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WVU football great scheduled for Homecoming fundraiser

A football standout at West Virginia University who played in the NFL will be featured in a Parkersburg Homecoming Festival fundraiser this month, the Homecoming Committee has announced.

Owen Schmitt, known as the Runaway Beer Truck, will be at the Homecoming Dinner and Silent Auction on April 29 at the Wood County Resiliency Center. Festivities start at 5:45 p.m.

“This fundraiser is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Homecoming Advisory Board member Chuck Lipps said. “Now was the time when Owen agreed to do it.”

Schmitt will talk about his high school career in Wisconsin, a walk-on who made the team at WVU in 2004, becoming among the top fullbacks in the country and earning the nickname as the Runaway Beer Truck. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the 2008 NFL draft and also played for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Oakland Raiders in his five-season career.

He also wrote a children’s book, “The Little Fullback Who Could.” Schmitt will autograph and sell the book after the fundraiser.

The silent auction will feature rare Homecoming items including an autographed guitar of all acts that performed at Homecoming from 2008-24.

Among those are the late Charlie Daniels and Eddie Money, Grand Funk Railroad, Kansas, 38 Special, America, Marshall Tucker Band, Kathy Mattea, Darryl Worley and 17 other performers who have autographed the guitar.

A photo album of past performers, a WVU fire ring, an Owen Schmitt No. 35 autographed

jersey, vintage Fenton Anniversary bells and vase and other items also will be auctioned. Online

bidding is available with final bids awarded at the event.

Tickets, which are on sale, are $100 each with four VIP front row sponsor tables

for 10 guests offered at for 1,250 each, which include a private reception with Schmitt prior to the event.

A cash bar will be provided and door prizes will be awarded. For tickets and more information, go to www.parkersburghomecoming.com and its Facebook page. For table reservations, contact Lipps at 740-516-1050 or at chuckrma@hotmail.com.

The annual Parkersburg Homecoming is Aug. 14-15 at the point in Parkersburg.

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