Joseph Manchin Jr. graduated from WVU and the D.T. Watson School of Physical Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh.  He was a native of Farmington and lived in Bridgeport with his wife and three children from 1957 until his passing in 1984.  Joe was the owner of Central WV Physical Therapy Clinic in Clarksburg and treated thousands of high school and college athletes from all over North Central WV, many of them for free.  He never turned away a patient because he didn't have insurance or the ability to pay.  From 1970 until his death, he treated all Bridgeport athletes.

While governor, Jay Rockefeller named him Chairman of the Governor's Commission on the Disabled and Handicapped and chairman of the WV Physical Therapists' Association.  Joe served on the Athletic Council at Salem College and helped start the popular scholarship fundraising dinners for WVU athletics.

After his death, many of his friends held a fundraising dinner for a foundation to be named in his honor.  Several years later, most of that money was used to excavate, grade, drain, and irrigate the two college-sized soccer/football fields located across Simpson Creek in the Bridgeport City Park.  Much of the work was performed with assistance and equipment donated by friends of Joe Manchin.