The University created Mountaineer Week in 1947 as a weekend event to promote school spirit. By 1972, it had stretched to a week packed with concerts, food and fun.
Our annual celebration of Appalachian heritage and culture draws visitors from around the region.
The University created Mountaineer Week in 1947 as a weekend event to promote school spirit. By 1972, it had stretched to a week packed with concerts, food and fun.
Every year during Mountaineer Week students test the limits of the PRT’s capacity, lining up to squeeze into a car set up in front of the Mountainlair. The year 2000 set the record with 97 students.
Since 1958, during the first home football game of Mountaineer Week, two individuals with true Mountaineer spirit, excellent academic records and a full load of extracurricular activities have been chosen to represent the University. The designation remains one of WVU’s biggest honors.
Layne Veneri, a biology major from Princeton, and Julie Peng, a chemical engineering major
from Hurricane, earned the titles in 2016.
In 1972, the University held its first Mountaineer Week arts and crafts festival to showcase traditional crafts created by those who settled in Appalachia.
Today, the Mountaineer Week artisan craft fair and quilt show features both traditional and contemporary crafts and draws 60 artisans from West Virginia and neighboring states.
The beard growing competition began in 1949 and has become one of the most popular Mountaineer Week events.
Participants shave on the same day and then don't take a razor to their chins for the next month, when judges compare their beards during Mountaineer Week.
The winner earns a $100 prize and year-long bragging rights.
Each year, the WVU Alumni Association, the WVU Foundation and the Mountaineer Week Committee recognize some of WVU’s most loyal Mountaineers. The Most Loyal West Virginian and Alumni Mountaineer awards have been presented since 1974. The Most Loyal Faculty and Staff Mountaineer award was created in 1994 and split into two separate honors in 2003.
The Mountaineer Idol contest, sponsored by Coca-Cola and American Idol, has challenged WVU students in a six-week singing competition since 2004. The first-place winner receives $1,000. Second and third place winners get $750 and $250, respectively.