By james art 
Possible Plate – Neil Armstrong, president of the WVU Alumni Association Chapter, poses with a possible version of a WVU license plate about to become available in Ohio. – contributed
WHEELING – Neil Armstrong made it so Ohioans could add a little taste of the mountain state to their car amid a sea of Buckeyes.
Armstrong, a Wheeler native who has lived in Ohio for the past 30 years, is leading the passage of a bill in the Ohio General Assembly that would allow Ohioans to purchase license plates emblazoned with the famous West Virginia University “Flying WV” Logo.
There are still a few steps to go before the plates are available for purchase through the Ohio Department of Motor Vehicles, but he’s confident they’ll be ready to go by summer.
The seeds of that idea were planted several years ago, Armstrong said. His daughter attends the University of Alabama, and his Cincinnati alumni chapter is working to get the Crimson Tide logo on Ohio license plates. Marshall University also received a bill to allow the purchase of signs with the Thundering Herd logo.
Armstrong, now president of the WVU/Dayton Alumni Association Chapter, figured if those schools could get their logos on signs in Ohio, so could WVU. So in 2023 Armstrong contacted the office of Ohio state Sen. Steve Wilson, R-Mainville, to see if he would sponsor a bill. Wilson’s cabinet told Armstrong to reach back in mid-2024.
“So I go back and it’s silent,” Armstrong said. “I honestly forgot about it. But then, out of the blue, I get an email from his office saying, hey, we’re good to go. Voting in a month.
“Surprisingly it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be” He added.
The next step, he said, is to get 150 “wet” Signatures-actual pen signatures-by people-by people who would buy the plate. Demand, he said, would fuel production. He’s already collected about 60 signatures and has plans to get the word out to get more.
He will work through the WVU Alumni Association to make sure Ohio alumni know about the opportunity. He will also collect signatures from those interested in the WVU men’s basketball game on Sunday at 2 p.m. At the University of Cincinnati, as well as WVU’s April 18 baseball game at Ohio State.
While 150 signatures is the minimum, Armstrong hopes to get at least 300 by the time the law goes into effect on April 9. When the plate becomes available, it can be selected from “Organizations” DMV website category.
Doing so makes Armstrong feel good for several reasons. For one thing, it gives Ohioans who are WVU alumni or fans another opportunity to show their Mountaineer pride. These people are always eager to speak West Virginia when they find themselves in public.
“I have four kids and one actually went to WVU,” he said. “But everybody knows that anytime I’m out there wearing a WV thing and I see someone else with a WV flying, they know they’ve just lost 15 or 20 minutes of their day.”
But there is also an opportunity to help Ohio students who want to attend WVU. With every license plate purchased, $25 goes to support West Virginia University scholarships for Ohioans.
And if enough people sign up, those dollars will add up, Armstrong said.
“Let’s say we get 1,000 plates across the state,” he said. “That would be $25,000 a year in scholarships. Add that over 10 years and it’s $250,000. It’s an opportunity to really help students across the state, and that was one of the big reasons we wanted to do this. “