John L. Bord '73 competed for two seasons with the W&J football and track & field programs. Bord earned All-PAC football honors in both seasons with the Red and Black. Following his senior season, he was selected to the Associate Press All-State University and College Team.  He also was selected as the co-captain of the W&J track & field team in 1973. He earned induction into the W&J Athletics Hall of Fame and received the Robert M. Murphy Award in 2018.

Name: John L. Bord

Class Year: 1973

Sport(s) Played at W&J: Football and Track & Field

Major at W&J: Political Science

Current Job Title & Employer: Prosecuting Attorney for Taylor County (WV)

Brief description of job duties/responsibilities: In charge of all criminal prosecutions

Current level of education:  Earned law degree from California Western School of Law in 1983.

Career path following W&J: I coached college football for a few years, then came back to my hometown to work with my father in his law office. I was then appointed to the Magistrate of Taylor County and then went to law school. After graduation from law school, I joined my father's law firm and was appointed Asst. Prosecutor which I served for 14 years. I was then elected as the prosecuting attorney for Taylor County in 1998 and have been in this position ever since.

Summarize your experience at W&J: I'm not sure I can summarize my experience at W&J in a few paragraphs. Looking back, I can now say I was fortunate to have spent my two years there. I had the choice to attend much larger schools, but for me, it wasn't the perfect fit. The professors I had were excellent, they pushed you to excel and you just weren't a number. If you had questions or problems, they were there for you. The college life outside of the classroom, sometimes it was too good. The thing I liked most about W&J, it was a community in itself. When I've met other graduates, no matter what year they graduated, I always sense that "President" pride.

Favorite memory as a student-athlete: The best ones I probably shouldn't tell to protect anyone who claims to this day to be innocent. One of the ones that has stayed with me happened my junior year, last game of football season. We had an extra point kicker who was good, but he always kicked low in warmups. Throughout the season, during pregame, he'd kick the ball low enough that he'd hit me in the back or on at least two occasions he hit me in the head after I snapped the ball. The last game of the year, he bounced one off my helmet. I saw stars and heard bells ringing in my head. I had decided, if the opportunity came, I'd get him back. We scored and went up two touchdowns with less than a minute to go. I told the holder "I'm snapping the ball to the kicker, get out of there and the line isn't blocking". Sure enough, the snap went directly to the kicker and he got a family portrait of the Kenyon defensive line ready to crush him. I told the coach "the ball slipped out of my hands". He looked at me and smiled.

Notable athletic and academic accomplishments during college: 1971 and 1972 Honorable Mention All-Presidents' Athletic Conference. Nothing I did academically surpasses the research paper I did in intersession my senior year. My advisor and I started working on it in December. He wanted me to do a paper of the United Mine Workers. There had been a lot of turmoil in the coal fields of WV, PA, KY, and VA. In 1968, there had been a major mine disaster in WV and there was a hotly contested election for Presidency of the United Mine Workers in which claims of fraud had been made. In fact, on New Year's Eve of 1969, the candidate who opposed the incumbent, his wife and daughter, were murdered in Clarksburg, PA. Dr. Wice and I developed a 7-page questionnaire. I had to get permission from the local unions to interview miners. Dr. Wice and I had to sign an agreement with the Union that none of my paper and research would be given to any newspaper. Sometimes, it took time for local unions to give permission, some didn't want some college students asking questions. Some of the old miners wouldn't talk to me, some threatened me. The younger miners were more than willing to talk to me. I started wearing W&J football shirts to the mines so they wouldn't think I was just a student. The whole experience was unbelievable. After I completed the paper, as I predicted, the federal government set aside the election and Tony Boyle, the union President was charged with the murders of Joseph Yablonski, his wife and daughter. In 1974, he was convicted and given 3 life sentences.

Athletic accomplishments since graduation: Potomac State Athletic Hall of Fame (2001), W&J College Athletic Hall of Fame (2018)

What went into your decision to attend W&J? I was recruited by a number of schools after I completed my final year at Potomac State, but all of them were larger than W&J and I couldn't feel the fit. I was looking for a place out of the ordinary. My father suggested I visit W&J, so I did almost unannounced. I fell in love with it, its history, all the people I met were friendly and I wouldn't be a number in a lecture hall. When I met Coach Ream, he told me they had an all-conference center, they would have to move me to tackle. I told him "you have your center today, when I come, can you move him to tackle?" They moved him to defensive end. It wasn't just athletics that entered into my choice, I wanted to graduate from a school that had an academic reputation attached to it. It didn't hurt the football team was winning, but I knew there would be life after I completed playing.

What advice would you give current W&J student-athletes? Enjoy your life while you are in college. What you put into it is what you are going to get out of it.

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