ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
EDWARD O. "TRACE" KING III decided to propose to Jennifer Elaine Trail, his girlfriend of four years, during the second time-out of the second half of Virginia Tech's last home game before Valentine's Day. She said yes.
There were 11 minutes, 53 seconds left to play, and the Hokies were a bucket behind George Washington in a game Virginia Tech needed to win to bounce back in the Atlantic 10 conference.
Time out.
Forget, for a minute, that it was February and the roads were still dotted with gray, graveled pockets of last month's snow. Love can bloom even here, in Cassell Coliseum, among the orange hunting hats, whoo-hooing fans and the squeak of basketball shoes.
This is where Edward O. "Trace" King III decided to propose to Jennifer Elaine Trail, his girlfriend of four years, during the second time-out of the second half of Virginia Tech's last home game before Valentine's Day.
Before a crowd of 5,711.
"It was pretty wild," King said Wednesday, officially engaged for all of 14 hours. (Did we mention she said "yes?'')
"I remember when I was getting down on my knee, this girl, a Tech student, was saying, 'Oh my God, he's going to do it.' And another said 'Here?'''
Yes, here.
Here with the cheerleaders, maneuvering themselves into a human pyramid, holding up a giant banner that said "Jennifer, will you marry me? Love, Trace." Here with the Hokie Bird holding up a hand-painted sign that said "Yes" on one side and "No" on the other.
Here in Section 16, where Trail was sitting with King, his parents, her parents, his aunts and uncles and a cousin.
Everybody was in on this, except the bride-to-be.
"Oh my goodness, I was so surprised. I wasn't expecting anything," Trail said. "People keep saying, 'With all these people around, didn't you think something was up?' I didn't." This despite the fact that her parents had never been to a Tech basketball game.
When the banner went up, she said, "my parents were rustling around whispering, and I was looking at them. Trace kept on elbowing me and saying, 'Look, look.' I looked up and saw my name and thought, 'Somebody's doing a marriage proposal.' And then I saw his name and my eyes got so big. I looked at him and he was teary-eyed and of course I got teary-eyed."
King, 29, and Trail, 23, are not Tech alums, though many of their relatives are. He went to Radford University before entering the job market and now works at Saturn of Roanoke Valley in Salem. She graduated from Radford University and went to work for Credit Marketing and Management Association in Roanoke. She has come to love the Hokies over the last four years, "since she's been dating me," King said. He has loved the Hokies since he was born.
King and Trail had talked about marrying "some day." Last week, King picked out an engagement ring. He wanted to give it to Trail on Valentine's Day, but "Mom said she couldn't wait that long without telling her," he said.
He and his sister had talked about the possibility of popping the question at a Tech game; John Moody, King's uncle and an associate director of development in the athletic department, helped arrange things.
Danny Monk, associate athletic director, can recall three or four public marriage proposals during football games over his 11 years at Tech. This was the first proposal he witnessed at a basketball game.
In stadiums of many professional teams, marriage proposals flash across the scoreboard right along with ads for Taco Bell. Not so at Tech.
"We get many, many requests - proposals, anniversaries, birthdays. We thought if we did one we'd have to do 30 a game," said Jack Williams, director of media relations for the athletic department. "This thing last night was inspired by the cheerleaders. ... It was kind of cute, I admit."
The folks at ESPN2 thought so, too, and the proposal aired nationally with the broadcast of the game, which Tech won, 45-43.
"We had several people tape it," said King's father, Eddie. "We just watched it again."
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN STAFF. Trace King and his fiancee, Jenniferby CNBTrail, stand by the banner Tech cheerleaders held up during the game
Tuesday. color.