Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511100053
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-14 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A well-bundled crowd of onlookers, some packing hip flasks concealed inside the folds of raccoon coats, shiver in towering grandstands as a chill breeze blows off the New River. Some of the female members of this gallery, well turned out for the occasion with corsages and other fashionable accessories, their cheeks abloom with the sting of the wind, hold pennants with gloved hands.
A roar goes up as the home team takes the football field. Then the marching band strikes up the Radford University fight song.
Corsages? Marching band? Raccoon coats?
Football? At Radford University?
If the vision of a student government association subcommittee ever comes to fruition, then Radford one day may have the sport.
"The more we look at it, the more possible it seems," said Patrick Ware, a graduate student from Fairfax County who chairs the SGA committee of eight women and five men that is looking into the matter.
The group has scheduled a forum to discuss the issue from 3:30-5 p.m. Wednesday at Heth Hall Lounge A on campus. All are invited.
Of course, there are those who are thinking these dreamers have been playing tackle football without headgear to come up with a scheme like this. Radford University athletic director Chuck Taylor is not among them.
"I think it is a very positive development that they're talking about it," he said. "They're going about it the right way."
Taylor saw some historical parallels.
"Back in the 1970's, we had a student referendum on the question of whether or not we should build a recreation-convocation center on campus," he said. "It was going to have a basketball arena, 5,000 seats, a pool, outdoor tennis courts, a soccer field. They passed the referendum by a margin of something like 2-to-1.
"Well, here it is."
Nobody knows any better than Taylor that building the Dedmon Center and a Division I football program are two entirely different propositions. The point, however, is well-taken.
So far the student committee has examined some college football programs with which one at Radford might be compared. The schools looked at included Liberty, VMI, Towson State, and Charleston Southern.
"All these places take great pride in football," Ware said. "So could we. That's how we started looking at this to begin with. We've talked about school spirit, about declining enrollment. We need something that people can rally around. It could be football."
The big question, as everybody knows, is money. Ware is figuring, based on the committee's research into existing programs, on a possible startup cost range of $1.5 million to about $7 million. The lower figure is based on a proposed expansion of the Dedmon Center complex that might also include a football stadium. The higher figure would be for building a new stadium not tied to any expansion at the Dedmon Center.
There have been discussions of expanding the Dedmon Center complex by adding a multi-purpose outdoor facility that would include a soccer/track and field stadium that could conceivably also be upgraded for football, but that project is on hold for the time being, Taylor said.
A citizens' group in the city also has been looking into the possibility of a new stadium and intends to meet soon to discuss it.
"I think people in Radford are very interested in this," said a member of the citizens' group who did not want either himself or his group to be identified at this point.
Citizen involvement would be critical if sufficient money is to be raised, Ware said. Other possible sources of money might include alumni, corporate sponsorships and contributions, and an increase in student activity fees. Plans are underway to quiz Radford students on their feelings about increasing fees by perhaps $40 per semester in order to help pay for football, Ware said.
"We think we're still about six months away from making any important decisions," Ware said.
WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM: Center Kim Cruise of Pulaski County, guard Kim Hairston of Bassett and guard Shannon Graff of Rutland S.D. from this year's women's basketball recruiting class were all on high school All America lists.
The 5-foot-7 Graff may have had the most interesting background. Spotted by Radford coach Lubomyr Lichonczak at a camp in Indiana, Graff came from a high school graduating class of five.
Rutland itself is so small it is nowhere to be found in a road atlas so detailed it includes towns of less than 300 people.
"Rutland is smaller than that," said Lichonczak, who went there to scout Graff. "All it is is the high school and two or three houses out in the middle of nowhere. I had to drive 10 miles on a gravel road even to get there. I drove past the school three or four times before I realized that was it."
BALKAN BASKETBALL: B.C. Benston, the team from Croatia that the men's basketball team will scrimmage Saturday night, is a late replacement for a team from Slovenia.
Apparently, the Slovenian team had a couple of players who are considered so talented that it was feared a trip to the United States might tempt them to defect or be recruited to play here. Thus, the team backed out of the trip abroad.
Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause, still under the impression that the Slovenians were coming, even called Radford coach Ron Bradley to ask about credentials for the scrimmage.
So how good were these kids?
"I have no idea," Bradley said. "We don't recruit in Slovenia much."
Bradley said the last time he took a recruiting trip abroad was when he went to Milan, Italy, as an assistant at Maryland. Also along for the trip was his boss, then Terps coach Lefty Driesell.
"I can tell you that we saw everything in Milan that there was to see," Bradley said. "But Lefty made sure that we were at each spot for no more than seven seconds."
Ray Cox is a Roanoke Times sportswriter.
by CNB