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College Sports in the Carolinas

View from the East Friday, January 23, 2004 By Al Myatt ECU Beat Writer for The News & Observer

Imaginary bowl spawned real-life results

©2004 Bonesville.net

There’s no question that East Carolina won the first annual Virtual Bowl, the brainchild of Boneyardbanter.com poster Doug Groome.

With John Thompson and the football coaching staff poised to enter the height of the recruiting season, Groome correctly figured last month that ECU was going to be seeking a large number of incoming players from outside the state.

Groome, an ECU grad and financial planner in Charlotte, knew that out of state tuition is significantly higher and conceived a means to generate some additional revenue for the Pirate Club, whose fund-raising efforts largely underwrite the cost of athletics scholarships.

Although ECU wasn’t going to a bowl, as had become more or less a habit for the Pirates in their not-so-distant history, Groome said, ‘Why not sell tickets to an imaginary bowl?’ Posters on the Boneyard had fun with it. Because it was virtual, there were any number of entertaining scenarios — the Beatles and the Rolling Stones appearing at halftime, etc.

Barbecue Bowl and Beach Bowl were among names suggested but Virtual Bowl stuck.

Groome credited Jason Whichard, former president of the Charlotte area Pirate Club chapter, with helping the movement from an organizational standpoint. The event was structured such that tickets were priced at $30 each and the Pirate Club began getting checks from true ECU fans.

Pirate Club executive director Dennis Young said Thursday that over $20,000 had been raised by the impromptu project.

“That was $20,000 we didn’t expect and it helped us set an annual giving record,” Young said.

Assistant Pirate Club director Matt Maloney said the Virtual Bowl pushed the Pirate Club over its annual goal of $3.45 million.

The Pirate Club plans to select a fan from among those who supported the Virtual Bowl to team with Groome and raise the Jolly Roger adjacent to the players’ entrance to Bagwell Field at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium from the Murphy Center next season before the first home game with Wake Forest.

The Virtual Bowl was a statement about loyalty and belief in ECU football after a 1-11 season. It reflected the enthusiasm that Thompson succeeded in generating about the program since his arrival despite the dismal record.

“Virtual Bowl ticket sales are a great testament to Pirate fans and their support of our program,” said interim athletics director Nick Floyd. “It shows the true Pirate spirit in going the extra mile to do anything and everything they can to help the program.”

Young had said he would shave his head and Maloney had vowed to get a Mohawk if Virtual Bowl ticket sales reached certain levels. Young’s plateau was a safe $300,000.

“When you put a price on your head like that it’s got to be a pretty high threshold,” Young explained.

It was a heartwarming grassroots display even if it didn’t bring new hairstyles for the Pirate Club brass.

“It was really an enormous amount of money considering there was only a short period of time to promote it and it was during the holiday season,” Groome said. “Hopefully it had a positive impact for players, coaches and fans.”

The Charlotte Business Journal did a blurb on the novel effort. Groome’s preacher at Dillworth United Methodist Church, Duke Ison, even delivered a sermon about turning negatives into positives that was based on the Virtual Bowl.

“Hopefully, we’ll go to a real bowl next year,” Groome said.

The Pirate nation can say a big “Amen” to that.

Two more board the Pirate ship

And speaking of those out of state football scholarships, ECU has added football commitments from running back Chris Johnson of Orlando (Fla.) Olympia High and offensive lineman Chris Sellers of New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico.

Johnson is another blur in terms of speed with an electronically-timed 10.62-second 100 meters on his high school resume. He is also the 12th Florida high school player to commit to ECU and showed plenty of potential despite playing in only the last four games of his senior season because of a fractured fibula earlier in the year.

Sellers, who played on the high school level in Newport News, Va., will enter ECU as a junior with the possibility of a redshirt year remaining. The 305-pounder played tackle and tight end in New Mexico Military Institute’s option offense. Incidentally, President George W. Bush visited Sellers’ school in Roswell on Thursday.

With signing day less than two weeks away, the latest pair of verbals brings to 28 the number of players reported by Bonesville.net to have committed to joining the ECU recruiting class of 2004.

C-USA office moving to Dallas

Conference USA’s pending move of its league office from Chicago to Dallas makes sense from the standpoint of geography. With DePaul and Marquette moving to the Big East, the Windy City is no longer within the league’s periphery.

There will be significantly more C-USA members in Texas than any other state when realignment is completed for 2005-06. C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky has maintained a residence in Dallas since following Mike Slive as the league’s CEO. Dallas is a transportation hub so the transition, due to be completed by July, should be seamless.

AD search committee meets today

The ECU athletics director search committee will meet this afternoon. The committee plans to go into closed session immediately after convening in order to review, discuss and evaluate candidates for the position, according to the the university news bureau.

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02/23/2007 12:44:53 AM
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