From marathoner to Mountaineer: How athletics shaped WVU President Michael Benson
West Virginia University President Michael Benson may be new to Morgantown, but his connection to athletics runs deep, and it’s clear those experiences have shaped how he leads.
Benson sat down recently for a special conversation with Tony Caridi, where he opened up about his background as a multi-sport athlete. Growing up in Texas, he played football, baseball, and basketball, eventually focusing on basketball after a serious leg injury and a realization: he couldn’t throw a curveball, and people started to hit his fastball.
“I wasn’t the tallest guy, but I was quick. And I think a pretty good playmaker,” Benson said, crediting players like John Stockton for inspiring his style of play.
But it was running where Benson truly stood out.
What started as a way to become the best-conditioned player on the court turned into something much bigger. At 17, he ran his first marathon, the Deseret News Marathon in 2:57. A year later, he cut that time down to 2:41 and qualified for the Boston Marathon, one of just 19 teenagers in the world to do so that year.
“Fatigue makes cowards of us all,” he said, explaining that while he might not have been able to outshoot or outjump others, he could always outwork them. That mentality still fuels him.
After a church mission in Rome, he returned to BYU and tried out for the school’s junior varsity basketball team along with a group of coworkers. This wasn’t just any year, it was 1988, when BYU was ranked No. 2 in the country. That meant second-row seats for the WAC Tournament in Provo and an up-close look at a then-largely unknown point guard named Tim Hardaway.
“I watched this unbelievable point guard that was doing this crossover dribble that nobody had ever seen before,” he recalled.
Benson’s lifelong love of sports helped him understand the powerful role athletics can play in shaping identity and opportunity. He’s carried that perspective through every stop in his academic leadership career, from Utah and Southern Utah to Coastal Carolina and now WVU.
In his current role, he sees athletics as more than just wins and losses.
“My job really is to support (athletic director) Wren (Baker), support our team, support our student-athletes, the coaching staff, any way I can,” he said. “But I also want to emphasize the academic component of getting these young people a degree, because many of them are not going to play on Sunday.”
For Benson, the lessons of sports, discipline, preparation, and perseverance are timeless. And they’re lessons he hopes will carry forward as he helps lead WVU into its next chapter.
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