Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993 TAG: 9312160095
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Doug Doughty
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It makes for interesting conversation, but Mayor Jim Taliaferro said he was only kidding when he proposed loge-level seating for the site of the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.
"We were just kidding around," Taliaferro said. "It was just idle conversation between [assistant city manager] Forest Jones, [Stagg Bowl director] Carey Harveycutter and myself. We were saying, `What could we do better?' I do know we did have a major problem."
The media was forced to evacuate one section of the bleachers Saturday when it appeared that a tarpaulin covering might collapse. Most of the space in the Salem Stadium press box was reserved for NCAA officials and ESPN representatives at the Division III football championship.
"It's a once-a-year event and I doubt [an expanded press box] is necessary at the high school level," Taliaferro said.
"We're looking into making a temporary facility that would be portable and possibly putting it on the other side of the stadium. That way you don't lose as many seats."
Taliaferro said there were no other major problems at the Stagg Bowl other than the makeshift media accommodations, "and that wouldn't have been a major problem without the [blustery] weather," he said.
"I talked to both coaches after the game and they said they'd rather have the game here, even in that weather, than Florida. They thought that much of the hospitality."
Taliaferro said the Stagg Bowl would have an economic impact of at least $1.5 million on the Roanoke Valley, using the most conservative indicators. It strengthened his resolved to pursue the Division III men's basketball championship.
"And, we will make no apologies for it," he said. "I'm going to document how many times Salem or the Roanoke Valley was written on the screen or vocalized [in the ESPN telecast]. That kind of publicity you can't buy."
\ COACHING SCUTTLEBUTT: Jim Tressell, who has directed Youngstown State to the Division I-AA championship game for the third year in a row, apparently has become the No. 1 candidate at Duke, where the search for a new football coach is into its seventh week. The Blue Devils, with a salary of only $95,000 to offer, may have to fight off Missouri and Cincinnati.
There is some question whether Virginia offensive coordinator Tom O'Brien was offered the job before removing his name from consideration, but no one should be surprised that O'Brien is interested in the opening at Connecticut, which will pay $125,000, with such perks as country-club membership, two cars and full insurance.
Mike Archer, who helped transform Kentucky into a bowl team in his first year as defensive coordinator, has been mentioned in connection with the vacancy at Cincinnati. Archer was the head coach at Louisiana State before spending two seasons as linebacker coach at Virginia.
\ RECRUITING: Virginia Tech remains the team to beat for Martinsville linebacker Chris Frith, whose two sisters have gone to Tech, but Frith is one of several Southwest Virginia players getting a stepped-up recruiting effort by North Carolina State.
"I've been to Tech and I've been to State and there's not much negative I can see at either place," Frith said. "When I was down on my visit, the coaches at State were talking like they were trying to make Virginia another home base."
Jim Baron, a 1992 Virginia Tech recruit, needs only to complete a course at New River Community College before enrolling at Tech. Baron and Brad Baylor, an impressive recruit who injured a knee and went home during the preseason, are expected to be at Tech for preseason workouts.
Fork Union Military coach John Shuman says Virginia Tech is impressed with quarterback Al Clark, a Washington, D.C., product who has been compared to Syracuse's Marvin Graves. . . . Maryland reportedly has received commitments from five junior-college transfers in an apparent quick-fix effort to rebuild the nation's most porous defense.
\ ALL-STARS: Virginia Tech All-America center Jim Pyne will be joined by his brother, David, an offensive lineman for Lafayette, and Hokies' defensive back Tyronne Drakeford at the East-West Shrine Bowl on Jan. 15 in Palo Alto, Calif.
Pyne also is weighing invitations from the Senior Bowl and the Hula Bowl, which are held on the same day. Virginia offensive guard Mark Dixon, who joined Pyne on The Sporting News All-America team announced Wednesday, is headed to the Senior Bowl.
\ GROPING: Carquest Bowl-bound Virginia defeated only one team with a winning record, North Carolina. However, four bowl teams - Alabama, Kentucky, Iowa and Ball State - didn't have a single victory over a team with a winning record. The Crimson Tide did tie Tennessee.
\ HE'S THE BOSS: Tom Fletcher, best known in these parts for his long association with Virginia Tech as an assistant football coach and administrator, has been named athletic director at Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C.
Fletcher, who was athletic director at Longwood College in the early 1990s, most recently was the assistant director of the Big Green Foundation, fundraising arm of the Marshall University athletic department. Fletcher, a Hampden-Sydney alumnus, coached at Virginia and North Carolina before following Tar Heels' coach Bill Dooley to Tech.
\ NON-REVENUE: Washington and Lee has been ranked No. 3 in Division III in women's tennis, with the Generals' Marilyn Baker fourth in singles. The W&L men are 17th. . . . Don Staley, the new women's soccer coach at Alabama after eight years at Radford, will take Highlanders' assistant Karen McGrath with him and has offered a graduate-assistant position to ex-Radford men's All-American Dante Washington.
by CNB