ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 10, 1996 TAG: 9611110082
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-24 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
Close your eyes and think: football fan.
Chances are, you're picturing some fist-pumping, face-painter type.
But, if you're lucky, you're seeing guys like Milt Cleary and his buddies.
Friendly, shirt-off-your-back guys whose "rain ponchos" come 15 to a box for $2.98 with brand names like Hefty.
Solid, beer-and-a-shot types who'll travel seven hours to watch a 2-5 Pitt Panther team; the worst Cleary's seen "in a good many years."
Cleary, 66, and his buddies - brothers Red Tacik, 71, and Corky Tacik, 65 - are cousins by marriage.
On a recent Saturday afternoon, they were also a part of the football economy that brings thousands of dollars into the New River and Roanoke valleys for each home Tech football game.
About 200 Pitt fans bought $22 tickets to the Oct. 26 game, according to Joe Phillips, an assistant athletic director with the University of Pittsburgh.
Cleary and company, along with 40 other Pitt fans, came down in a bus the Friday before Saturday's Tech game with their Pitt Panthers.
The trip from Pittsburgh is actually closer to six hours. But Cleary and his buddies are also slow-and-easy types, who like to stop for a leisurely breakfast and lunch on the way down.
Milt's been a Pitt season ticket-holder since 1953. In 1960, the friends formed the South Bend Football Club, named for the Indiana town that is home to Notre Dame, the team they first followed. They can't get tickets to Notre Dame games anymore, but the name stuck.
The closest room they could get for the Tech game was the Best Western in Daleville. They estimate they spent $100 a day each for the three days they were here. (Sorry, the trash bags were bought in Pittsburgh.)
Joe Jenkins drove the 300 miles from Pittsburgh to watch his son, John - No.15 on your scorecard - return punts and play free safety for the Panthers.
He arrived Friday night and stayed through Sunday morning.
While here, he spent $20 for gas, $200 for two nights in a hotel, $100 on food.
Jenkins goes to most of his son's games, either alone or on a booster bus trip.
The money a football team spends on the road comes down to lodging and grub. As do most visiting teams, the Pitt Panthers did their spending in Roanoke.
They flew in Friday afternoon, took a charter bus to the Sheraton and to Blacksburg and back for the game. Saturday afternoon, they flew home.
Pitt brought 125 people for the Tech game, 62 of them players. The rest were managers, trainers, doctors, sports information people and university administrators.
The team booked 90 rooms for one night.
The University of Pittsburgh Beaver Moon Area Golden Panthers Alumni Association booked another 30 rooms, those for two nights, said Bobbie Williams, director of sales and marketing for the hotel.
Williams said teams stay in Roanoke for two reasons: there are not enough hotel rooms in Blacksburg, and the coaches like to keep a little distance from the competition.
Sheraton also housed Southwestern Louisiana's football team for the Nov. 2 game. The Roanoke Airport Marriott has Tech's other home opponents.
"They're great people to have," the Sheraton's Williams said. "Every football team we've had has been very well behaved, wonderful."
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB