ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 15, 1996 TAG: 9612160086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
NOW IN ITS FOURTH YEAR in Salem, the Stagg Bowl has developed a loyal following of local fans who annually brave any weather to cheer for two teams they know nothing about.
They talk fondly about the first year's snowstorm. "All of a sudden, the mountains disappeared," Bruce Smith remembers. "It was wild. All we did was pour another beverage and hunker down." Tequila, if memory serves.
They reminisce about the rains that poured down the second year. "I looked over at Bill," Smith says, "and all I could see was his nose and the rain dripping off his poncho." Oh, yes, and the chicken bone his buddy Bill Fisher would occasionally gnaw on.
Heck, these guys - and gals - even have warm memories about the arctic gales that blew through last year's Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. ``The tent actually scooted!'' exclaims Barbara Garden. ``The cement blocks that hold down the stakes? They were blowing! We tried sitting on them.''
The game? The game hardly matters, at least in terms of the score. That's not what draws these fans to the Stagg Bowl. "You get right down to it," Sandy Garden says, "and I couldn't care less who wins." Heck, some of them couldn't even care who's playing. ``We've never heard of you,'' he says, ``but we're here to support you.''
This is the fourth year the Stagg Bowl - the national championship football game for Division III colleges, which don't offer athletic scholarships - has been played in Salem and by now, we know all about the zany fans who show up for the event. You've got the college kids who pull all-nighters behind the wheel to make it here by kickoff. The frat boys who shuck off their shirts no matter what the wind chill. The sorority sisters who paint their faces in the team colors.
But the hardiest group of Stagg Bowl fans may be those otherwise mild-mannered adults in Section C, 50 yard line, on the home side, 100-strong, who show up each year, no matter who's playing, no matter what the weather - and stick it out until the last second ticks off the clock, no matter how lopsided the score.
For them, the Stagg Bowl is now a tradition.
Yeah, they say, the football part of the game can be fun. "It's almost like a high school atmosphere," says Fisher, a paint salesman from Roanoke. "Division I [the level that Virginia Tech and other big-time footballs schools play] is too commercialized. This football reminds you of the football played 25 years ago."
But these fans also say they're motivated by a civic obligation to fill up the stands and make sure the two teams feel welcome.
"We want them to know Salem is a friendly town," says Barbara Garden, whose husband, Sandy, is the group's main organizer. "It's for the kids. We want them to know someone is rooting for them."
Sure, there are already a goodly number of local folk who show up at the Stagg Bowl - and pad the attendance figures well beyond what the two competing teams would bring on their own. (This year's attendance count: 5,048 watched Mount Union defeat Rowan, 56-24).
And there's a healthy section of local tailgaters, who show up hours before the game to crank up some tunes, pop a couple cold ones, and sizzle some dogs on the grill.
But this group takes things to the extreme.
For Sandy Garden, who works at Rusco Window Co., kickoff comes in August when Stagg Bowl tickets go on sale. He's always the first in line, and snatches up a block of 100 for his friends, many of whom have known each other since their days at Andrew Lewis High School in the early 1970s - or earlier.
The night before the game, Garden scouts out the best tailgating site - and marks it off with yellow "caution" tape, just so no one else will snag it. "You're darn right we take this seriously," Barbara Garden says.
And then the fun begins.
Well, at least they call it fun. The game-time weather the past three years hasn't exactly been tropical. "The second year we sat here in pouring rain," says Smith, a food salesman from Franklin County. "I didn't feel well for a week."
But this year was as perfect a day as you can hope for in December - blue skies, a slight breeze, and temperatures in the low 50s. And these fans took full advantage of the opportunity.
Matthew Burton, a Salem machinist and Garden's partner in organizing the party, gingerly unwraps a balled-up newspaper to show off his prize acquisitions - some gag trophies, topped by a bespectacled turkey. "I got the ugliest things I could find," he whispers to Garden.
But, of course.
An hour before game time, Burton whistles the tailgate party silent. Sort of. The three women who came out at halftime last year and kept the tent from blowing away get their due.
"These wonderful girls saved our tent," Sandy Garden says. "Saved Aztec Rental's tent, actually."
"Saved your butt!" someone shouts out in correction.
``So we got them a trophy that says `Thanks for Handling The Big Blow at the Stagg Bowl, 1995,''' Burton declares.
Then it's on to the group's annual trophy, the "Too Much Fun Award," given out to the participant who distinguished themselves at the previous year's Stagg Bowl by, well, you get the idea.
While munching on subs and buffalo wings, the fans drop money into the annual charity bucket - this year, the take totaled $438 to buy Christmas presents for a needy family.
And then it's on to the game.
So if the two teams are from schools the local fans have never heard of before, how do they decide whom to cheer for?
Easy, Burton says: whoever has the ball. "I just root for the touchdowns."
LENGTH: Long : 114 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS Staff. David Calhoun sportsby CNBpurple hair in honor of his brother, defensive tackle B.J. Payne of
the Mount Union Purple Raiders. David Calhoun Jr. (from left) and
cousins Patrick George and Ben Vedda lend more support. 2. Cheryl
McDevitt flies the Mount Union flag among tailgaters. Her husband,
Bill McDevitt, Class of '71, and daughter Amy, Class of '96, also
attended. color. 3. Barbara Garden enjoys a gag trophy Saturday with
her husband, Sandy Garden, awarded by party co-organizer Matthew
Burton of Salem for last year's frolic. 4. DON PETERSEN Staff. With
Santa apparently on their side, these Mount Union fans got their
Christmas wish - a national
championship.<