ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 2, 1997 TAG: 9701020081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MIAMI BEACH
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
Paul Saunders graduated from Virginia Tech in 1954, but that wasn't the last commencement exercise he attended by a long shot.
He was there when his son Massie graduated in 1980.
And again when his son Tom graduated in 1981.
Then there was Bennett in 1983, Jim in 1985, followed by Robert in 1986 and John in 1989.
And don't forget Sam's graduation in 1991.
The Nelson County farmer has seven sons, and all seven followed their father to Blacksburg.
About the time of Sam's graduation, a young Russian student came to visit the family's farm to study their nursery operation for a year. Ivan ended up staying and, you guessed it, is now studying for his master's degree at Virginia Tech.
Coincidence? Saunders smiled innocently as he sat in the lobby of the Eden Roc hotel, where the Hokie football team stayed for the Orange Bowl.
"I did not discourage them," he said.
In fact, most of his sons applied to other colleges even though they all settled on Tech.
Asked what he would have said if any of his offspring had chosen another school, Saunders' smile widened.
"Let's tell it like it is," he said. "I married a UVa [graduate]. She's very nice to me when UVa beats Tech in football."
Tech football is a family affair, but even in families as genetically predisposed to be Hokies as Saunders', there's still room for infiltrators. Like Paul's wife, Tatum Saunders, they're often from the University of Virginia. That's why it's not unusual that a number of Wahoos were still in Miami long after UVa lost in the Carquest Bowl.
The Saunders family has had season tickets to Hokies home football games since 1965. The section reserved for the clan currently has 14 seats.
Although three sons went to the Sugar Bowl last year, none could make it to this year's Orange Bowl.
"They're having a party to watch the game on TV," their mother said.
Paul and Tatum Saunders did bring two grandsons - 13-year-old Paul and 10-year-old Thomas - to the game in Miami.
The younger Paul was wearing a T-shirt that read "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly" followed by school logos for Tech, West Virginia University and UVa.
Where is he planning on going to college?
"Try to guess," the teen-ager said. "Virginia Tech. I wouldn't go to UVa for a million dollars."
* * *
Eighteen-year-old Nicole Fitzwater wore a dark-green Nike baseball cap as she and her friends roamed the halls and elevators of the Fontainebleau Hilton.
She was in town with her family to support Virginia Tech. But when she starts college next fall, she'll be attending, ahem, that other school in Charlottesville.
"I've always wanted to go to Tech, and then we moved to Blacksburg when I was in the eighth grade," she explained over dinner in the hotel's swank restaurant.
Fitzwater isn't at all apologetic about her choice of colleges. Any teen-ager would understand the need to put a little distance between herself and her folks. Besides, as a future businesswoman, she was impressed that 100 percent of UVa's accounting majors already have a job lined up when they graduate.
Even her father, Norman, a die-hard Hokies fan, didn't put up too much of a fuss.
"He was relieved because I said I might want to go to the University of Georgia, and he didn't want me to go that far away," Nicole Fitzwater explained. "He said as long as I don't play on the football or basketball teams, I could go to UVa."
Her mother, Joyce Fitzwater, is looking on the bright side, too.
"Whenever those two teams play, she'll always be a winner," she said.
Nicole received her early acceptance letter from UVa three days after performing with the Marching Virginians band during the half-time show for the Tech-UVa football game this season. Fitzwater was one of 10 Blacksburg High band students chosen to be alternates when members of the Tech marching band are sick or out of town.
She didn't feel weird playing for Tech then, Fitzwater said, and she didn't feel weird about cheering for them at the Orange Bowl.
"I've been a Hokie all 18 years of my life," she said.
* * *
Even Tech's first family has a strain of orange and royal blue. President Paul Torgersen's son, James, graduated from UVa, a choice his father supported.
Being the president's son might have been a little uncomfortable if he had chosen Tech, James Torgersen said Monday night at a party his father was giving in the Cotillion Ballroom of the Eden Roc.
"If I had to do it over again, I'd go right back to Charlottesville," the younger Torgersen said.
He now lives in Greensboro, N.C., where he is an industrial engineering manager for a textile company. North Carolina friends more familiar with the rivalry between the University of North Carolina and N.C. State think it's a little weird that Torgersen cheers for both Tech and UVa.
It's only a problem when the two play each other, he said. He sided with UVa while he was a student, but now favors the team that has the most to gain from a win. This year, that meant he was rooting for Tech.
The season could not have worked out better for Torgersen, who attended both the Carquest and the Orange bowl games in Miami.
"You can be a fan of both schools," James Torgersen said.
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