Local Jacobs retires as WVU basketball analyst

Oct. 31—Jay Jacobs, a Walkersville resident who has been analyzing West Virginia University basketball games for nearly 50 years, recently announced his retirement from the Mountaineer Sports Network.

Jacobs, 85, will be part of one final men's basketball broadcast when West Virginia hosts St. John's on Dec. 1, according to a release issued by the college.

"I want to thank West Virginia University for allowing me to be part of the Mountaineer Athletics for nearly five decades," Jacobs stated in the release. "To the fans who follow the Mountaineers, I just want to say, 'I was a fan like you, but I had a microphone in my hand.'"

Jacobs, who served as Thomas Johnson's boys basketball coach before stepping down to take an administrative job in the Frederick County school system, was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame as a broadcaster in September.

As a WVU broadcaster, Jacobs described some of the biggest games in Mountaineers history, including eight trips to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, an Elite Eight appearance in 2005 and a trip to the Final Four in 2010. He was involved with 20 NCAA Tournament teams as a broadcaster, and the Morgantown native also made two appearances in The Dance when he played for the Mountaineers in 1959-60.

In 1996, Jacobs retired from his job as assistant principal at Ballenger Creek Middle School to devote his full time to WVU basketball. Aside from analyzing WVU games, he was a contributor to weekly basketball radio shows. He also did radio and television work for WVU's women's basketball team.