It was, for me, perhaps the coolest moment ever involving a West Virgina University Mountaineer. Here’s the thing: Outside of his WVU swag, he wasn’t in his outfit. And outside of his role as a backup Mountaineer at the time, he wasn’t even on duty.

 

Yet, there was Jonathan Kimble. Not officially the top dog of the Mountaineer Mascots. And he was already representing to a level that for me, at least, will be forever etched in my memory. 

 

Before I go further, allow me to set the stage with some input from Kimble. It was a still somewhat warm evening, Sept. 29, 2011, in the area when Kimble and a few of his friends opted to make the drive up Interstate 79 to our less than hospitable college friends to the north to take in a Thursday evening nationally televised game between South Florida and Pitt. The game from Pittsburgh was on ESPN and, as many probably know, tickets prices were more than just agreeable.

 

“We didn’t have much going on that night so we decided to go and went on StubHub and bought the tickets for a dollar, maybe two dollars, but no more. The most expensive thing was the parking,” Kimble said. “We figured that with the winner of that game likely challenging (West Virginia) for the Big East championship that it would be worth going to.”

 

As it turned out, it was worth going to for more reasons than to just catch a nationally televised football game in person. It was also worth more sitting just a few rows off of the field for a couple of greenbacks. What happened shortly after setting foot onto Heinz Field would have made Kimble an icon in WVU lore even had he never donned the coonskin hat this year.

 

“I don’t remember why, but we were late getting there and we were walking down to our seats when Pitt scored a touchdown. I looked down and there was a camera right in front of our section and the camera was panning right in front of me,” Kimble said.

 

Initially, the camera showed a cheering Pitt fan. A second later, Kimble stepped up to the camera and showed off his Mountaineer paraphernalia for the entire world to see by stretching out the logo on his hoodie with one hand and pointing to the flying WV with the other. What’s better is that it wasn’t just a quick second or a casual glance of Kimble. It was a full shot of him sporting WVU’s colors for several seconds.

 

It was a kick to the groin of the Pitt program that has many involved with it looking down its collective nose at West Virginia. Not only could anyone get a ticket for next to nothing for a nationally televised game, but a fan – actually the backup mascot for the Panthers’ biggest rival on their schedule – could walk right down front and display the colors for the entire nation to see.

 

“My other friends were in regular clothes, with one guy having a West Virginia hat on. Me, I’ve got my gear on no matter where I’m at,” said Kimble. “I saw the camera and just did it.”

 

Don’t ask me why, but I knew the guy on the screen was the backup Mountaineer the moment I saw him. I turned to my wife who wasn’t nearly as giddy as I was after what just transpired on the television. I looked over and said “That’s the next Mountaineer. You can take that to the bank.'”

 

While my phone was actually lit up by my friends who were equally amused at the totally spontaneous and very original television wedgie Kimble had just given the Panthers, Kimble thought he had done his gimmick for the camera that was putting video on the Heinz Field scoreboard. Very soon, however, he knew different.

 

“It was kind of funny because I didn’t realize it at first because I thought it was the school’s camera,” Kimble said. “Then, my phone just started blowing up and it stayed that way the entire night. The next day, people were walking around campus and everyone was talking about it. It blew up on Twitter too.

 

“To be able to represent the University like that in that setting was awesome,” Kimble said.

 

Kimble said he didn’t get much flack about his wardrobe at the game from the home crowd. A few guys in front of him, he said, gave him a little bit of grief. Of course, when the entire cheering section then and even in most cases now can be put into a 1974 Volkswagen Van, the odds are good that you won’t get much hassle.

 

As it turns out, and perhaps this makes me a bad member of Mountaineer Nation, Kimble’s appearance at Heinz Field wasn’t his only venture behind enemy lines wearing the gold and blue and I missed it. Kimble said during the basketball season, he also made the trip north into the Steel City for the Mountaineers final road game against the Panthers at the Peterson Event Center. Once again, he found himself amongst the Pitt faithful. And once again, he found a national television audience to show off his school’s colors when the camera came his way.

 

“I was right in the middle of the student section and they got me again,” said Kimble. “That was another national broadcast. I can tell you that was a whole lot of fun.”

 

It certainly was. And not just for the Mountaineer.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Jonathan Kimble getting his first national television exposure during a nationally televised contest between Pitt and South Florida. Bottom photo, courtesy of Joe McNemar, shows Kimble in full gear getting a little bit of a workout.