(Coaches and athletes kept telling me to throw them out the window. So, one day, I did.)

This week, however, I accidentally ran across a West Virginia University football record that's intrigued me for years. I punched up one of those PDF versions of a record book. (Quiz: For what do the letters PDF stand? Answer: portable document format. See there? When you visit here you're not only entertained, but prepped for Jeopardy!)

In addition, I spoke to Jeff Williams, the NCAA record keeper extraordinaire. Found that many former Mountaineers hold FBS records. (FBS, in this case, is football bowl subdivision, formerly known as Division I-A. It can also stand for Federal Bureau of Statistics, Frozen Brain Syndrome or Fatboy Slim. I'm not doing this all day, folks.)

Anyway, ex-WVU quarterback Pat White is all over the FBS PDF. His major accomplishment (yes, Major Harris is in there too) is holding the career record of most rushing yards gained by a QB: 4,480.

Ex-Mountaineer and Capital High defensive back Rick Sherrod has two records - although they've only been kept since 2000: season solo tackle average (10.2) and per game tackle average (15.6), both set in 2001. (More on the "since 2000'' deal later.)

Todd Sauerbrun has the highest career punting average (46.3 yards) and most career punts of 50 yards or longer (32) in 1994. (There's no truth that 31 of those came in that season's Nebraska game.)

There are odd ones. Shawn Hackett (I know, right: who?) shares a record for touchdowns scored by a fumble return and interception return in the same game: two. He did that against Rutgers in 2001, if your Shawn Hackett memory bank needs recharged. Grant Wiley, along with many others, holds a record for most forced fumbles in a game. He had three versus Cincinnati in 2003.

Paul Woodside has an offbeat record that will never be broken. He shares the mark for the highest percentage of field goals made under 40 yards in one season (100 percent, 23-of-23, 1982).

Perhaps the coolest, though, are these two: most punts blocked in a season (seven, by Joe Stydahar in 1934) and highest average gain per interception in a career (26.5 by Tom Pridemore in 1975-77).

(I will get to the meat of the column after this. Promise. Did you know, though, ex-WVU runner Avon Cobourne is 11th all-time in rushing behind Wisconsin's Ron Dayne, Texas' Ricky Williams, Pitt's Tony Dorsett, Memphis' DeAngelo Williams, USC's Charles White, Miami's Travis Prentis, Texas' Cedric Benson, TCU's LaDainian Tomlinson, Georgia's Herschel Walker and Ohio State's Archie Griffin? Impressive, no?)

The reason, however, for the dive into the PDF was the record set by current WVU assistant Steve Dunlap.

A record he has long boasted of in a kidding fashion. A record that seems remarkable.

See, Dunlap holds the Mountaineer record for tackles in one game - with 28.

Last season, Carmen Messina of New Mexico led the country with 182 tackles, an average of 13.5 per game. Hopefully, you can see why that record has always raised an eyebrow.

So I dug and I dug. I found Dunlap's record was set in a 1974 game in Boston in a 35-3 loss to the Boston College Eagles.

And I went microfiching. I found the story (headline: "Soggy as Tea Bag In Boston, 35-3") in the Gazette's library. According to the beloved writer/sports editor A.L. Hardman, it was "the most lopsided and humiliating defeat for West Virginia since Penn State walloped them last year, 62-14.'' Ol' "Shorty'' gave WVU hell, calling the team "flat and uninspired.'' Hardman covered the game extensively. But he didn't mention the record. Nor did he in subsequent stories over the next couple of days.

There was good reason.

"They kept those stats off the films,'' Dunlap recalled. "Donnie Young [now executive assistant to head coach Bill Stewart] did that. I always say I paid him off.''

The way it works now is press box statisticians keep track of tackles. It's an inexact science to say the least. But, according to the NCAA's Williams, it's the best method to prevent inflated stats. He said schools used to keep the stats in different manners. Some numbers were inflated to bolster all-star campaigns.

Williams also said the NCAA just started keeping tackles as a stat in 2000. In that span, Brian Leigeb of Central Michigan and two others, whose names I won't bore you with, hold the single record with 26.

Finally, I found that Baylor claims Mike Singletary had 34 tackles in a 1980 game against Houston. So, OK, Dunlap's feat will never be nationally recognized. (The NCAA, for the, well, record, doesn't recognize Singletary's effort.) But that's a heck of a game. Right, Steve?

"Well,'' said the self-deprecating Dunlap, "[the Eagles] were beating our brains in. Someone had to make the tackles. Most were 5 yards downfield.''

Dunlap was playing as an inside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme for coach Bobby Bowden. He not only had the 28 tackles, he set a record that still stands with 190 tackles that season. (Grant Wiley is WVU's career tackle leader with 492 in 2000-03. Wiley, in fact, is second in NCAA history with those 492 since 2000 to Duke's Ryan Fowler. Yes, I am Mr. Stats today.)

Dunlap remembered the 1974 trip.

"I've always loved going to Boston,'' he said. "It's an experience just to go. But that year they had a big, physical team with a lot of [future NFL] draft picks. They beat us bad. But we returned the favor the next year.''

By a count of 35-18 in Morgantown.

Dunlap, though, has a problem with records, especially season records.

"Now they play 13 games as opposed to 11 when I played,'' he said. "Of course, that could be the case with me too. They used to play 10.

"Plus, it was a different game back then. You ran the ball 50 times and threw 20. Now you throw 50 and run 20.''

In other words?

Throw your record books out the window.

And your PDFs.

Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/MitchVingle.