WVA

A new white helmet with a navy blue center stripe flanked by a half-inch gap and then a gold flanking stripe gave a nice gold-white-blue-white-gold striping arrangement and with the addition of navy blue numerals on each side, the helmet was meant to enhance team morale and performance. However if '58 was disappointing, then 1959 was a disaster as the Mountaineers, with only twelve returning lettermen and forty-two sophomores, could muster but three TD's in their final five games and limped through the season with a 3-7 record that was worse than it looked on paper. The 23-15 Homecoming victory over Pitt, led by All American end Mike Ditka, was the only meaningful win and the offense was absent, scoring a season total of only seventy-four points. Having given up 140 points in their final five outings, it could be said that the defense did not hold up its end of things either! QB Danny Williams led an underachieving squad that played poorly all year and threw twenty-eight completions and ten interceptions. Williams received little help and Lewis was receiving pressure from all ends of the state. At the season's conclusion, the Athletic Council voted to terminate Lewis but President Elvis Stahr rejected the decision and in a well-known statement said that Lewis was being retained "by the skin of his teeth." Dragging out the decision, Lewis resigned on the eve of spring drills to become the Steelers' head scout, a position he held until passing away June 13,1962. Art "Pappy" Lewis was inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall Of Fame in 1966.