Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 31, 1993 TAG: 9401030276
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The cast of characters reads like that on a trip to Canterbury: an electrician with a history of traveling in the name of the cause; a curling-gray-moustachioed ex-soldier from Narrows and his wife; a camouflage-clad Presbyterian chaplain preaching against Satan and profanity; rowdy, card-dealing Kappa Alpha fraternity brothers and their women friends.
At the helm: Calvin Langford, 39, a driver of prodigious girth who proudly recalls his days as defensive end for the semi-pro Tri-city Titans of Richmond. In 1978, he tried out for the Dallas Cowboys.
Other drivers assist; their wives, husbands and children have joined them for the 18-hour ride from Blacksburg to the Independence Bowl.
There's nothing but football fans aboard this bus.
Meet Dornie and Cindy McCroskey, husband and wife from Narrows, both employed by Hoescht-Celanese.
"I'm just a football fan," he says. He played tailback for Giles High School years ago, joined the Army, then came back home to work.
Parents of four boys ages 4 to 19, they have an undiluted passion for the game. "I'd go to any of them," he says - any bowl game, that is. He was at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta seven years ago, Tech's last trip to a bowl.
Courageously, his wife leans over and says she's a University of Virginia fan. Her dad graduated from there; perhaps that's why her admission is allowed without too much rebuttal.
But, except for her, these fans are militant Hokies.
The preacher, Emory Anderson, graduated from Tech 32 years ago. His father graduated in 1923.
Gretchen Honeysett, a Kappa Alpha little sister, asks him if he's an alumnus.
His reply: "That's like asking, `Is the pope Catholic?' "
"I'm always with them, whether it be on TV, radio or in person," Anderson says. Coach Frank Beamer, "he's a Tech man . . . a family man, a coach who cares about his players as individuals."
Before the bus departs, it's he who rouses the faithful for a photo and a not-so-melodious rendition of the Hokie fight song.
There's Ron Journiette, 38, a 20-year worker for Appalachian Power Co. in Roanoke. He never went to Tech, but he's a fan from way back.
A season ticket holder to Tech home games, he told his friends at the beginning of the season, "Save your money, because Tech is going to a bowl this year.
"They laughed at me." After all, Tech was 2-8-1 last year.
"But when the time came, I was ready and they weren't," he states unabashedly.
And meet the organizer: Jim Cochrane. This is his bus. A Kappa Alpha alumnus, Tech class of '75 but graduate of '84, benefactor for which Cochrane Hall takes its name, he has thrown together this jaunt.
In the oily grime on the back of the bus, someone has fingered in "Go Hokies."
The first few hours of the trip are uneventful. Folks meet each other; some catch a few Z's. One man left Arlington at 6 a.m. and battled the icy roads to catch the bus in Blacksburg, a bus that was held up for more than two hours while Cochrane searched the town for a straggler.
Night falls, and the bus stops for gas. At a truck stop south of Knoxville, Tenn., against the backdrop of dozens of rumbling semi-tractors, the past season rears its head and trouble seems near.
Journiette, the electrician, comes up and whispers to the riders milling about outside: "Hey, do you wanna rock a bus? That's a West Virginia bus over there."
Sure enough, a chartered bus of Mountaineers fans has stopped to refuel right beside this Hokies bus. Passengers stare across at each other grimly, separated by two pieces of glass and 10 feet of frigid air.
West Virginia vanquished the Hokies 14-13 in October in Morgantown. It was the closest the Mountaineers came to losing; now they are getting ready to play in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans and clamoring for a national title.
Journiette was in Morgantown for the game. "The coaches got conservative," he says.
Both sides know - Tech could have won.
A woman from the Mountaineer bus walks over. Could it be a challenge? Will there be trouble?
"She wanted to know where we were going," Journiette says later. Where we were going?! The gall! But Journiette and the others hold their pride in check and disaster is averted.
"I told her we would beat them next year in Blacksburg," Journiette says, moments after getting back on the bus. The bus travels on.
Afterwards, those in the back of the bus loosen up a bit. Chatter rises and the rear of the bus gets smoky and not-a-little-bit-rockin'.
Songs are sung: Tech's "Alma Mater," "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" the "VPI Victory March." Seems Cochrane updated the tune with a second verse of his own:
You have made the Mountaineers fumble,
You have been in the Hurricane's eye,
And you know that even Syracuse
Has fallen to VPI . . . S! . . . U!
". . . Go Tech! Go Tech! H-O-K-I-E-S, Hokies!"
There are tales of adventure, revelry and confrontation on the turf of other universities. There are remembrances of good times and parties at home.
Kylee Bunting, 8, daughter of one of the bus drivers, wanders back to the boisterous group.
"It's fun," she says. Indeed.
Midnight comes and, after a late dinner, the realization that the trip is only half over. Everyone drifts off, for mostly uncomfortable short stints of sleep.
This is their sacrifice for Virginia Tech.
It is, after all, 18 hours, two time zones and 1,000 miles - on a bus.
Sometime about dawn, Cindy McCroskey mutters, "This is awful, just awful. It's about time . . . to take me home, so I can get in my bed." Well, she was the UVa fan . . .
Someone else wishes she had flown.
Mercifully, dawn breaks and the riders awaken with hope. The bus is rumbling over the long, straight highway. The countryside is flat and dry, and cattails stand in water alongside the road.
A survey is taken: What's the score of the game going to be? What other survey could there be?
The predictions range from 19-17 (Journiette) to 38-14 (Anderson). Most think the score will be close. Taking out the chaplain's forecast, the average margin of assumed victory is less than six points.
Journiette is a little worried. He's not sure how Tech's bowl-inexperienced team will match up with Indiana, which has gone to bowls six out of the past 10 years.
"I'm not sure how they will react," he said earlier. But like the rest, his faith lies with Tech.
The bus passes through Bossier City, with the Louisiana Downs racetrack off to the right of Interstate 20, and traverses the bridge across the Red River into Shreveport. It passes the Independence Bowl stadium - which, to be truthful, looks a little shabby from the outside compared to Tech's Lane Stadium - before pulling into the hotel parking lot.
There are Hokie fans here already, and still more pulling in, and there are those they passed outside of town.
And, Langford says, "It's a whole lot better here than Blacksburg or Richmond. There's sunshine."
by CNB