Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 12, 1993 TAG: 9312120149
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD and JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
John Harvey, athletic director at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and NCAA Division III vice president, praised the production.
"It's considerably better organized than I've seen in recent years," Harvey said as he watched the final seconds of the game from field level. "The arrangements here and support have been better than [the NCAA] has experienced at previous sites."
Salem has a three-year contract for the Stagg Bowl. The NCAA likes to move the game to a different site every few years, but Harvey said Salem's show may prompt "if not a change in policy, at least a return [in future years]."
Old Dominion Athletic Conference Commissioner Dan Wooldridge, whose league co-sponsored the event, planted the seed with Harvey that Salem might try to bring the Division III men's basketball Final Four to the Salem Civic Center.
That tournament, held at the University of Buffalo, probably would be up for bids in 1994, Harvey said.
"I'm sure with the success of football, it would increase the chances of another sport [coming to Salem]," said Harvey, a former assistant basketball and football coach at William and Mary from 1964-70, where he was a member of Marv Levy's football staff.
James "Moose" Malmquist, chairman of the NCAA Division III Football Committee, was at his last championship game as his six-year term expired.
"The last one was the best in all ways," he said. "Salem outdid themselves this time . . . because of the attention to every single detail. It's obvious how much people in Salem care about doing things well."
\ WORDY: At Friday's Stagg Bowl Championship Luncheon, Mount Union quarterback Jim Ballard brushed by Rowan defensive lineman Bill Fisher and said something.
Fisher later told reporters that Ballard had called him a "punk."
Asked about that after Saturday's game, Ballard said, "Yeah, I probably did. It's just one of those things that you do to try to get someone thinking about something but the game. I'm cocky and I say things, and I don't necessarily mean them. But if I can get a player like him to think about that and not what he's supposed to be doing, then it helps us."
\ SOUVENIRS: The souvenir stand, really the trailer of an 18-wheeler, had lines four or five people deep before the game and at halftime. The big seller on a freezing day? Sweat shirts.
Rick Burchfield, special events director of Spectator Sports Services in Charlotte, N.C., said he expected sales to total 15 to 20 percent more than last year's take in Bradenton, Fla.
Then again, there was the fan who was overheard at halftime saying: "I don't want anything to remember this day."
\ ETC.: Sixty-two of the 200 standing-room only tickets were sold. Carey Harveycutter, the Salem Civic Center director, said arrangements had been made to sell more if needed, but the weather apparently kept some fans home. . . . One of several temporary press boxes had to be vacated when a wooden 2-by-4 loosened as it was buffeted by high winds. Before that, a radio crew set up in that press box had to leave because the heavy-duty plastic "walls" were making such a racket in the wind that the radio announcers couldn't hear through their headphones . . . Spectators bought all 1,100 game programs before the noon kickoff.
\ NO GUNS: Mount Union's offense, which averaged 502.9 total yards per game (339.2 passing) and 42.2 points, does not use a shotgun formation - even though it often lines up in a four-receiver set like the popular run-and-shoot.
"Under center, there's more of a chance for a running play," said tight end Rob Atwood. "We like to run out of that, too. And Jim [Ballard] gets such a great drop, he's so tall [he can throw over defenses]."
by CNB