DATE: Friday, November 28, 1997             TAG: 9711280159

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SERIES: Norfolk State: A Season on the Road: Day 9 

SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: BOULDER, COLO.                    LENGTH:   59 lines

THANKSGIVING NOT THE SAME WITHOUT THAT TASTE OF HOME

They wore green Norfolk State sweat pants and T-shirts as they filed into the Holiday Inn's Holidome for their holiday feast. One even wore a tank top.

``Ah, Kenny, you can do better than that,'' Spartans athletic director Dick Price said as NSU guard Kenny Brown scampered off to find more suitable attire.

The Spartans had just finished their shoot-around, and Thursday night's game against Colorado was a little over four hours away. If the players were going to join much of America in tying on the ol' feedbag this Thanksgiving, now would have to be the time.

One by one they filed through the buffet that snaked around the hotel's figure-8-shaped indoor swimming pool, helping themselves to salmon, mashed potatoes, rice pilaf, candied yams, stuffing, fresh vegetables and turkey, roast beef and ham carved to order.

Having Thanksgiving meals on the road is nothing new in college athletics. Eight teams involved in one hoops tournament did their holiday dining in San Juan, Puerto Rico. North Carolina and UCLA spent the day in Anchorage, Alaska. And the Nebraska football team chowed down somewhere in Boulder, as did a host of their fans, who were taking up the majority of rooms in the Holiday Inn and the adjacent Best Western hotel on the eve of the Colorado-Nebraska gridiron showdown.

It's not even a fresh ritual for Norfolk State. Last year, the Spartans dined in Cape Girardeau, Mo., as they sandwiched the holiday meal between a pair of games in the Union Planters Classic.

Having satisfactorily piled their plates, the Spartans filed into the Chautauqua Room and seated themselves at one of four circular tables. Head coach Mike Bernard offered the blessing, which he closed by asking for the strength to help the Spartans pull off a big victory.

``Amen,'' the assembled said.

Then they all dug in.

``How you feeling, Damian?'' Price asked of Spartans guard Damian Woolfolk, who had suffered through a queasy couple of days after a bout with bad burgers earlier this week.

``Much better,'' replied Woolfolk, who didn't press his luck and chose conservatively from the holiday spread.

``Every time I look at this stuffing, I think of my mom's stuffing,'' said center Sean Blackwell as he reflected on the roughly 25 family members partaking in a similar holiday meal in Portsmouth. ``This can't compare. But you can't relate one to the other. I'm thankful for this meal.''

Sweet potato and apple pie served as dessert. And less than 30 minutes after they'd begun, the Spartans were finished. The lightning-quick Brown was reclining in the hotel's hot tub before the last Spartan had left the Chautauqua Room.

One of those last-to-leave Spartans was freshman Darrell Neal, who had just concluded his first Thanksgiving meal away from ``a house full of people'' in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Like several of his teammates, Neal has no telephone calling card and would not even be able to talk to his family during the holiday.

``But I'm not sad,'' Neal said with a smile. ``That was a good meal. Besides, the team is my family now. That makes up for a lot.''

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