He started his career at Ferrum College; after being honored as an NJCAA All-American in 1970,[1] he transferred to West Virginia University.

It was his skills as a linebacker which won him selection to the West Virginia All-State Football team in 1968.

En route back to Huntington, West Virginia from a game against East Carolina, the Marshall team's Southern Airways Flight 932 clipped some trees on approach to Tri-State Airport and the plane crashed at a nearly vertical altitude into a ravine short of the runway.

The lives of two Marshall coaches were spared due to a recruiting trip trying to bring Mantooth to the Thundering Herd, as assistant coaches Red Dawson and Gail Parker were on their way to see the star linebacker known as "The Man-Eater" at Ferrum College in Ferrum, Virginia.

[2] He reportedly choose WVU because he was a West Virginia native and because of the excitement around town about new head coach and offensive innovator Bobby Bowden.

at the time, was involved in The Big Blow, an altercation where he punched former University of Kentucky football player Dan Fowler, rendering the 6'4", 240 lb.