DATE: Friday, September 5, 1997             TAG: 9709050833
SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson 

                                            LENGTH:   75 lines

U.VA. FANS' REACTION TO CURRY'S BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: WAHOO!

CHARLOTTESVILLE

The University of Virginia is expanding Scott Stadium by 16,000 seats, but says they won't be ready until 2000.

Memo to construction manager: Start working double shifts. Ronald Curry is coming to town.

On a Thursday night when the 40,000-seat stadium was standing-room only for the Cavaliers' football opener against Auburn, the word arrived that Curry, Hampton High School's prodigiously talented quarterback and basketball point guard - perhaps the nation's best high schooler at both positions - had verbally committed that afternoon to attend Virginia.

As if U.Va. fans weren't busting their blue-and-orange buttons enough in anticipation of a fresh football season, the Curry news - and the fact that he spurned North Carolina, to boot - was cause for a throaty ``Wahoo'' if ever there was one.

``Let me tell you, he's the ticket, brother,'' said Tim Quick, a 36-year-old Virginia booster from Waynesboro, Va. Quick said he's followed Curry for five years. Said he'd be there tonight for Hampton's big game with Kecoughtan. Said Curry's commitment was, yep, even larger than Ralph Sampson's in 1979.

``Sampson did it in one sport. Curry does it for you in two,'' Quick said. ``What he does, he takes what we are, a top-20 or 25 program, to the top 10 right now.''

Suddenly, a stream of golden fortune floods Charlottesville. Not only does U.Va. get the use of Curry's wondrous arm and winged feet for the next few years - or until the NFL or NBA come knocking - but it recently raked in an unheard of $25 million donation from an alumnus, Carl W. Smith, for whom U.Va.'s athletic complex, strangely enough, is now named.

The money will cover roughly half the cost of the Scott Stadium expansion. So though Scott will technically be the House That Carl Built, it is destined to become Curry's Castle if the kid a) follows through on his commitment and b) performs up to his endless potential.

Curry, Hampton teammates Bobby Blizzard and Darnell Hollier, both of whom committed to Virginia with Curry, and assorted Crabber players and coaches were there Thursday, watching Virginia lose to Auburn 28-17 - behind an uneven performance from junior quarterback Aaron Brooks, incidentally - from front-row seats behind Auburn's bench.

At halftime, they took a stroll, up the steep steps toward a concourse. Along the way, Curry, hardly anonymous, stopped to sign an autograph for a 30ish guy in a Virginia sweatshirt, then spent the intermission taking pats on the back from well-wishers and chatting with U.Va. basketball players.

When he was asked if he felt Virginia fans would immediately expect the moon and the stars from him, Curry smiled and said, ``I don't know what they think of me up here.''

End of interview, thanks to U.Va. basketball coach Jeff Jones' announcement that Curry was unable to give interviews on campus under NCAA rules.

So Curry clammed up. The fans didn't.

``I'm tickled to death,'' said Randy Ulrey, 39, of Williamsburg. ``I followed Curry all last year. He does everything. Getting him takes this program to the next step.''

On the other hand, Tom Epperly, a 42-year-old from Roanoke, tempered his excitement, preferring to delay his cork-popping until Curry actually enrolls.

``The way college commitments are these days, you never know,'' Epperly said. ``It'll be interesting to see if it really happens. It's wonderful if it does. We'll have a marquee player, I know that.''

Like Smith's $25 million, Curry should also be a gift to U.Va. that keeps on giving.

``The biggest thing about Curry is who he'll bring along with him,'' said Quick, envisioning top talent from around the country beating a path to Charlottesville to take passes, in- and out-of-doors, from Curry. ``Add him to the (football) freshmen we have, put 60,000 seats in here, man, that puts you in the big time.''

Amen, said J.R. Reedy, 55, from Harrisonburg. Amen.

``If you're a fan,'' Reedy said, ``you've got to feel like anything's possible now.''

To answer a question, that is what they think of Ronald Curry up here.

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