Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 21, 1995 TAG: 9507210046
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: FROSTBURG, MD. LENGTH: Medium
They traveled 12 miles by train from nearby Cumberland, then rode in a parade down Main Street, which must have been lined by almost everyone in the town of 8,100.
It's the only parade the Redskins will have this season. Congress can forget about shredding documents to make confetti. This team isn't going to win the Super Bowl.
And as Washington opens two-a-days this morning on a different campus than the one that's been the 'Skins summer home for 32 years, the folks in Carlisle, Pa., are the ones feeling a bit railroaded.
The last time the Redskins moved training camp, John F. Kennedy was in the White House, and neither Sonny nor Sam had yet donned burgundy and gold.
It was the summer of '63 when the Redskins went east, after 17 California summers, to Dickinson College in Carlisle. Norv Turner was 11 then. Darrell Green was 3. Dallas already had a defending championship team from '62, but it was the AFL's Texans.
Going to 'Skins camp over the years from the Roanoke Valley was easy. You got on I-81 and drove until you hit the perennial Pennsylvania paving work, then took the exit.
Reaching Frostburg is right out of the '60s, too. It's a Chubby Checker experience. You do a lot of twisting.
It's 20 miles closer to Roanoke than Carlisle - if you take the shortest possible and more two-laned route through Paw Paw, W.Va., - but a harder and still 41/2-hour trip.
Carlisle is a town made famous by a pretty good football player at its Indian school, Jim Thorpe. Frostburg is named for a guy named Frost, and although it figures to be cooler here than oft-humid Carlisle, the man's first name wasn't Jack.
``What can I tell you? It's quiet here,'' said a phoning Barry Cassell, owner of BC's Cafe on Hanover Street, Carlisle's main drag. ``The Redskins' leaving is going to have a tremendous impact.
``July was always our worst month of the year. Then toward the end of the month, the fans poured in. The restaurants, the hotels, the 7-Elevens will all be affected.
``It's probably going to cut our revenue for the month the team was here by 20-25 percent.''
An NFL training camp means an estimated economic impact of between $800,000 and $1 million to most towns, not to mention the exposure all those TV and radio reports and newspaper datelines produced.
Carlisle's loss is Frostburg's gain. And if south-central Pennsylvania had gotten somewhat blase in many ways about the summer guests of more than three decades, scenic western Maryland is positively thrilled about this one-time stop on the National Road becoming the Redskins' reservation.
The move to FSU - that's Frostburg State University, not the FSU known for football - isn't about dissatisfaction with Carlisle and Dickinson. It's about Jack Kent Cooke wanting a 78,600-seat stadium somewhere in the state other than Baltimore.
When Maryland agreed to do what Virginia didn't - consider letting the Redskins' owner build a privately financed stadium on state land - the camping trips to Frostburg were part of Cooke's offer.
Well, the Redskins are here, but Cooke's bid to build a stadium apparently isn't going as well as his love life. Last weekend, he was wed again to ex-wife Marlena Chalmers Cooke, in a different kind of marriage on the rebound.
Cooke has failed to land either of two desired stadium sites in the District of Columbia, and was opposed in bids in Alexandria, Va., and Laurel. His latest try is in Prince George's County, where the opposition already is loud and has a leader with an imposing name.
That would be Abraham Lincoln, president of the Coalition of Civic Associations of Prince George's County. He earlier this week called Cooke ``arrogant.''
The Redskins' 82-year-old owner didn't hear any such words Thursday. Frostburg may have less than half the population of Carlisle, but the feeling was plenty warm - and that following a club-record season of 13 losses.
What no one was saying is that Frostburg always has been - and still is - primarily Steelers' country. Pittsburgh trains 75 miles away in Latrobe, Pa.
And while Carlisle officials reportedly have talked to the Philadelphia Eagles about a potential move from suburban Chester, Pa., to Dickinson, the fans of another NFC East team there hope for a Redskins Redux.
``I hear they have a 10-year contract in Frostburg,'' Cassell said morosely from a different area code. ``Maybe Frostburg will screw up.''
That isn't likely, but if Cooke can't get a stadium built in Maryland, Frostburg may find itself with one of those contracts with voidable years like the top NFL rookies get now.
What then? Training camp in Paw Paw?
Keywords:
FOOTBALL
by CNB