HUNTINGTON -- Respect.

Such was the overwhelming response following the overwhelming news that journalism icon and former sports editor of The Herald-Dispatch, Ernie Salvatore, passed way early Friday morning. Salvatore, a Marshall graduate who covered Thundering Herd athletics for more than four decades, was 87.

To absolutely no surprise, peers, friends and many others proverbially stood in telephone lines to reflect on a unique career, one call after the next, first to confirm the passing and then to celebrate a relentlessly frank person and professional. Salvatore was the New England guy who brought a big-city feel to Tri-State athletics.

He juggled both throughout his career. Salvatore often visited family in Connecticut and frequently traveled to New York City for friendly sit-downs with Lou Sahadi, likewise a Marshall graduate, and publisher of numerous books.

Sahadi "knew nobody" when he arrived at Marshall from New York. A bond developed between two eventual sports writing heavyweights and mutual New York Yankees and New York Giants fans.

"We had a common bond," Sahadi said. "We had a real close relationship."

Salvatore met with NFL greats Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson during his visits with Sahadi. One evening at the exclusive Jilly's restaurant, Salvatore and Sahadi sat across from Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow.

It's quite the understatement to say Salvatore lived a full life. His name adorns Joan C. Edwards Stadium's press bwox at Marshall. In a stolen moment, Salvatore stepped from the Edwards Stadium elevator and viewed the tribute, including past and recent photos on the wall and smiled, thinking no one was watching.

He later shared that experience with then-Marshall athletic director Bob Marcum.

"When he saw it for the first time, he said, 'I just can't believe this'," Marcum said.

Glancing at the photo from decades earlier in his career, Salvatore added, "Yes, at one time I was that young."

Long-time sports broadcaster and Marshall graduate Frank Giardina, once the voice of the Thundering Herd, appreciated Salvatore for serving as the written voice of the Tri-State.

"For the last 60 plus years, when people thought of Huntington, the person that they thought of was Ernie Salvatore," Giardina said. "He was the most visible face, the most visible name, and the most visible personality in Huntington.

"There are certain long-time sports columnists that have made incredible impacts in their cities over the years. These are writers that have actually impacted the quality of life as they have affected change in those cities.

"You don't see that often in sports. I am thinking of writers like Edwin Pope in Miami and Tom McEwen in Tampa. Ernie Salvatore had that impact in Huntington. For some reason, reading Ernie in The Herald-Dispatch made people in Huntington feel as if they were living in a big and important city."

Former Marshall football head coach Stan Parrish said the same in an e-mail message to Giardina, crediting Salvatore with elevating the status of Thundering Herd athletics. Parrish is now the Ball State head coach.

"Ernie is one of that breed of old-school writers that you don't find anymore," Parrish said. "He had a gift for making everyone feel important. No one had the ear of the Thundering Herd fan more than Ernie.

"He made Marshall athletics bigger than life because he cared about the people so much. I have been around a million different writers it seems in all different levels of sports that I have coached and Ernie was my favorite."

For generations, Salvatore proved synonymous with Marshall athletics just as Morgantown sports writer Mickey Fufari was tied to West Virginia University. Fufari, 86, met Salvatore in the 1940s and the similar alpha males remained friends throughout, never shy of sharing thoughts on the other's work.

"In my younger days when we were more feisty he told me he would come up here and he said, 'I'm going to come up there and knock the heck out of you if you don't quit getting on me in some of things I was writing,'" Furfari said. "But we were genuinely good friends."

Salvatore phoned Furfari prior to WVU's football 2007 matchup with Marshall in Huntington. The Marshall columnist invited the West Virginia columnist to stay at his home through the weekend.

"When I think of Marshall I think of Ernie," Fufari said. "I think of a guy who was loyal as you could be but he was a square shooter.

"He would give the other teams credit when they won and I learned from that."

Salvatore and Furfari shared mid-field press box seats for Marshall football's 1997 visit to Mountaineer Field. Similarly, the veterans sat side-by-side during Thundering Herd-WVU basketball matchups in Charleston.

"Ernie and I became good friends," Fufari said. "He became a West Virginian by adoption and by decision. He's a great guy and my only regret is that I didn't spend more time with him.

"I always considered him a friend, period, not just in the journalistic circles but as a friend, period. He was a square shooter.

"I hope a lot of young guys took his advice on journalism."

Many did, including those who received the Ernie Salvatore Award, given annually by Marshall's School of Journalism. One of those recipients had scheduled a Friday afternoon lunch with Salvatore to talk about the business, boxing and Marshall.

He called Ernie's home Friday morning to confirm the informal sit-down when a family member answered with the shocking news. Just so you know, that sports writer would have picked up the bill.

You more than deserved it Ernie.

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Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch

The Ernie Salvatore Press Box at Marshall's Joan C. Edwards Stadium

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