ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 15, 1996 TAG: 9612160142
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
THE NO. 6 SCORER in Hokies basketball history also coached football and basketball at Roanoke Catholic High School.
Bob Ayersman, a former Virginia Tech basketball star, died Saturday after apparently suffering a heart attack while shopping at Valley View Mall. He was 58.
Ayersman played basketball for the Hokies from 1957-61, scoring 1,782 points to rank sixth in school history. The 6-foot-4 forward's average of 26.5 points per game as a sophomore in 1958-59 ranks second on the all-time list behind Bimbo Coles' 26.6 in 1988-89. His average of 20.7 points per game in 1957-58 still stands as the school record for a freshman.
The Boomer, W.Va., native had numerous scholarship offers to play football and basketball, and could have signed a pro baseball contract. But he said he chose Tech because Chuck Noe, then the Hokies' basketball coach, ``was in my house all of the time, and he was Catholic.''
He was dubbed ``The Bomber from Boomer,'' by Wendy Weisend, who then was Tech's sports information director.
``Some people still call me Boomer,'' Ayersman told The Roanoke Times & World-News in 1990, ``and they probably don't know why that's my nickname, that it was my hometown.''
Ayersman still ranks sixth on Tech's all-time list in field goals made (660) and third in free throws made (462). He was a two-time All-Southern Conference selection, and the Hokies went 62-26 in his four years.
Ayersman was inducted into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, but he may have been best known in the Roanoke Valley as a coach for 26 years at Roanoke Catholic High School.
Ayersman once said he coached so many different teams at Catholic that he wasn't quite sure which sports he coached in which years. He was fired in 1983, but was rehired a month later after a vocal outcry from Celtics supporters. In the spring of 1989, his contract was not renewed because he was not prompt with paperwork and grades, school officials said, and he left Roanoke Catholic for good.
``Honesty and sincerity are very important to me,'' he said in 1990. ``As a coach and teacher, I stand on what I did, on how I touched the students and how they touched me.''
At the time of Ayersman's dismissal, one student at Catholic told The Roanoke Times & World-News that Ayersman was more than a teacher and more than a friend. ``The student body thinks of him as a tradition,'' the student said.
``You think about a lot of things, and a lot of people, and how special they are, and it's only natural to be emotional,'' Ayersman said after leaving Catholic.
Ayersman then went to work for the Recreation Department of the City of Salem. He worked as an assistant football coach at Andrew Lewis Middle School and helped coach the Salem High School boys' basketball team for a while.
He was coordinating softball tournaments for Salem at the time of his death.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Oakey's North Chapel.
RICHMOND - Florida International already has beaten St.John's this year, but that won't count for much when the teams meet again today to determine the 1996 NCAA Division I men's soccer champion.
That doesn't mean the Golden Panthers have forgotten their 2-0 victory. Instead, they say it gave them the lift they needed to earn the rematch.
Florida International and the Red Storm will meet today at University of Richmond Stadium in a game pitting two teams in uncharted territory. Before this season, neither school had won an NCAA Tournament game.
The rematch was set Friday, when St.John's beat Creighton 2-1 and the Golden Panthers beat North Carolina-Charlotte 4-0 in the semifinals.
The first time around, on Oct.27 in Miami, the Red Storm was ranked No.2, and Florida International was working its way up in the polls. It had beaten three consecutive ranked teams, but none in St.John's class.
``We were trying to establish ourselves again,'' said goalkeeper Sal Fontana, a New York native. ``It was our home field, and we didn't want to lose to them on our home field in the championship of our tournament.''
They didn't, getting goals from Alen Kozic and Ignace Moleka.
``We proved to ourselves that we could play with anybody,'' Fontana said Saturday. ``We'd had some big wins before that, but that kind of got the ball rolling for us, picked up our momentum toward the postseason.''
Florida International (17-4-2) has outscored four opponents 13-0 this year. Its semifinal victory was the most lopsided in the Final Four since Columbia beat Connecticut 4-0 in 1983.
``We're happy, but not yet satisfied,'' said Fontana, whose school was 0-2 in the tournament before this season. ``This has been pretty much of a dream of a season for a college athlete. We haven't reached the pinnacle yet, but we're right there. We can kind of taste it.''
The Red Storm (21-2-2), whose goals against Creighton were the first the Bluejays surrendered in the tournament, said not falling behind could be key. The Golden Panthers overwhelmed UNC Charlotte once they got a lead Friday.
``You have to be quite worried if you go down a goal, make sure that you keep your composure and you don't press too hard to get back in the game because they can really open it up,'' said Dave Masur, the St.John's coach.
Ben Hickey, who assisted on the Red Storm's first goal against Creighton, said St.John's will have to be mindful of that explosiveness.
``They have such talent, you have to be totally concentrated and you have to defend very well,'' he said. ``If you're sloppy or give away silly goals, you let them pounce on you and then you're going to be in trouble.''
The game is expect to draw more than 20,000 fans, making it one of the largest crowds to watch a college soccer game in U.S. history. The record of 21,319 was set here last year when that many watched both rounds.
``It's great to see people come out there and support you or boo,'' Moleka said. ``It doesn't matter. It's just nice to have the people around.''
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