ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 13, 1996 TAG: 9610140016
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-22 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Somehow, the Roanoke Linkous doesn't have the same name appeal.
When Larry Linkous bought majority interest in the Roanoke Rush football team from Nick Rush in August, some might have wondered what fascination minor league sports holds for the local politicos.
Linkous, a Blacksburg auctioneer and former chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, bought the team from Nick Rush, a Federal Express employee from Christiansburg who also serves on the Board of Supervisors.
Ask them and you'll hear no stories of wanting to live out boyhood dreams or past sports glories. Instead, Rush and Linkous talk of business opportunities for them, and providing a chance for young players to continue competing in a sport they love.
"I've always enjoyed football," Linkous said. "My son's real involved in [JV] football. I've enjoyed it as a spectator more than a player. I probably would not have got involved had it not been the friendship I had with Nick."
Still, Linkous fretted with every drive from his seat near the 30-yard line, as the Rush upset arch rival West Virginia on a chilly Oct. 5 night. He wrung his hands and slapped his forehead at opportunities missed to extend the 54-27 drubbing.
His wife, Charlotte, loudly cheered the team. "I was a cheerleader all the way through high school. Tech games, high school, I'm screaming the whole way through," she said.
With young cheerleaders from the Inner City Athletic Association stomping out chants alongside the team's own dancers - called the Gold Rush - and children passing miniature footballs among the many families present, the night had the aura of a high school football game.
But security personnel carrying walkie-talkies, a half-time performance by the dance squad and special give-aways at Roanoke's Victory Stadium lifted the feel of the evening to that of a professional sports event.
Linkous, 44, said his interest in buying a pro team was there from the time he came aboard in January to help with sales as a minority owner.
"We found there was a lot of work to be done," Linkous said. "My time is more flexible maybe is the reason - more so than Nick's. ... And I'm able to meet with people that we really need to meet with, as far as business people."
For Rush, 28, selling the majority interest in the team he founded when National Minor League Football was formed last year was a difficult decision, but necessary. Rush still owns about a 10 percent interest in the team and is staying involved with marketing efforts. Rush's wife, Amy, leads the Gold Rush.
"I probably overestimated myself," Rush said. "I just couldn't do it from a Federal Express van.
"By all accounts, we've been successful," Rush said. "To take it to the next level, there had to be some full-time attention to it."
Linkous, as majority stockholder, owns 62 percent of the team. He said his business contacts can help bring more money into the venture - through advertising and ticket sales, marketing and sponsorships - that will translate into more bodies in the stands.
"It's so different from anything I've done," but involves the same business and public relations skills, Linkous said. He often leaves his seat to mingle in the concession areas to thank fans for supporting the team.
Linkous said Rush owners will speak to civic groups and local sports clubs to remind them "this is a pro team, let's support them."
He also wants to get the team involved with little leagues and school teams, in an effort to develop allegiance to the Roanoke Rush and to the sport in general.
The team is also deciding whether to stay at Victory Stadium for its home games or try traveling to different area high schools for games, giving those schools' booster clubs a chance to earn extra concession money.
"People have to start promoting football. Football is losing people," in high school to fall soccer, Linkous said.
Promotion or otherwise, the Roanoke Rush has managed to attract a small core of faithful fans. Last year, the team ranked third in National Minor League Football attendance, with an average of 3,510 spectators per game.
Allen Hall, a Radford man in his mid-40s, has attended four games this year. At the Oct. 5 game, as Hall sat among a crowd of approximately 1,000 people, he said he was impressed.
"I think they have a really good team. They're physical. They have good coaching, a lot of local players, which makes it interesting for everybody to come see," Hall said.
Hall remembers other Roanoke semipro teams that have fallen by the wayside over the years such as the Buckskins and Hunters - perhaps one reason many sports enthusiasts are reluctant to pledge allegiance to the Rush.
"Roanoke doesn't seem to support semipro football like they do the Express [hockey team] and stuff," Hall said.
But league founder Ronnie DeLapp said there's no reason the Rush cannot be a success. The Charlotte-based National Minor League Football, with teams from Maine to Texas, started with 35 clubs, but now is down to 28. Another 20 teams, though, have applied to join next year, DeLapp said.
It typically costs $75,000 to $120,000 to run a team per season, DeLapp said. But with proper marketing, profits of $200,000 a year or more are possible, he said.
