Stanley E. "Stan" Romanoski Biography

Triadelphia High School / (Class of 1936) Wheeling, West Virginia

Specialty: Mid-Distance

West Virginia University

Stanley E. "Stan" Romanoski was born in Homestead, Pa., on August 2nd, 1918. His family relocated to Wheeling in 1923 and resided in the Overbrook area of Elm Grove. He attended St. Vincent’s Grade School before enrolling at Triadelphia High School.

Romanoski, was a 1936 graduate of Triadelphia High School in Ohio County in Wheeling (WV), where he played football and was a two-time state 880-yard track champion.

He was an ambassador and state pioneer for the sport and promoted running and track and field year-round. He traveled the state in the summers to assist local coaches with competitions, clinics, AAU meets, etc. At WVU, he founded the Mountaineer Relays and the WVU Invitational cross country meet for high school runners. He originated the state prep cross country meet, which was later sanctioned and run by the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission as the state championship event. He started the indoor track program at WVU without a facility and led the effort for new indoor and outdoor track facilities in the 1970’s. Also, he was the featured speaker to kick-off the Elby’s Distance Race in Wheeling.

[High School]

Stan Romanoski’s passion for the sport started at Triadelphia High School, where he competed for coach Charley Petty.

When Romanoski competed at the West Virginia High School State Track & Field Meet, the meet was one class, boys only.

At the 1935 State Track Meet in Morgantown, Charleston High raced to their third consecutive title in an exciting nip and tuck battle with Triadelphia, 40 ½ to 38 points, respectively. The Mountain Lion duo of McElhinney (Mid-distance) and Bill Halstead (Hurdles) each hit double figures, but Triadelphia’s Rivlin (Sprints), claimed high point honors with 11 ¼ points. Huntington’s Norton heaved the Javelin 188-4, breaking the old record by 17 feet. Other record setters were Triadelphia’s Rapaswich in the discus (124-11 ¾) and Clarksburg’s Cava in the Shot Put (50-1 ¾). Triadelphia’s Stan Romanoski won the 880-yard title as a junior with a time of 2:04.1. He was also a part of Triadelphia’s state winning Medley Relay team (McGregor, Rivlin, Shinsky, Romanoski) with a time of 3:35.3.

At the 1936 State Track Meet in Morgantown, Bill Halstead led Charleston to their 4th consecutive State Track Title, posting 12 ¾ points as a jump/hurdler and taking home high point honors. It was a tight team battle with only eight points separating the top four teams. A young Oak Hill team narrowly missed the title but established themselves as favorites for 1937. Charleston finished with 38 ½ points, while Oak Hill was second with 36 points, Triadelphia was 3rd with 35 points, and Parkersburg was 4th with 30 ½ points. Records were broken by Oak Hill’s Shuttle Hurdle Relay (1:00.3) and Beckley’s Mile Relay (3:36.6). Triadelphia’s Romanoski once again won the 880-yard title as a senior with a time of 2:03.2, compared to the state record of 2:02, which was co-held by Ashburn of Masontown (1930) and Skolik of Moundsville (1934). Romanoski also placed 5th in the One Mile Run. (Note: There is a possibility that he was a part of Triadelphia’s gold winning Medley Relay (3:33.9), but I could not verify because a lack of names being listed.)

Romanoski also set a West Virginia regional mile record time of 4:40 which lasted a decade. Also, he played end in football.

[College]

After a stellar prep career at Triadelphia High School where he twice won the state 880-yard title, Romanoski was recruited to play football at Belmont Abbey College (NC) by coach Bud Bonar, a Bellaire native. He played three sports for two years before transferring to WVU for his final two years. At WVU, he ran track under his coaching predecessor, Art Smith.

Romanoski made his mark by running a leg of the mile relay team that finished fourth at the Penn Relays, setting a Mountaineer record that stood until 1964.

He is a member of the IC4A's gallery of track and field greats. In addition to the mile relay, Romanoski excelled at the 880- and 440-yards. He was also a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

[Post-Collegiate]

After graduating from WVU in 1942, Romanoski took a head coaching position at Ansted (now Midland Trail) High School but left the school just six months into his tenure to serve in the Navy during World War II. Following the war, he returned to Ansted where he coached football and basketball and established a track team. Romanoski won the league title his last year at Ansted.

Next, Romanoski moved over to Dunbar High School where he served as athletic director and once again coached the basketball and football teams and established the track program. He was one of the first football coaches in West Virginia to install the famous Chicago Bear "T" formation, which resulted in a 9-0 record in 1956. In track, Romanoski led Dunbar to the West Virginia state championship in 1957, his final year, earning him state coach of the year honors. Dunbar won the ’57 title in an exciting 65-59 battle with Stonewall. The Bulldogs’ Bill Edens took high point honors with 13 points, while finishing runner-up in the 440-Yard Dash and 880-Yard Run, and third in the Long Jump. Records were broken by Stonewall in the 880-Yard Relay (1:32.03) and Mile Relay (3:28.25). Parkersburg’s Bill Fields had the individual highlight; his discus heave of 175-0 broke the existing record by almost 14 feet. After Romanoski’s career move as head track and cross-country coach at West Virginia University, Delmer Good would take over the coaching position at Dunbar.

[Coaching Career at WVU]

After nearly turning down his alma mater because his high school job paid more at the time, Art Smith's endorsement convinced Romanoski to accept the WVU track and field position in 1957 and the WVU graduate went on to coach the Mountaineers to Southern Conference cross country championships in 1962, 1967 and 1968. The 1968 team advanced to the NCAA championship; the squad finished 23rd in the country, the highest-ever finish for Romanoski’s men’s cross-country team. Carl Hatfield placed 10th, covering the NCAA course in Manhattan in 29:59.0 to earn his second All-American honor. He also coached the track squad to the 1964 Southern Conference title.

Coaching men’s track and cross-country teams from 1957-81, he guided NCAA All-Americans Carl Hatfield, Don Sauer and Alex Kasich in cross country, and Jack Carter, Mike Mosser and Garnett Edwards in track. Mosser was the school's first NCAA national champion, a feat he accomplished at the 1972 NCAA indoor meet in Detroit, running a 2:08.9 for 1,000 yards. Romanoski also helped eliminate the color barrier at WVU; long jumper Phillip Edwards, a Morgantown native, was the Mountaineers' first African-American varsity track athlete.

At WVU, Romanoski’s track teams were 70-39-1 and cross-country team records were 128-64.

Romanoski served as vice president and later president of the IC4A track coaches' association.

Stan Romanoski died on June 26th, 2004 at eighty-five years old.

He was inducted into West Virginia Sports Writer Association Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 1992), the West Virginia University Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 1997), and the City of Wheeling Hall of Fame Class of 2013.

[His Legacy]

Carl Hatfield, a former All-American at West Virginia University, believed Romanoski’s greatest legacy was his driving force in helping establish cross country in high schools throughout West Virginia. If you ran high school cross country in the Mountain State in the last 30 years you probably have Stan Romanoski to thank.

Submitted by Mike McMillion (08/10/20)

Results courtesy RunWV

Sources: Jesse Skiles, West Virginia High School Track & Field State Meet: Boys (A Statistical History 1914-2001); Stan Romanoski Induction Hall of Fames