Blenko Glass. Heart of Glass Blog FRIENDS OF COAL BOWL - Blenko Connection

Hilary,
Can you tell us about the Friends of Coal Bowl?  I understand Blenko designed a trophy for this game.
Margie Hale
Margie,
Blenko designed  see photo at ( arlon Baylis  www.arlonbaylis.com a trophy for the Marshall WVU basketball. HOWEVER  WVU and Marshall no longer compete in Football or Basketball.
I'm reissuing a post from the past about the Friends of Coal Bowl.  This trophy was designed at Fenton Glass. 
HJH
if you need additional info contact me at theblenkoproject@aol.com

The Friends of Coal Bowl is an annual college football game played between the West Virginia University Mountaineers and the Marshall University Thundering Herd. The game is sponsored by the Friends of Coal, a coal industry trade group. Planned to be a seven year series, the Friends of Coal Bowl was organized by the West Virginia Coal Association at the urging of West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin.

The first game of the series was played in Morgantown, West Virginia at Mountaineer Field on September 2, 2006 and was won by the Mountaineers 42-10. The location for the game will alternate every year between Morgantown and Huntington, West Virginia where Marshall plays at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
The trophy awarded to the winning team is called the Governor's Cup. It will be presented by the West Virginia Governor and housed at the university which wins the annual matchup. Made completely in West Virginia, the trophy is made of a carbon base, a glass pedestal, and football-shaped piece of coal enclosed in glass. It was designed by Rick Mogielski. There is a BLENKO GLASS CONNECTION - FENTON GLASS worker Mr. Fetty who at one time worked at BLENKO GLASS came out of retirement to supervise the making of the glass football - (Mr. Fetty and Mr. Shorty Finley have maintained a life long friendship since their days at Blenko Glass). The GLASS WORKERS of WV - most especially the very talented ones all know one another, they admire each other and learn from one another. Mr. Fetty is known to be one of the very best. A former BLENKO GLASS man, now a retired FENTON GLASS man. Always a WEST VIRGINIA GLASS MAN. THOSE COAL PEOPLE KNOW HOW TO MAKE A TROPHY REALLY SPECIAL!!!
History
Despite both teams being from the state of West Virginia, hard feelings and politics kept the teams from playing for the most part. Teams from West Virginia University and Marshall University had only played 5 previous times before the beginning of this series in 2006.
The '97 match-up is often thought of as the start of "hard feelings" between the two schools. When Marshall moved to Division 1A in 1997 their first game was against WVU. WVU jumped out to a 28-3 lead in the first half. Marshall led that game 31-28 going to the fourth quarter with Randy Moss leading the show. However, two touchdowns in the final quarter gave WVU the victory. At that point, bad blood arose between the two administrations WVU claims Marshall backed out of 3 future games. Marshall claims they were never scheduled. The schools couldn't come to an agreement to play again. Former Marshall head coach Bob Pruett tried to get the WVU Administration to agree to a series, but WVU stood by their stance of wanting 3 out of 4 games to be played in Morgantown, while Marshall demanded 1 out of every 3 be played in Huntington. West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin got the schools together and hashed out the current format which includes four games in Morgantown, two in Huntington, and the remaining game will be decided by who wins two out of the first three games. The fair settlement finally got the only two Division 1A schools in the state playing together.
West Virginia won the first match-up of the new series 42-10 in 2006, and the next one in Huntington 48-23 in 2007. WVU will host the game in 2008 then again in 2009 by virtue of winning two of the first three games in the series.
Thank you to WEBMASTER STEVE for the WIKI INFO:

Thanks to Paul J for photo of Friends of Coal Bowl Trophy