Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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December 3, 2009

Sarver recalls first unblemished season

By JACK SARVER

BLUEFIELD — The Bluefield High School football team will try to capture its 10th state championship later this evening in a game against the Wayne High School Pioneers at the Wheeling Island Football Stadium, but just the chance to participate in the big game triggers memories in many about some of the great Beaver teams of the past.

Jack Sarver, a well-known Bluefield businessman, played for Beaver High School in 1940, ’41 and ’42, and was a member of the team that finished the season with a perfect 10-0 record.

“I was just a little old sub on the 1940 team that went undefeated, but it was still quite an experience,” Sarver said. “Joe Black and ‘Blazing’ Blake Burton were our two scat backs, and they could really run.

“We went to Roanoke-Jefferson and beat the defending Virginia state champion one week, and went to Winston-Salem, N.C., after that and beat a state championship team down there.”

Sarver recalled that in the latter game, that Coach Bill Dole had benched Burton for breaking team rules, but the team urged the coach to let him play on the punt return team.

“Coach put him in near the end of the second quarter and Burton took the ball at the 21 yard line and ran it all the way back for a touchdown,” Sarver said. “He went in for another punt in the third quarter and ran the ball back for a 67-yard touchdown. In the fourth quarter, he ran a punt back 83 yards for a touchdown. He was only in on three plays the whole game and he scored every time he touched the ball.”

Although he fondly recalls his own playing days, Sarver appears to be far more proud that both his son, Pete Sarver as well as his grandson, Brandon Sarver, both played quarterback at Beaver and both won state championships.

“Pete (Sarver) won it in 1967 when Pete Wood was the running back,” Sarver said. “They were undefeated that year. Brandon’s team was also undefeated, 14-0, when they won it in 1997. Pete was quarterback of a team that won a state championship and then 30 years later, Brandon was quarterback of a team that won a state championship.”

— Contact Bill Archer

at barcher@bdtonline.com

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