MONONGAH, W.Va. - West Virginia's coal industry was born in tiny Marion County. So was a virtual "Who's Who" of football.

LSU coach Nick Saban, whose team won last season's BCS national championship, and Rich Rodriguez, the Big East's coach of the year at West Virginia, call it home.

College Football Hall of Fame coaches John McKay and Fielding Yost also grew up in the area.

Pro Football Hall of Fame members Sam Huff is among at least six NFL players from the county located 10 miles south of the Pennsylvania border.

West Virginia's signature industry started in the early 1800s, but it was the development of a mine near Fairmont in 1852 that sparked commercial interest in the region's largest coal field. Football became a popular pastime in the coal camps that sprang up around the new mines because it embraced the miners' values and galvanized communities.

Saban's father started the "Black Diamonds" youth team in 1962 for his son, who later quarterbacked Monongah High to a Class A state title in 1968.

"We grew up in disciplined, hardworking environments, and that encouraged everybody to put everything you have into the job you've got," Rodriguez said.

While the coal camps helped imprint life lessons, it was not a way of life for everyone.

As a star at Farmington High, Huff was being wooed by Florida when West Virginia coach Art "Pappy" Lewis delivered a petrifying recruiting pitch.

"He said 'Sam, let me tell you something, You're either going to come with me, or you're going to go into that mine, get a No. 3 red shovel and shovel coal for the rest of your life,'" said Huff, a five-time Pro Bowl selection with the Washington Redskins and New York Giants.

"I didn't want to do that - I was scared of that mine," he said.

When Saban received a D in an eighth-grade music class, his father taught the boy a lesson by taking him to a mine.

"He said '(The mine is) where you're going to work if you don't get good grades,'" Saban said. "That kind of work ethic gets instilled in you early on."

Saban, Rodriguez, McKay, Yost and Huff didn't know each other when they were growing up but were familiar with tales of their predecessors.

It takes about an hour to loop from Saban's hometown through the four communities where Rodriguez, McKay, Yost and Huff grew up.

Huff and Pro Football Hall of Famer Frank Gatski were raised 12 years apart in the same mining camp near Farmington, population 387. Saban was born in Fairmont and grew up in Monongah (pop. 939). Rodriguez calls Grant Town (pop. 657) home.

"A lot of principles and values and character I have can be traced back to my roots in Marion County," Saban said.

The coaches and players continue a legacy established more than a century ago by "Hurry Up" Yost, the native of Fairview (pop. 435) and architect of Michigan's turn-of-the-century "Point-A-Minute" dynasty, and furthered by McKay, who coached Southern Cal to four national titles.

McKay was born in Everettville, about 2 miles across the border in a Monongalia County town so small the U.S. Census Bureau doesn't recognize it. He lived in Fairmont as a child and moved south to Harrison County as a teenager.

Though removed from Marion County, the men haven't lost their Mountain State roots.

On Huff's wall is a photograph of his father in a mining uniform.

"I'm proud of every athlete, from Frank Gatski right on down to Rich Rodriguez and every athlete that ever came out of West Virginia," Huff said.