Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 20, 1993                   TAG: 9311200144
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A LESSON IN LABOR RELATIONS - AND GEOGRAPHY

As it turns out, getting to Bermuda was an experience in itself.

By the time the team arrived Friday afternoon, on separate flights out of Boston, barely 24 hours remained until the Generals were to meet Georgetown University at 1 p.m.

Boston was not a stop on the original itinerary, but the W&L party was unable to fly out of Raleigh-Durham (N.C.) International Airport after flight attendants struck American Airlines on Thursday morning.

"I was for the strikers," W&L coach Gary Fallon said. "I just wish they had waited a couple of hours."

The Generals left Lexington at 7 p.m. Wednesday with plans for a nonstop flight from Raleigh to Bermuda on Thursday morning. One-third of the team was through the boarding process when the strike hit.

"Crazy!" Washington and Lee sports information director Brian Logue said. "It was the biggest media blitz since we've been here and all because we were standing around an airport."

The team's plight was the subject of a segment on ESPN's SportsCenter on Thursday night.

Efforts to arrange a charter were unsuccessful, so, after six hours in the airport, the team was bused to Washington, D.C. Accommodations were made at the Stouffer Mayflower hotel at American Airlines' expense.

"One of the parents had flown down from Washington earlier in the day [Thursday]," Fallon said. "You can imagine how he felt at having to take a bus back up there."

The team was awakened at 4:30 a.m. Friday to fly to Boston, where the players boarded separate flights aboard Northwest and Delta airlines.

"I never thought the game was in jeopardy because I saw how feverishly the Robustelli Travel Agency [one of the sponsors] was working on connections," said W&L athletics director Mike Walsh, who had flown to Bermuda on Wednesday.

"I can't speak for the agony the team had to go through, but I can say the players were enthusiastic, if somewhat tired, when they got off the plane."

The Georgetown delegation had arrived Thursday in two groups, one at 1 p.m. and another at 9 p.m.

"The saddest part was watching our plane pull away from the gate Thursday with nobody on it," Fallon said, "[but] at least we got a geography lesson out of all this. We saw most of the East Coast from the air and drove across a large part of the South."