Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991 TAG: 9103060238
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
S.B. and Doris Carroll of Narrows are the genuine article. They not only go to every Virginia Tech home basketball game they possibly can. They drive to games in Hattiesburg, Miss., Columbia, S.C., Memphis, Louisville and Cincinnati, among many other spots.
"We've driven sometimes 1,800 miles to see two games," says Carroll, a semi-retired businessman. They've been doing it for 17 years.
It goes without saying that they'll attend the Metro Conference Tournament at the Roanoke Civic Center coliseum this week. But unlike many fans, they won't spend the night here.
When you go all the way to Hattiesburg to see the Hokies play, the cruise from Narrows to Roanoke and back seems as smooth and easy as a perfect free throw.
Fortunately for Roanoke's hoteliers and restaurateurs, thousands of other fans will spend the night in the Roanoke Valley after spending their waking hours rooting for their favorite teams.
They'll deck themselves in their school colors, fray their vocal chords with college cheers and, ideally, take the time to spend their way around the valley's hot spots and highlights.
Some may even paint bearcat claws or tiger paws or Indian war paint on their faces, the better to emphasize their indestructible loyalty to their teams.
About 1,000 fans will come to root for Memphis State this week, in spite of the team's lackluster won-lost record.
"I've been involved with Memphis State basketball for 21 years," says Rebounders Club President Dennis Dugan, who is president of an air products company.
"I've never missed a home game since I came back from Vietnam in 1970."
He'll be wearing blue and gray, and he'll be among what he confidently describes as "the most rabid fans there."
Will he wear face paint?
"If we're in the championship game," he says, "they can paint a full tiger on me."
LaRue Saulters and his wife, Virgie, have been devoted to Southern Mississippi's Golden Eagles for about eight years, with season tickets to baseball, football and basketball.
They and four friends will truck up to Roanoke in a van, while three other couples come in a vehicle of their own.
The Saulters and their crowd garnered some attention in 1987 at the Metro tournament in Louisville. They had bought some gold sweatshirts and made a big black letter for each one. The idea was to spell out "E-A-G-L-E-S."
"During the playing of the National Anthem, we failed to get in the proper order," says Saulters, a retired funeral director from Prentiss, Miss. "We could see questioning expressions on the faces of people across the way. When we got ourselves in order, they gave us the high sign."
The group kept the shirts and wore them during the National Invitation Tournament, which the Golden Eagles won.
But the shirts won't make an appearance in Roanoke. "I'm sorry to say we've outgrown them," Saulters says.
Such doings are all part of the Fans' Ritual, in which the excitement of competition mixes with the adventure of the road trip, bringing new friends, new experiences and, for the lucky few, the chance to bask in their heroes' ultimate success, the tournament championship.
They're a different breed, these fans. Different from football fans, for one. Down South, where most Metro schools lie, basketball sometimes is the step-sister of college football - an outdoor game played in balmy temperatures ideal for long weekends and tailgate partying in the parking lot.
Basketball games are more numerous; they are played indoors during the calendar's worst season. You don't see many caravans of fans chugging down to Tallahassee for a Tuesday night game, the Carrolls notwithstanding. You may, though, see a ton of your schools' alumni from the opposing team's area turn out to see their alma mater play.
The boosters may take weekend trips to some games, if they're not too far away and if they can get tickets. Primarily,they save their efforts for home games and tournament time - the Metro and, if they're lucky, a preliminary spot on the NCAA's elimination schedule in a place like Dayton or Minneapolis.
Fans from Metro Conference schools say they generally get along well, despite occasional razzing. This is especially true at tournament time, when students are less numerous than the older fans in the crowd.
Jim Cobb, a Tulane alumnus and lawyer in New Orleans, goes to a half-dozen or so out-of-town Green Wave games each year, flying on the team plane. He expects few Tulane fans to come up for the Metro, but says alumni from the area probably will turn out. This does not mean they'll be noticeable.
"We don't have any distinguishing characteristics," he says. "We wear green and blue. And the older Tulane fan is more likely to look like he just walked out of Brooks Brothers."
He'll be here - maybe. His other option is to play in the member-guest tournament at Isle Worth, the new Arnold Palmer golf course in Orlando, Fla. If he chooses the golf, he'll have cocktails at Palmer's house, with the legend in attendance. There's even an outside chance he could get to play a few holes with Arnold himself.
When asked to name their least-favorite teams and fans, most of these Metro boosters chose those in other conferences, though Louisville and Memphis State received some heat, mainly because of their long (though interrupted, this year) winning traditions.
"The Antlers of Missouri are more obnoxious than anybody I've ever seen," says Dugan of Memphis. A group of them once stopped and taunted him as he awaited the arrival of the Tigers' team bus.
"I got stuck in the Louisville pep squad one time because they were the only tickets I could get," says Jackie Dyer, another Memphian. "I was grateful for them, but that was fairly unpleasant."
Worse was her trip to Baton Rouge for a game against Louisiana State: "They broke beer bottles over the back of the chair where I was sitting. I respect the university, but I don't want to go back."
Cobb criticizes Arkansas Razorback and Georgia Bulldog fans, saying they act like hogs and dogs, and says Tennessee's legions drove him crazy with their endless rounds of "Rocky Top."
Not that any team's loyalists don't get a bit braggy when things are going well.
Take Billy Cunningham, a Cincinnati lawyer, radio talk show host and sports bar owner who is thrilled by the Bearcats' recent successes.
"The typical Bearcats' fan is long-suffering because he knows in his heart of hearts the Bearcats are one of the pre-eminent college basketball franchises anywhere in the NCAA," he says. "We know here in Cincinnati that there's something about a Bearcat. We are happy that [head coach Bob] Huggins has returned the Bears to their glory of the past.
"The fans are absolutely ecstatic. They wake up with a bounce in their step, a twinkle in their eye, and everything is great because the kingdom has been restored."
But for every one like Cunningham, there are dozens like Sandra and Andy Mohney of Tallahassee, who just like to watch the Florida Seminoles in action.
"It's more than just going to the game," says Sandra, a Galax native and FSU graduate. "There's a lot of communion among the fans."\
METRO CONFERENCE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Today through Saturday, Roanoke Civic Center coliseum. Ticket book for all seven games, $87; for quarterfinal and semifinal sessions, $24 (two games); for championship game $15. 981-1201.
by CNB