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

DATE: Thursday, March 23, 1995               TAG: 9503230560
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   57 lines

VILLANOVA FAN'S PAIN IS CHARITY'S GAIN HE'LL GIVE AWAY A TAPE OF HIS TEAM'S LOSS TO ODU, FOR A DONATION TO HIS FAVORITE CHARITY.

John Maguire is being tortured by a videotape.

It's right there, beside the VCR in his Maple Glen, Pa., home, a painful record of Villanova's triple-overtime loss last Friday to ODU in the NCAA tournament.

Maguire knows one thing: He wants that blasted tape out of his house.

``I can't just throw it away,'' laments the 1961 graduate of Villanova. ``I've been dying with them for 45 years. It was such an awful loss for us that I'd try to have some fun with it.''

Hence the advertisement running in The Virginian-Pilot's classified section: ``VILLANOVA fan has complete tape of ODU game. Wants to get rid of memory, will give away free. Contribution to my favorite charity requested. 215-542-8245.''

Maguire generally doesn't videotape Villanova games - he goes to them. The father of five has Wildcat season tickets and was planning to go to East Rutherford, N.J., this week to watch Villanova in the regionals.

But last Friday night Maguire found himself unable to attend the ODU game in Albany, N.Y., or even to watch it on television. It was, after all, St. Patrick's Day.

``I'm Irish, what can I say?'' he says, laughing. ``I had to go out.''

Maguire programmed the VCR to tape the game then set off for a tour of Philadelphia's Irish pubs with his wife. He took along a radio with a headset.

As the Wildcats and Monarchs went into overtime, Maguire had to leave one raucus bar to loiter in a chilly alley, listening to the heartbreaking game on the radio.

The morning after, Maguire felt compelled to turn on the tape.

``My wife came in and asked me why I was watching it,'' he recalls. `` `You're a glutton for punishment,' she told me.''

It was then he decided to dispose of the tape, but in Philadelphia the question was, who'd want it?

Maguire decided to offer it to an ODU fan as long as the recipient would contribute to his favorite charity - St. Malachy's Catholic Church, a Philadelphia inner-city parish where his friend, the Rev. John McNamee is assigned.

``I figured they could sure use a contribution,'' Maguire says. ``Father John will be glad to get it and I'll get rid of the tape.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Villanova University alumnus John Maguire watches a painful sight: A

tape of his school's triple-overtime loss to ODU.

by CNB