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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 6, 1995                   TAG: 9507060070
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOKIES, TEMPLE WILL PLAY AT RFK

In a change welcomed by the Hokies, Temple University officially announced Wednesday that its Nov.11 Big East Football Conference game with Tech has been moved to Washington's RFK Stadium.

The 1 p.m. game originally was scheduled to be played at Temple's home field, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

The switch to RFK is a bonus to Tech, which now faces five instead of six road games on its '95 schedule. The move also gives the Hokies the chance to play in the backyard of the school's largest alumni base, the Northern Virginia-Washington, D.C., market.

``It's great for our people,'' said Dave Braine, Tech athletic director. ``We should get a lot of fans playing in Washington.''

With the game in Washington, it also becomes much more accessible to attend for Tech's Southwest Virginia following.

The move marks the second '95 schedule change for Temple. The Owls, whose downtrodden program has struggled to draw fans at home, earlier moved their Sept.2 season-opener against Kansas State from Philadelphia to Manhattan, Kan.

Tech will get the same $150,000 guarantee it would have received had the game been played in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Temple is expected to receive some additional $100,000 in rights fees from Russ Potts, the Virginia state senator from Winchester who will promote the game.

R.C.Johnson, Owls athletic director, said his school chose to move the game in an effort to help the school's recruiting efforts and appease the large number of Temple alumni in the D.C. area.

Judging from recent results in the series, the site of the game may make little difference on the field. Tech has won the past three meetings between the two schools by scores of 41-13, 55-7 and 26-7.