We need to start off Tuesday morning by offering up Birthday 🎂 wishes to a Man 👨 I love to announce as the Legandary Joe Goddard when our West Virginia Tech Golden Bears 🐻 Baseball team is playing home games.

Mr. Goddard was born and raised in a small town in West Virginia before heading off to Marshall University to play baseball ⚾️ for the Thundering Herd. Joe played the game well enough that he turned pro shortly after.

Playing the game as the Catcher, Joe quickly turned heads with both his defense and his knowledge of the game. Before long he was Playing in the Show for a new MLB team called the San Diego Padres.

Goddard can tell you stories about the night against the Atlanta Braves when he shared the batters box with Hammerin Hank Aaron but he would rather tell you stories about how when they offered him a job as a Coach in the Majors that he passed on the opportunity and returned home to West Virginia.

Goddard returned home and became a Teacher and Ball Coach for just shy of 40 years at Independence High School, touching thousands and thousands of young lives along the way.

Married to his Bride 👰 of forty years, the couple raised a Son and a Daughter that both went on to become Doctors. When Goddard finally hung up his official position as teacher and mentor a few years back he still had a love for both Baseball ⚾️ and teaching so he joined our program at West Virginia Tech University shortly after the school relocated to Beckley.

Between the careers of Head Coach Lawrence Nesselrodt, Goddard and myself we have well over 100 years in around the game of baseball ⚾️.

Goddard is pictured above with his daughter prior to a ballgame a few years back. The story I penned that day was about how Goddard actually borrowed a tractor 🚜 and cleared the land for the high schools Baseball field.

One day before long Goddard will finally sail ⛵ off into the Sunset 🌇 and when he does, Ness and I will utter the famous baseball phrase – Say it ain’t so, Say it ain’t so…..

Until then, I will enjoy the privilege of announcing the following – The Golden Bears 🐻 are managed by Skipper Lawrence Nesselrodt and assisted by the Legendary Joe Goddard !

If you see Joe Goddard walking around today, please 🙏 wish him a Happy Birthday 🎂 and ask him for a baseball ⚾️ story because after six different decades around the game he has a few!

Don Zimmer was the Skipper of the team at the end of 1972.