Chuck Howley - Early Years

Early Years

Howley attended Warwood High School in West Virginia, which was later merged with other schools, creating a new one called Wheeling Park High School. He lettered in football, basketball and baseball. In football he was first team all-West Virginia and all-OVAC as a senior. As a teenager he also competed in gymnastics.

While attending West Virginia University, Howley played college football for the West Virginia Mountaineers, where he was a three-time All-Southern Conference selection and the Southern Conference Player of the Year in 1957. Although he was a incredible athlete who could play any position on the football field, Howley played guard and center during his three years at varsity, in which the Mountaineers compiled a 21-8-1 mark during his tenure, including a 21-7 victory over Penn State which would be the last until 1984.

Howley played in three college all-star games—the East-West Shrine Game, the College Football All-Star Game and the Senior Bowl, which helped him get noticed by the Chicago Bears.

He is the only athlete in West Virginia University history to letter in five sports - football, track, wrestling, gymnastics and swimming (He won the Southern Conference one-meter diving championship).

Howley was inducted into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, the West Virginia University Athletics Hall of Fame, the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Hall of Fame, and the West Virginia University Academy of Distinguished Alumni.