Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 15, 1993 TAG: 9310150243
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
It's the motels booked solid, some of them since spring.
It's Miss Virginia riding in a parade Saturday morning, Virginia Tech's classes of 1968 and 1943 reuniting, football in the afternoon and dancing on Saturday night.
And, Virginia Tech fans hope, it's a big bounce back from Tech's heartbreaking loss in Morgantown, W.Va., two weekends ago.
It's time.
It's Homecoming.
Saturday, Tech hosts Temple in the annual rite of fall football. Homecoming is the game your team must win - is expected to win above all others.
The athletic department has done its job: In Temple, Tech faces the less-than-formidable task of defeating a 1-4 foe that has been outscored by more than 200 points in its last four games.
To top that, this is the first time in seven years Tech has entered Homecoming with a winning record. Not since Bill Dooley's final year, 1986, when the team was on its way to Peach Bowl heroics, and never in head coach Frank Beamer's career here, has the team come home to play with more wins than losses.
This Homecoming, that streak ends.
"They should really beat on Temple, big-time," said Alan Glick, assistant director of student activities with the Virginia Tech Union. "They should roll."
Glick and VTU have been in charge of setting up many of the weekend's activities, such as the parade down Blacksburg's Main Street at 10 a.m. At least three bands and three floats, Miss Virginia 1993 Nancy Glisson, and another 50 or so entrants will make their way from Blacksburg Middle School down Main Street, onto the mall and to Burruss Hall, Glick said.
Two and a half hours later, at 1 p.m., it's kickoff time. About 40,000 tickets should have been sold by then, said ticket manager Tom McNeer. That's typical for a Homecoming; there should still be more than 10,000 seats available.
At half-time, the Homecoming king and queen - elected Tuesday - will be crowned.
Finally, there'll be a Homecoming video dance from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. in the Squires Commonwealth Ballroom, Glick said. A VJ - video jockey - will spin discs and play videos throughout the evening.
VTU and the Black Student Alliance are sponsoring the shindig. Tickets are $5 for students and $9 for the general public, and the dress code is semi-formal - no jeans, mind you.
It's time to dance, it's time to party and it's time to play some football.
This weekend, it's Homecoming.
by CNB