We had it all the time and didn’t know it.

Over a year went by with us knowing about the barrel but the board, central office staff and the schools were busy trying to satisfy all the requirements from the state to regain local control of the school system. That happened in July of 2013 and we have since put a successful year behind us.

At a recent board of education meeting local historian Jay Chatman spoke about local heritage and a lack of knowledge of our local history. I think that the light went on for me, Mr. Spencer, the McDowell Co. superintendent and Mrs. Deborah Hall, principal of Mount View High School. What a good way to start instilling some local historical knowledge in our students. Just consider that Mount View High School is a consolidation of Gary, Welch and Northfork High Schools. Gary had two state football championships and a basketball championship, Welch had a Kennedy Award winner and one of the best football teams ever to come out of southern West Virginia and Northfork had a state football championship, three girls state basketball championships and nine state boys basketball titles, eight of them in succession, a national record that still stands. For all of this success very little stands in the halls of Mount View.

Under the direction of Mrs. Hall and Superintendent Spencer all this is about to change. The first action was to have the Gary/Welch trophy barrel repainted in the school colors. This will be done vertically with one half of the barrel being red and black, the other half in maroon and white. Gary High School will be at the top of one half and Welch High School on the other. In the center will be the school crests and at the bottom, “Coal Diggers” and “Maroon Wave.” The painting is being done by local artist and Gary High School graduate Carmello Miano.

Under the direction of Mr. Dennis Jarvis, Director of the McDowell County Vocational-Technical Center and himself a Gary High School graduate, a custom trophy case is being built with a motorized turntable so that no side is prominent. The case will be displayed in the lobby of Mount View High School.

The kick-off for the dedication will be the Mount View/ James Monroe football game on Oct. 17 , 2014. She has designed this date as “Roll Out The Barrel Night.” There will be a barbeque at Mount View High School for all Gary/Welch alumni, students, players, cheerleaders, band members, coaches and teach

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at 4:00 P.M. After the barbeque the group will proceed to Vic Nystrom Stadium for the pregame dedication. The plans are for the Gary contingent to assemble in one end zone and the Welch contingent in the other. They will then meet in the center of the field and walk off as one toward the home side of the field. It certainly would be nice if we had the Spicek brothers polka band playing “Roll Out The Barrel.”

Mrs. Hall and Mr. Spencer also have others plans pending. Mount View’s Ergie Smith gymnasium would really look impressive if there were thirteen basketball championship banners hanging from the rafters, one from Gary High School and twelve from Northfork High School.