Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511220049
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Roanoke Express is off to its best start - at the box office. The East Coast Hockey League franchise heads toward a Thanksgiving home date with an average attendance of 6,098 through eight dates. That ranks sixth in the 21-team league and is 507 more than the Express averaged last season.
The Express' average crowd also is 1,500 more than the ECHL club in Nashville, Tenn., is averaging, but maybe those folks are saving their money to buy NFL tickets.
BETTER DAYS: The record may have been 4-7, but VMI should be smiling about its football season. The Keydets' program has improved considerably while playing a schedule ranked 10th toughest in NCAA Division I-AA. VMI scored a school-record 269 points while giving up 350 - but that defensive number is down from 437 last year.
Coach Bill Stewart's program has lost nine of 43 recruits in two years, but that attrition rate is much improved from the previous two coaching regimes. VMI also had senior starters at only three positions, including Bath County native Tim Williams, the cornerback and receiver whose double duty was a reminder of the one-platoon days when the Keydets enjoyed success.
FLAME-OUT: The Southern Conference's expansion to include Wofford, UNC Greensboro and College of Charleston (S.C.) is another snub of Liberty, which previously applied for membership. Perhaps the conference should remember that for several years, Liberty's TV production arm footed the bill for Southern Conference telecasts.
The Lynchburg school hadn't formally applied to the conference for membership for this round of expansion, but it has before and has since then. ``They know our intentions, and they know us,'' said Liberty athletic director Chuck Burch, who also has filed an application with the Yankee Conference - the football home of Richmond, James Madison and William and Mary.
Liberty could have given the Southern Conference another football program, something Charleston and UNC Greensboro don't. The recent moves are more reasons why VMI should leave the Southern, where the Keydets' ties are shrinking traditionally and financially, with Marshall exiting for Division I-A and the Mid-American Conference in 1997.
Of course, the state's six I-AA schools - with Norfolk State to make it seven soon - should form a conference, at least to play football. That's not going to happen, however. Among VMI, Liberty, Richmond, W&M, JMU and Hampton, there are too many diverse philosophies. And that's too bad.
NO SMOKING: No wonder they've been waiting for basketball season on Tobacco Road. The football teams at North Carolina, N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest are a combined 6-24 in the ACC, with Friday's UNC-State game left.
Five of those six victories came against one another, with Carolina's victory over Virginia the only one by the Tobacco Road four over the other five ACC programs. Never before in the ACC's 43 football seasons has that quartet been so weak, although 1990 (seven victories, one tie) was close.
STAGG-ERING: Ticket sales for the third Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl at Salem Stadium are off 600 from the same date last year, with less than 2,500 sold for the Dec.9 NCAA Division III championship game. Then, when the bad weather for the first two local Stagg Bowls is considered, maybe locals are waiting for the game day forecast before buying.
GOOD NEWS: VMI needed to change the criteria for induction to its sports hall of fame to honor San Diego Chargers coach Bobby Ross.
The school made a wise move in doing so. Ross, a former baseball star and football starter for the Keydets, is only the most prominent sports alumnus of the institute, after coaching Georgia Tech to a national championship and the Chargers to a Super Bowl.
HOKIE HIGH: Virginia Tech's No.13 ranking equals its best during a season in The Associated Press' poll, the same spot the Hokies had before losing at Miami (Fla.) last season.
Tech's highest AP ranking at the end of the regular season is 16th, in the final poll of 1954, when the last AP poll was done before bowls. The AP has two more regular-season polls this season. Tech's best post-bowl finish was No. 20, by the Peach Bowl victors in 1986.
by CNB