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Tod Trent (2009)
From 1951 until he retired in 1991 Tod Trent was a friend to Fayette County athletes and chronicled some of the greatest moments in Fayette County sports history as a writer for the Uniontown Evening Standard and Morning Herald.
Trent went to high school at Richlands, Va., and had he sights set on playing basketball in college when he graduated in 1943.
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“I enjoyed playing, I graduated at 17 and World War II was still raging and I enlisted in the Air Force. When I turned 18 instead of being drafted I would go to my own choice of where I wanted to go. I came to West Virginia University as a 17-year old freshman and I’m thinking I’m going to try out for basketball, but was stepping into a lot of competition.”
Trent entered the Air Force at 18.
“I trained as a radio operator and gunner on a B-17,” Trent recalled. “I was training to go to the Japanese theatre, but Germany and Japan both surrendered before I finished training. I ended in Germany for about a year in the army of occupation.”
After leaving the service in 1946 Trent went back to college for one year at Concord College before returning to WVU.
“My family had moved to Beckley, W.Va.,” Trent offered. “I have a younger brother and sister. They are twins and they had started at Concord College and they were sophomores and the big brother comes back and he is a second semester freshman. I went there just one year and by that time I felt that journalism might be what I wanted to do. The biggest thing I got out of Concord was meeting my wife, Irma. We got married in 1948.”
Trent returned to West Virginia University and went to journalism school.
“I was on the school paper, The Daily Athenaeum,” Trent explained. “I took courses in most everything and found out early on that I would not have been a good advertising man. My talents were in writing and reporting. I got to know Tony Constantine and Mickey Furfari from the Morgantown paper and of course got to know them real well later in my career.”
Trent graduated from WVU in 1951.
“I heard that there was a job opening in Uniontown,” Trent reported. “I heard about it when I was taking final exams and I called and they asked me to come up for an interview. I had never been to Uniontown and this was my first trip. I interviewed with the editor of the Evening Standard, George Gray. I came up by bus and I find out the first of the week and I started on the job February 6, 1951.
“I started out on general news and I was on general news until 1954. The sports editor then, Ralph Schulze, was more interested in the outdoors and features than he really was in the games. During football season and basketball season I was always available. I got to cover the games and got to know the background and the sports through this area. When they named me sports editor of the Evening Standard in 1954, the sports editor of the Morning Herald, Bob Wood, was so gracious and took me around and introduced me to the coaches that I didn’t know and he was a great story teller – I loved to listen to him. Bob went to the Washington Observer shortly after I took over the Evening Standard and I was also named sports editor of the Morning Herald in the late 1950s.”
Trent covered the “Golden Age” of Fayette County athletics, rubbing elbows with great coaches and players and covering some outstanding teams.
“Of course, Abe Everhart was a personal favorite,” Trent opined. “Bill Power was great also, they both were easy to work with and they were cooperative. I loved to go out to Masontown when John Lozar was coach and this was after Gene Franks wasn’t coaching anymore — he was an administrator, but the “Old Fox” was one of my favorite people. I loved to hear him tell stories. Lash Nesser was quite a character and I enjoyed him. I always had a good relationship with German’s Lou Rozzi and there were folks that thought Lou was a little gruff, but Lou always seemed easy to approach for me.
“After Laurel Highlands was formed I loved covering the Uniontown-LH games. I saw every Uniontown-LH game from the first one in 1967 until I retired in 1991. I had a very good relationship with Horse Taylor and we always got along together.”
Trent covered WVU, Pitt and Penn State and the local professional teams.
Tod, 83, still resides in Uniontown with his wife of over 60 years Irma. They had one son Tod, who passed away in 2003.
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