Speakers Announced for UVA George Welsh Event
Posted on Thursday, Apr. 25, 2019, 3:44 pm
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By Jerry Ratcliffe
A bevy of legendary football stars will be on hand to honor the late George Welsh at Saturday’s special tribute to the former Virginia Hall of Fame coach.
Franco Harris, Lydell Mitchell and Charlie Pittman will be on hand to represent Welsh’s early days as a coach at Penn State. Welsh was running backs coach for a time under Joe Paterno in Happy Valley, and had those future stars in his backfield.
Virginia stars Shawn Moore, Anthony Poindexter and Chris Slade will join Sean Scott and Nick Merrick for a players panel moderated by Ronde Barber, sharing stories about Welsh during their playing days as Cavaliers.
Former UVA assistant coach Tom O’Brien, who coached under Welsh at both Virginia and Navy, will speak about his longtime mentor, and will be joined by Bob Tata, Jr., a former standout placekicker at Navy, who was also a graduate assistant for Welsh at UVa.
Present Virginia head football coach Bronco Mendenhall will also comment on Welsh, along with Bill Curry, Sr., the former head football coach at Georgia Tech, Alabama, Kentucky, and Georgia State.
During Mendenhall’s three seasons at Virginia, Welsh would often come over to the football offices and mingle with the coaching staff after he had his morning coffee. The two coaches often shared stories about their careers.
Curry coached against Welsh in some dogfights in the 1980s and the Curry and Welsh families became close over time as two of Curry’s children, Kristen, and Bill Jr., attended UVA. Bill Jr., played for Welsh as a long-snapper.
Curry Sr. will join longtime Welsh aide Gerry Capone (associate AD for football administration), and former UVA players Matt Blundin (1991 ACC Player of the Year) and Ray Roberts (All-American offensive lineman) to share stories, both serious and outrageous, about their time with Welsh on “The Jerry Ratcliffe Show,” Saturday morning from 9-10 a.m. on ESPN-Charlottesville, 102.9 FM, in a special one-hour tribute to Welsh. That show will be podcasted on this website later in the day.
Adam and Kate Welsh, two of the coach’s children, will also present remarks at the event, which will feature several videos highlighting Welsh’s accomplishments over a stellar coaching career.
Kate Welsh shared with this writer since her father’s passing, that they spent New Year’s Day together watching bowl games into the evening and that George was coaching all the way. Sadly, Virginia’s all-time winningest coach passed unexpectedly the next day.
John Feinstein, noted author and columnist for the Washington Post, will serve as master of ceremonies. Feinstein, who has one of the best recalls of anyone this writer has known, often wrote about Welsh throughout the coach’s times at Navy and Virginia.
Saturday’s Celebration of Life for Welsh will begin at 10 a.m. at John Paul Jones Arena (gates open at 9:15), and is free to the public. Free parking is available at the JPJ and McCue Center parking lots. The ceremony will also be streamed live on Facebook and Twitter on the VirginiaCavaliers accounts.
UVA’s annual spring game will be held later in the day, beginning at 1 p.m.
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