Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 16, 1994                   TAG: 9408160096
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`THIS ISN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN'

Everybody involved with Ferrum football has been thinking it, but no one says it out loud.

This isn't supposed to happen.

Not to the starting center on the football team. Not to someone with a 3.8 grade-point average. Not to a guy who tutors children in his spare time.

Not to someone like Chad Bowman.

The mood on a hazy Ferrum football field was somber and serious Monday when the Panthers opened practice for the 1994 season without Bowman, who was killed in a car accident last week near Kitty Hawk, N.C.

``I think there are a lot of mixed feelings,'' said Billy Hall, a student assistant coach who was Bowman's roommate for two years at Ferrum. ``In one way, everyone is excited because it's Coach [Dave] Davis' first year. And then this happens and they don't know how to act.''

``There's a lot of frustration,'' said Chris Glascock, an offensive lineman who played alongside Bowman. ``He had a lot going for him, and he was just a great talent.''

Bowman would have been preparing for his junior year and second season as the starting center. A history major and member of the college's Bonner Scholars Program, he was being promoted as a Division III Academic All-American - an honor never achieved by a Ferrum player.

But Bowman, 19, excelled beyond his accomplishments on the field and in the classroom. At a tearful memorial service Sunday on Ferrum's campus, teammates remembered Bowman as unselfish, humble and positive - someone who was at peace with who he was.

``He was the type of person who, when the freshman came in last year, even though he had only been here a year, he worked with them and encouraged them to keep working hard, to keep plugging along,'' Glascock said. ``We all saw the intensity he brought into everything he did, and that motivated us.''

Priorities, Hall said, is what set Bowman apart.

``His first priority at Ferrum was getting an education. Football came second,'' Hall said. ``Actually, helping people came before football. He was always willing to help someone out. But that was just his personality.''

As part of the Bonner program, Bowman tutored children at Ferrum Elementary School 10 hours per week. He spoke to youth groups and was a counselor at Highland Retreat Camp near his hometown of Grottoes.

Bowman was a lover of nature, which may have played a sad, ironic part in his death.

Hall said Bowman and his girlfriend, Tonya Hubart, were traveling in his 1987 Chevrolet near the coast at the time of the accident. Bowman's car apparently ran into the back of a tractor-trailer preparing to turn right. Bowman likely died instantly.

``They think he might have been looking out at the ocean because there weren't any skid marks [indicating that Bowman applied brakes],'' Hall said. ``The last thing [Hubart] said she remembered him saying was `The ocean is so beautiful - it takes my breath away.'''

Hubart, of Weyers Cave, was hospitalized for a few days in Norfolk with minor injuries. Both were wearing their seatbelts.

``It's sad knowing he's gone,'' said Ferrum quarterback Millard Vining. ``But he's family, and he's still with us [on the the field] and in our hearts.''

Davis said the Panthers will dedicate the season to Bowman and will wear decals with his No.53 on their helmets. His locker and jerseys will not be used this season.

Hank Norton, who coached Ferrum for 34 years before his retirement last season, described Bowman as the best Division III center he saw last year, perhaps a center of All-America caliber.

``He had real quick feet,'' Norton said. ``I always felt a center should be your quickness [on the line]. He would have been a key to them offensively ... It's just something [the players] will just have to get out of their minds. I think Chad would want it that way. He was just an outstanding person, and when you lose someone of that caliber ... it hurts.''

Billy Ray Ellis, a defensive lineman, said the team was trying to turn the accident into something positive.

``Chad was a real positive person, and we want to dedicate the season to him,'' Ellis said. ``It's hard, but I think as a team it's going to bring us closer.

"We know if he were out here, he'd be giving 110 percent, and knowing that is what makes you work harder.''