                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, February 25, 1995            TAG: 9502250325
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY JERRY REED, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   91 lines

LOOKING BACK ON AIRPLANES, AIRPORTS

Of all the memories I have of the Old Dominion men's Division II championship basketball season of 1974-75, two stand out above the rest. Curiously, both involve airplanes and airports.

On the flight home the day after the Monarchs' 76-74 victory over New Orleans in the championship game, the captain's voice was heard over the intercom congratulating Old DOMINICAN on winning the national title.

The comment was at the same time mildly amusing and plainly annoying to the ODU party. Apparently, the program hadn't arrived.

It also got the ODU players to wondering if anyone would greet them at the airport when they returned to Norfolk. Their anxiety increased when they looked out the windows as the plane touched down in Norfolk and saw no crowd - in fact, no one - lined up against the fence outside.

The looks on the Monarchs' faces fairly screamed: ARE YOU KIDDING? WE JUST WON A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP AND NOBODY CAME TO WELCOME US HOME??!!

The mood didn't improve when they stepped off the plane and entered the passenger waiting area - and discovered no one was waiting for them there, either.

As they proceeded along the corridor leading to the main terminal, an eerie silence swept over the team. As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger: ``Too quiet, Kemo Sabe.'' There was one more corner to turn before the passageway led to the lobby. Would anyone be there?

YES! Rounding the corner, players stopped in their tracks. For a short distance in front of them, at the lobby entrance, wall-to-wall bodies - and a band - struck up a raucous celebration. And if I'm not mistaken, the airport terminal trembled from the commotion.

Not long ago in the Sports section appeared an alltime list of top 10 events in the area. Few rivaled ODU's homecoming that day.

My other vivid recollection concerns the plane ride home following the season-opening 90-69 loss at Dayton. (Who could have imagined then that team captain Oliver Purnell would become the Dayton coach in 1994?)

A heavy overnight snow greeted us the morning after at the Dayton airport. And as we waited to board our plane, we watched an arriving aircraft taxi up to the terminal, skid on the ice, turn and crumple a wing tip against a utility pole.

Not a good omen, some of us chuckled rather grimly.

Neither was it a fun trip home. I know the pilot had my attention when he announced somewhere along the way that ``the winds are too strong to land at Washington National. And they're not much better at Dulles.'' I didn't feel a whole lot safer when a flight attendant buckled herself in her seat at one particularly turbulent point and advised passengers to do the same because SHE WAS NOT COMING DOWN THE AISLE TO CHECK ON US. And I almost had forgotten the two military pilots sitting in the row behind me and one saying to the other, ``I can't believe they're going to try to make it.''

Upon landing at Dulles airport, we were told that a TWA flight immediately ahead of us had crashed. We took a bus the rest of the way. Back in Norfolk, I went to the office and wrote a story about the ODU team's ``brush with death.''

In a letter to the editor, an airline pilot chastised me for being overly melodramatic. Well, I thought, it seemed scary. Some time later, I read where our United flight had received landing approach instructions identical to the TWA plane that had crashed into 1,764-foot Mount Weather in the Blue Ridge mountains, killing 92. Our plane was at 1,800 feet, according to testimony in a federal inquiry.

I saved that newspaper clipping and one paragraph still jumps out at me: ``When the United pilot received clearance to land, he immediately began descending even though he was not clear of the Blue Ridge mountains, the same maneuver followed by the TWA jet ...''

Think about it: Two planes, both of which had stops in Ohio ... both diverted from Washington National to Dulles ... both in the same landing pattern ... one crashing ... one landing safely.

Looking back, I can only guess - scoffing pilot aside - that if our plane had been flying 36 feet lower coming across the mountain, there would have been no national championship for the ODU men that season. And, come to think of it, no one to tell about it 20 years later. MEMO: Jerry Reed reported on ODU basketball for The Virginian-Pilot from

January 1971 through the 1976-77 season.Jerry Reed reported on ODU

basketball for The Virginian-Pilot from January 1971 through the 1976-77

season.