ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512110007
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
SCORE BABY, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse's good-luck doll, flew lovingly through the stands as its team won the national championship in Salem.
Somewhere in La Crosse, Wis., this morning, Score Baby is home.
If all went according to plan, Score Baby should have flown back on the team plane with the pompon squad, held aloft at a humongous victory party on campus late Saturday. Baby should have been feted, symbol of the frenzied joy of road-trippers who cheered the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse's football team to a 36-7 victory in the national championship game down in Virginia.
Too bad Score Baby's creators - students Tim Sprain and Jon Jarosh - couldn't be there with her. They're probably still on the road, along with upwards of 1,000 other delirious football fans from America's Dairyland who came all the way from Wisconsin to Salem Stadium on Saturday.
And just what is Score Baby? Obviously, you weren't at the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, where the gangly rag doll - a sort of Wisconsin voodoo charm - was tossed wildly in the crowd whenever the Wisconsin-La Crosse team scored (which was often).
Sprain would be happy to take the time to tell you the story of Score Baby, how his grandmother stitched it together, how it's become a mascot at Wisconsin-La Crosse games, how no matter how far Score Baby is thrown the fans always know to return her to him, how his grandmother even lovingly stitches the poor thing back together after each game.
He'd also be glad to explain why he and Jarosh always don women's wigs and tropical shirts for the Wisconsin-La Crosse games, something about how it's good for school spirit in cold weather.
But we'll be content just to file the saga of Score Baby under the category of the zaniness that we've come to expect at the Stagg Bowl.
Then again, the zaniest college antic at Saturday's game may not have been Score Baby or the students' attire, but simply the number of Wisconsin-La Crosse fans who made the trek to see their Eagles play Rowan College for the Division III college football title.
Julia Wold, Liz Sharp, Kathleen Simeth and Kathy Gust didn't bother to figure out how far it was to Virginia until they were on their way. By then, what did it matter that Salem was 20 hours away? Or that the only things they'd brought to eat were Chex Mix and soda?
What a charmed life. Simeth and her buddies were changing at the Ironto rest stop when a woman asked what they were doing. Next thing they knew, the woman gave them a $20 bill. ``She said `Use it for gas or something,''' Gust said.
Road-tripper Nick Tsounis figured out how far it was, and he wasn't deterred. The Wisconsin-La Crosse senior even rounded up 11 other students and rented a 33-foot RV. ``We're on a quest,'' he declared.
The weather? No problem there, either. So what if we had 10 inches of snow last week, and more had been forecast? ``In Wisconsin, they never cancel anything until the pipes burst,'' Wold said.
Cold may have kept some locals away from the game, which drew 4,905 fans - the first time in the three years it's been here the game hasn't sold out its 9,000 tickets. But some Wisconsin fans said they wished it had been colder so it would feel like real football weather.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. 1. Jon Jarosh and Tim Sprain - withby CNBtheir mascot ``Score Baby'' draped over the railing - cheer on
Wisconsin-La Crosse at Satur- day's Stagg Bowl (above). 2. They had
a lot of opportunities, as their Eagles won, 36-7, and hoisted the
Division III championship trophy (left). 3. MIKE HEFFNER/Staff.
Whenever the team scored, the La Crosse students toss- ed Score
Baby, a sort of Wisconsin voodoo charm stitched by Sprain's
grandmother, around the stands (right). color. Graphic. color.