WHEELING — When the 76th OVAC Rudy Mumley All-Star Football game kicks off at Wheeling Island Stadium tonight at 7:15 p.m., it will mark an important anniversary for the game and its namesake.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the so-called ‘Rudy Game’ in which Mumley resurrected the game after a brief hiatus. As the story goes, Mumley mortgaged the house he shared with his sister Lily for $15,500 in order to fully fund the game in 1972.

“At that time Sam Mumley, who was (Rudy’s) nephew, was in charge of the OVAC and Rudy had approached them and they said they didn’t have that kind of money,” said former game director Bob Koch. “That’s when Rudy went back and talked to Lily.”

“It took two to do that because he lived with his sister and his sister had a very good job,” added fellow former game director Ron Mauck. “He just decided that we were going to get the game back and that’s what he had to do and he did it. They both did”

According to a story written by Sam Mumley for the program of the all-star game in 1998, the reason the game was stopped after 1968 was because the NCAA started implementing stricter regulations on incoming freshmen and what activities they could participate in during the summer prior to their enrollment in college. In short, if a player participated in the all-star game during the summer, they would be ruled ineligible for their freshman season in college.

“The NCAA, at that time, was a lot stronger than what it is now and I think the stipulations got to the point where (the game) was almost impossible to put on,” Koch explained. “I think it just kind of fell apart and they quit having it. It went for two years and that’s when Rudy said ‘we have to bring it back.'”

Sam Mumley wrote that in late 1971, the OVAC and NCAA began negotiating for the game to become sanctioned, which would lift any restrictions for players going on to college. After three months of ‘very intense correspondence’, the NCAA awarded the game total sanction in February of 1972.

At that time, Rudy Mumley was already in the fold as the game director and, having acquired the money, went about taking the game to even higher heights than it had ever been before.

“Before that, it was put on by the coach’s association and there were various ways that it was done,” Koch recalled. “At that time, a lot of the camps were held up at the Cadiz High School gym and they would put cots on the gym floor and run through the school cafeteria.

“When Rudy took over, he kind of upped it where he took them to West Liberty (State College) and all that kind of stuff that really made it a much bigger event.”

Rudy Mumley was a history teacher and principal at Buckeye South at the time and was heavily involved in high school athletics in the valley throughout his entire life.

“He was always for kids, always,” Mauck said. “He did so much for kids, just not the ones where he was teaching, but for all the kids. He was a very unique guy.”

Ironically, the excitement of that first game in 1972 was dampened a bit when Wheeling Island was flooded just weeks before the game was scheduled to kick off. The game was moved to Martins Ferry and it was an instant success.

“Luckily, I guess the sun shone that day and the crowd came out to Martins Ferry and it was a roaring success and it’s just been that way ever since,” Koch said. “Here we are 50 years later and I think that’s one of the main reasons why, to this day, the game bears his name as a tribute. He was willing to go out on a limb and provide that.”

Mumley served as the all-star game director for 23 years, he was succeeded by Mauck, who served until Koch took over in 2001. Koch ran the game for 19 years before giving way to Corey Murphy this summer.

The game was officially re-named to include Rudy Mumley’s name in 1986.

“There’s no other name you could put on that game,” Mauck said.

To this day, when Koch speaks to the young men who will play in the game each summer, he makes sure to include the story of Rudy Mumley and implores them to follow in his footsteps.

“When I speak to the players, I always tell them to pay it forward,” Koch said. “I always say that if we’re lucky, there might be a (West Virginia coach) John Kelley or a (Ohio coach) Mike McKenzie sitting out in this crowd. Then I say if we’re really lucky, there might be a Sam Mumley or a Rudy Mumley sitting in this crowd.”