ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 29, 1996 TAG: 9612300047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
``WE HOPE YOUR TEAM kicks Nebraska's butt,'' said the flight attendant over the plane's intercom. And so it went as the Virginia Tech crowd - undeterred by UVa's loss in the Carquest - arrived in Florida for the Orange Bowl.
Although the Orange Bowl Parade was still hours away, some of the first Virginia Tech fans to arrive here Saturday morning were in another parade of sorts.
Hokie fans from Roanoke and Richmond arrived at the Fort Lauderdale Airport in time to run a gantlet of rumpled people wearing familiar royal blue and orange jackets and caps.
Tech fans exchanged blank stares with the bedraggled refugees returning from the University of Virginia's loss in the Carquest Bowl.
After the Tech group was hustled onto a waiting bus, a few Hokie fans began to giggle.
"I've never seen so many downturned faces in a crowd that large," said Marshall Willard, a 1969 Tech graduate from Richmond. "They looked like it was late at night, even though it isn't even 11 in the morning."
"It couldn't have happened to a nicer group of people," joked Jeff Glesner, also of Richmond.
Moments later, Glesner was on his knees in the center aisle of the bus, causing some of his busmates to wonder aloud whether he was getting worried.
"Y'all excuse me a minute," he mumbled from beneath his seat. "This is just a little ritual we go through."
Her emerged from under his seat a moment later with a triumphant smile, his wife's gold earring dangling between his thumb and forefinger.
"He missed the 1965 homecoming because he was down on his knees under the bleachers looking for my brown contact lens in the mud," said Sid Glesner, accepting the earring with a smile of relief.
The Tech fans weren't totally without sympathy for the UVa folk they left behind at the airport. Bill Skelton of Blacksburg recognized one man as a former employee.
"He ran up to me and said, 'I hope you have better luck.' I told him we were going to do our best."
Hokie fans were too excited to let the somber mood at the Fort Lauderdale Airport affect them, particularly after the flight attendant announced over the intercom: "We hope your team kicks Nebraska's butt.''
But they realize that sports analysts are predicting a dreary morning for Tech fans after the Orange Bowl Tuesday night.
"How will I look? One of two ways," Glesner said. "Better or worse."
But Willard said Tech's 1996 season is no reason for long faces, no matter what happens next week.
"I think we'll be happy either way," he said. "It's been a great year. The team should have nothing but good smiles on their faces, and we should, too."
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines KEYWORDS: FOOTBALLby CNB