When West Virginia University athletic director Ed Pastilong leaves his post at the end of June, it will be the end of an era in Mountaineer athletics.
In Pastilong's 20 years at the head of the Mountaineer Athletic Department, he has led multiple facility renovations, including suites, club seating, new locker rooms, video boards, the Reynolds Family Academic Center and the Donald J. Brohard Hall of Traditions at Milan Puskar Stadium.
He helped build new facilities including the Caperton Indoor Facility, Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium, Cary Gym and the women's soccer training facility.
In addition, the department's budget grew from $20 million to more than $59 million under Pastilong. In 1991, he helped the Mountaineers join the Big East Conference.
Pastilong also developed an endowment fund for athletic scholarship in the '80s, which has turned out to be one of the more successful funds in the country. He also initiated the Athletic Director's Academic Honor Roll, which has recognized close to 4,000 student-athletes for outstanding academic work. Under Pastilong, the athletic department has teamed with the WVU Children's Hospital and the Betty Puskar Breast Cancer Center among others to reach out to the community.
The truth is, Pastilong was athletic director during the time WVU made itself known to be a national power in athletics.
In his time, WVU fans have seen the football team win two BCS bowl games and the men's basketball team become a consistent contender.
In addition, the rifle, women's basketball, men's soccer, women's soccer, gymnastics, cross country and track and field teams have shown to be competitive with some of the best teams in the country.
Pastilong has made many crucial hires – nearly all of which have been a success, as well.
Currently, West Virginia is one of only a handful of athletic departments where it actually makes a profit. Being fiscally responsible in such meager economic times is something Pastilong should be commended for.
While doing so, he was still able to finalize plans for the construction of the new basketball practice facility, which is expected to open in 2011. It took longer than expected for the building process to start because of the economy, but Pastilong didn't jump the gun. His experience in past large-scale projects told him to be patient.
In the end, it seems to have paid off. The staff at The Daily Athenaeum would like to commend Pastilong for such a long and successful career at WVU.
He has been criticized for not spending enough money and not being innovative enough. But throughout all of years at WVU, his decisions have made the WVU Athletic Department stronger.
For that reason, Pastilong will be hard to replace.
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