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 Fenton
Glass makes Coal Bowl trophy
September 1, 2006
By RACHEL LANEK
Parkersburg News, Parkersburg, WV
WILLIAMSTOWN — On Saturday, a locally made trophy will be presented to the
winner of the Friends of Coal Bowl.
Fenton Art Glass employees were instrumental in creating the Governor’s
Trophy to be awarded to West Virginia University or Marshall University
after their football game.
Most of the trophy is made of West Virginia materials. The work was done
entirely by West Virginians, said Rick Mogielski, the trophy’s designer. He
works in marketing for the Friends of Coal. The organization decided it
wanted to help sponsor the football game between WVU and Marshall.
“I made the football,” said David Fetty, a retired Fenton worker who still
makes special items. “It’s pretty close to the size of a regulation
football.”
The football was made by free-hand work, he said.
“This is the first time I made a football,” Fetty said. He also helped make
the glass vase on which the football sits.
The laces and stripes of the football were sand-carved into the ball by
Fenton worker Dennis Lumbatis. Stacy Williams, who also works at Fenton,
hand painted the logo on the vase, said Ken Moore, the new product
introduction manager at Fenton in Williamstown.
“We assembled everything here. We didn’t trust anyone else to do it” with
all the glass involved, Moore said.
The base of the trophy weighs 45 pounds, while everything else, including
the coal-filled football, is about 15 pounds. The trophy is almost two-feet
tall.
“The toughest part was putting the coal into the glass football,” Mogielski
said. They decided the best way to add the coal was to melt it.
“We made a flat place on the football. We made a hole and shot liquid coal
in,” Moore said.
The coal mixture was melted and poured by Bob Dickenson, owner of
Mountaineer Creations, Mogielski said.
“It looks like a coal football inside a crystal football,” he said.
The glass base holding up the football is a Fenton vase upside down, Moore
said. The two pieces are glued together.
“It won’t come apart,” Fetty said. The glue is made especially for glasses.
“I think it turned out great,” he said.
The carbon base, the coal and the etching on the base are the only parts of
the trophy Fenton did not help complete, Moore said.
Fenton employees completed the trophy the evening of Aug. 22. Early on Aug.
23, Mogielski took the trophy to areas of the state to reveal.
From start to finish, about a month was used to complete the project, Moore
said.
GrafTech created the carbon base, Mogielski said.
Saturday’s game in Morgantown will be the first time the two schools have
played each other in football since 1997. It will be the sixth time the
schools have played.
Contact Rachel Lane at
rlane@newsandsentinel.com
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