ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 27, 1996 TAG: 9610280084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
That was no accident slowing down traffic in the northbound lanes of Interstate 81 Saturday morning just as Tech fans were making their way to the Hokies' confrontation with the University of Pittsburgh.
A man wearing nothing - but carrying a small Hokies pennant - nearly brought traffic to a standstill about 5 miles from Blacksburg about 9:40 a.m.
Virginia State Police based in Salem confirmed the incident, but the investigating trooper was unavailable. It was not known whether the man was injured or what charges resulted.
But hundreds of Tech fans - and perhaps thousands of motorists - got a good look at the "swarthy man" with the not-bad physique, strolling down the white line between the left and right hand lanes, including Walter and Connie Anderson of Martinsville.
Walter Anderson said he and his wife were just about on time to meet their son Robert, a sportswriter for the Bristol Herald Courier, at the game when traffic suddenly slowed.
"We came over this one rise, and all of a sudden I had to put the brakes on," Walter Anderson said.
He and his wife assumed there was an accident just ahead. Then they saw a car stopped on the right shoulder and something far more unusual. "I saw this man walking on the white line. From the waist up, he was naked. When we got closer, I saw that he didn't have anything on the bottom half. When we got past him, I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw that he didn't have anything front-wise, either."
Description-wise, the man looked to be in his 20s, had a dark complexion and - at least in Connie Anderson's opinion - a "good physique.''
Anderson said he worried later about the young man's fate. "He could have been seriously injured.''
- Staff report
LENGTH: Short : 41 linesby CNB