Wheeling City Council Names Warwood Field After Howley
Trending
WHEELING -- Officials in Wheeling received a round of applause Tuesday night when they took action to honor one of their most notable native sons, unanimously passing a resolution to rename the athletic field at Warwood's Garden Park the Chuck Howley Field at Garden Park.
The honor comes just days before Howley, a Wheeling native and graduate of Warwood High School, is to be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Members of Howley's family - including cousins Sue Dzinglski and Sally Beatty - were on hand during Tuesday night's meeting at Oglebay's Wilson Lodge, a session that was relocated to the same venue as the 2023 annual conference of the West Virginia Municipal League.
Sean Duffy of the Ohio County Public Library also attended the meeting in support of the effort to rename Warwood's field in Howley's honor. Duffy and Beatty spoke during the previous city council meeting, urging city officials to take action on the proposal. On Tuesday, however, neither Duffy nor the family spoke on behalf of the effort. Instead, it was longtime former sports editor of The Intelligencer, Doug Huff.
Howley left Wheeling to play football at West Virginia University and eventually made his way to the pros. A longtime member of the Dallas Cowboys, Howley was a six-time All-Pro linebacker, was the Super Bowl V most valuable player and was a member of the Cowboys' Super Bowl VI championship team.
Huff spoke to city leaders Tuesday night enthusiastically supporting the proposal to rename the field in Howley's honor. In addition to his service as sports editor, Huff noted that he worked as a sports columnist for 44 years. He is executive secretary-treasurer of the West Virginia Sports Writers' Association, curator of the Sports Museum inside WesBanco Arena and served as the city of Wheeling Hall of Fame Board for 18 years as chairman of the Athletics and Sports Committee.
"All of that just means that I'm old," Huff said, garnering a laugh from the audience on hand. "Right after it was announced that he was going to be inducted, the Cowboys contacted me for the documentary they're doing on Chuck Howley."
Huff said he did an hour-long interview in Morgantown with the Cowboys' video team, and then assisted with some other videos the crew later captured in Warwood with Howley's family members and around his old stomping grounds.
"This Saturday, he'll be inducted into his seventh major hall of fame," Huff said. "To use a musical term, he's no one-hit wonder. This isn't the first time he's been honored. In fact he was in the very first class in the city of Wheeling Hall of Fame. He was in the first class of the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame. He's in the OVAC Hall of Fame. He's in the Upper Ohio Valley Dapper Dan Hall of Fame. He's in the state halls of fame in both West Virginia and in Texas. And I'll be there, hopefully, Saturday for his latest honor."
The West Virginia Sports Writers Association presents the Chuck Howley Award to the state's top high school linebacker each year, Huff noted.
He spoke on behalf of the other supporters to have the resolution passed to name the field in Howley's honor.
Council members voted unanimously to support the legislation to rename the field for the local sports legend.
"This is a well-deserved honor for Chuck and his family," said Wheeling Vice Mayor Chad Thalman, who represents the neighborhood of Warwood as Ward 1 Councilman. "Not only is he from Wheeling - he grew up in Warwood. This will help children for generations to come have an opportunity to play on Chuck Howley field and learn about Chuck, and realize that someone just like them growing up in the Ohio Valley - or Wheeling, or Warwood - can grow up and go on to become a Super Bowl MVP and a Hall of Famer."