THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 2, 1997 TAG: 9701020175
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: 71 lines
In the Orange Bowl, Virginia Tech took a 7-0 lead over Nebraska when fullback Marcus Parker gathered in a screen pass and rolled over the goal line.
The Hokies celebrated and their fans at Pro Player Stadium rejoiced, but some others found themselves analyzing the scoring play in relation to Virginia Tech's off-field notoriety.
Parker was suspended for the first four games of the season for shoplifting. Tuesday night, he was playing in place of Brian Edmonds, who was left behind in Blacksburg. Edmonds and one other player were suspended after their arrest for rape and attempted sodomy.
The late Jim Valvano liked to recall the challenges he faced as a young basketball coach at Johns Hopkins University.
``I'd send in the surgeon for the pediatrician,'' Jimmy V would say.
At Tech, the football coach subs the shoplifter for the accused rapist.
Somehow, it's just not as funny.
I can hear Hokie boosters now: Not that again!
Yes, again.
For those who inhabit the narrow world of Virginia Tech football, it must grow tiresome to have to constantly defend the program against charges of institutional chaos.
Or to hear the snide comments and comic punchlines.
``Did you know,'' somebody said to me the other day, ``that they've changed the name of the Blacksburg jail?''
Really?
``Now it's called the Hokie Pokey.''
And so it goes.
With an Orange Bowl appearance and Top 10 ranking, Tech football experienced its greatest season. A 41-21 loss to an ordinary Nebraska team - ordinary by Cornhusker standards - demonstrates that Tech is farther removed from the upper echelon of big-time football than it thinks. Still, Frank Beamer's Hokies enjoyed many terrific moments in '96. Ten victories is an impressive achievement.
Under the circumstances, you can see why Tech would rather not admit that what kept the program in the national headlines were the sundry arrests of football players.
When Frank Deford went on National Public Radio not long ago to talk about Virginia Tech, his intent was not to praise the estimable talents of Jim Druckenmiller, Ken Oxendine or Cornell Brown.
He went on the air to ridicule Beamer's characterization of a grand jury decision as a ``distraction.''
Likewise, USA Today did not feature Tech football on the front page of its sports section a few weeks ago in order to extol the team's winning ways.
In 1996, Tech got much of its publicity for mostly wrong reasons.
And into '97, the story still trails the Hokies. In Wednesday's Miami Herald, a columnist commenting on the Orange Bowl can't resist mentioning that 21 Tech players were arrested in the past 13 months.
Is it 21? I thought it was only 19. It's been hard keeping up.
The same day, a front-page story in the Sun-Sentinel of Ft. Lauderdale gives the total of arrested players at 23.
Whatever. The arithmetic isn't as important as the message it sends.
This is a story that will not go away. And yet, you wonder: Is image as important to an aspiring football factory as the media make it out to be?
A tattered image didn't hurt Miami for the longest time. Criminals on campus haven't dulled fan interest at Nebraska or damaged Huskers' ambitions.
For the factories, alumni support, not public approval, is what matters most. Success is recorded in dollars - including those donated by boosters.
The alumni are entitled to their own take on the season. They are the ones, after all, who pay the bills.
Accordingly, the Orange Bowl appearance should stoke Tech's fund-raising fires. In the humble estimation of others, though, the true fruits of this season offer up a bitter taste.