DeLapp said several of the league's players have either made it to the NFL or are using the league to try to get back to the pros. Although there is no formal farm system agreement with the National Football League, DeLapp said that is the goal - one he expects will take at least another five years to reach.
"The more people that we put into the NFL the more [recognition] that we're going to get," he said.
Denie Marie, a former Virginia Tech assistant coach who headed the Rush its first year but left in March, said he was more than happy with his team but had to consider his professional future. He now coaches quarterbacks and receivers for Marietta College in Ohio.
"I don't see the stability of the thing ... until you get some backing from the NFL and the World league," Marie said. "I don't know if the NFL is spending that much time looking at these kids ... you just never know."
While the Rush "did it very professionally" its first year, "I think a league like that you always have to wonder whether it's going to be there the following year," Marie said.
One outside observer, Greg Roberts, the sports director for WSLS (Channel 10), thinks there is a niche for minor league football and that Roanoke can be a successful venue.
"People say semipro football is never going to make it ... well that's garbage," he said. That's exactly what the Roanoke Express hockey team heard. The hockey team has "sound management at the top with some financial backing and it trickles down from there," Roberts said.
The Rush has a good product and price, Roberts said, but needs to work on its distribution and packaging - the perception of the team.
On the field, at least, the perception last year was favorable. The Rush made it to the playoffs, losing in the second round to the league's eventual national champions, the West Virginia Lightning, a team led by former West Virginia University quarterback Major Harris.
On Oct. 5, the Rush finally beat the West Virginians - now called the Charleston Rockets - in their fifth attempt in two years, to put Roanoke atop its division with two games left in the regular season.
Though the team had a fine first year on the gridiron, then-majority owner Rush had an up-and-down tenure with the franchise, which he originally formed with his friend, Donald Wayne Snell, a former Radford High School sports standout who also played for Virginia Tech. Snell remains an owner.
The team drew crowds, but the players threatened to walk out, saying Rush wasn't paying them the money he originally promised.
During the off-season, both sides worked out a deal. Starters were to make $125 per game and reserves $100. But once the current season started, Rush told the players he could not pay that scale.
After Roanoke's attendance dropped to 839 for an Aug. 3 game against the Carolina Bobcats, Rush cut adult ticket prices from $8 to $6. He told the players checks would be incentive-based, such as $25 for a touchdown or a sack.
Linkous said it was "probably wishful thinking this year that we thought we could pay a weekly salary" with the expenses involved in building a team.
The coaches still are being paid: assistants $2,000 for the season, head coach Duke Strager a bit more.
Though pay is scant, the team does provide uniforms, workers compensation insurance, bus travel and meals for away games.
But, Linkous said players tell him "'the money is not why we're playing. We're here because we love football and we need the exposure,'" especially players like former Virginia Tech standout Jerome Preston, who had pro tryouts and was signed as a free agent but injured his knee.
Most of the players - who come from the Roanoke and New River valleys but also from out of state - have full-time jobs elsewhere.
Tony Divers, a 23-year-old Radford man who plays on special teams and at defensive end for the Rush, works full time for the Pulaski Furniture Corp.
Glad to extend his playing days past high school and one year at Ferrum College, Divers said he plays for the Rush because he loves the game and for that thrill of competition.
"It's not about making a living. Football's 100 percent heart and if you put your heart into it there's some things that can be overcome," Divers said.
LENGTH: Long : 176 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. 1. On the cover. Nick Rush (left) hasby CNBsold a majority interest in the Roanoke Rush football team to Larry
Linkous. 2. Larry Linkous, now majority owner of the Roanoke Rush,
has set up the team's office next to his personal office just
outside Blacksburg in the Prices Fork section of Montgomery County.
3. Amy Rush (center, wearing black) works on a dance routine with
members of the Gold Rush. The team's dance squad practices twice a
week in the evening at Rush's dance studio in Christiansburg. 4.
Fans and Roanoke Rush players watch the action on the field during
an Oct. 5 game at Victory Stadium. 5. Roanoke Rush cheerleaders
(from left) Mary Ann King; former owner Nick Rush's wife, Amy Rush;
and Aarin Haga. 6. The Roanoke Rush plays at Victory Stadium near
Roanoke Memorial Hospital. 7. The Roanoke Rush's new owner, Larry
Linkous (left), and coach Duke Strager talk before the game starts.
color.