ODU football | Were you there when...

One gifted family

The gifts started showing up on Pam Wilder's doorstep in Norfolk's Larchmont neighborhood a couple days ago and continued into Saturday. Various offerings of food. Bottles of champagne. "Good luck" cards. Even a golf cart on loan, for use over the long, historic weekend for her family.

It wasn't "welcome to the neighborhood exactly" - the Wilders moved in more than two years ago - but welcome, at last, to football into the neighborhood.

"It's been overwhelming," the wife of ODU head coach Bobby Wilder said of her friends bearing presents. "I just didn't expect it."

Speaking of welcomes, the Wilders welcomed six family members into their home for ODU's debut, from as far away as Phoenix. In all, 25 members of the Wilder clan trekked into the area for the big day.

- Tom Robinson

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'We're faster and bigger'

Not long after the gates opened to fans, Lennie Hicks boldly announced his arrival. "C! U!," Hicks bellowed as he led a busload of Chowan students into Foreman Field, then paraded them past a section of hooting ODU students.

Hicks, a former Chowan lineman who said he suffered a career-ending leg injury last year, had strips of eye black on his face, his right foot in a boot, and fight in his words.

"This isn't a tough situation," Hicks said as Foreman Field's grandstands filled up. "This is a first-year team, we're rebuilding, so we're about even. I know they're fast and big, but we're faster and bigger."

Hicks said he attends Chowan's practices and was confident in what he'd seen from the Hawks. "It's beautiful," he said. "They're ready to play and to kick butt. We're tired of being disrespected; we've been disrespected for years. It's time to turn that around."

- Tom Robinson

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Contest winners have field day

When Blaine and Heather Tudor were opening an account at ABNB Federal Credit Union, little did they know it would lead to their being in the main attraction at ODU's big game Saturday.

The Tudors won the "Monarch for a Day" contest and ran onto the field with cheerleaders carrying flags with "O," "D" and "U" on them, sprinting ahead of the Monarchs themselves as they took the field.

As luck would have it, both graduated from ODU, Blaine in 1980 and Heather in 1988.

- Rich Radford

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Roseann Runte returns

Spotted on the Kaufman Mall more than two hours before kickoff was Roseann Runte, former ODU president, who gave the green light to football.

"I promised I'd be here," she said. "I keep my promises."

Runte flew in Saturday from Ottawa, where she is president of Carleton University. She applauded the ODU players as they marched through the mall en route to Foreman Field.

Between the first and second quarters, she came onto the field and was introduced to the crowd. "Everybody has worked very hard on this," she said. "I'm so happy for all of them."

At U.S. customs, an agent asked Runte the purpose of her trip. "I said, 'To watch a football game.' "

What the customs agent couldn't know is that the woman who got the sport rolling at ODU was attending her first football game.

- Bob Molinaro

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Tix just in time

Kate Brooks and Sean Eames stood outside the stadium holding a well-worn paper sign that had originally read "We need 2 Tickets," only to have the "we" crossed out and changed to "I," the "2" to a "1," then back again. The sign, they said, was a hand-me-down from a stranger who already had scored the ticket he needed.

Now it was Brooks' and Eames' turn. The Wilmington, N.C., couple arrived in Norfolk in the hopes of getting into the stadium. Brooks graduated from ODU in 2002.

"We've been praying for football for years," she said.

Just then, a man walked up saying a friend had backed out at the last minute, leaving him with two extra tickets on the 40-yard line.

"Oh, my God, I'll pay you for them," Brooks said, fumbling for cash. She and Eames beamed, joking about framing the tickets - and the makeshift sign that had worked its magic.

It was exactly one minute until kickoff.

- Meghan Hoyer

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Tailgaters like view

Lois Lawrence and Alicia Herr spent the afternoon tailgate hopping, visiting with friends, and watching the band and players march through Kaufman Mall.

At about 5 p.m., they set up their camp chairs on the sidewalk along 49th Street.

The pair didn't have tickets to the game. But from their vantage point, they had a full view of the stadium's big screen - allowing them to see every play as it happened.

"We just figured the tailgate would be more fun," Lawrence said.

Herr, manager of ODU's chemistry department, said football already had changed the university.

"It's been awesome," Herr said. "This has really energized the campus."

- Meghan Hoyer

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Free cups from a 'fore head'

From the driver's seat of a golf cart emblazoned with the slogan "Go Big Blue!" Flip Aspinwall shouted at tailgaters, looking to dispense thousands of white plastic cups imprinted with the football schedule.

His moving and storage company was giving the mementos away. "We're just trying to help the university go."

Aspinwall, who organizes the "Ted Heads" at basketball games, changed the name of his rally posse to the "Fore Heads" in honor of Foreman Field. The ODU football T-shirt and hat he wore in the tailgating lots were only a "warm-up " outfit - by the time the game started, he would change into a gray helmet, face paint, star-shaped glasses, and a tie-dyed blue shirt.

As he pulled away, the Monarchs flag flapped in the breeze from the roof of his cart.

"You guys need cups?" he shouted at the next truck of tailgaters. "Cups?"

- Meghan Hoyer

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 Art for a cause

Across the street from Foreman Field, three of the university's art students painted paw prints, ODU logos, footballs and blue-and-white swirls on the faces of fans entering the game.

The students, all members of the university's art club, did the work to raise donations to travel to New York.

Ashley Pickin, a senior, had done roughly 60 paintings Saturday afternoon - including working on three elaborate lion faces.

Malik Asante put the finishing touches on an ODU logo for alum George Shpil. Shpil's wife, Gale, had a similar painting, with a decorative swirl, on her left cheek. "This is one of the things I wanted to do," she said. "This is what it's all about."

Art lecturer Patricia Edwards said the face painting was a way for the students to use their talent to support the school community. "This is just one way we thought we could give back and get spirit going," she said.

The artwork caught the eye of Norview resident John Legault.

"I wanted some paw prints," he said. "I had to have something blue." He pointed apologetically to his white shirt and madras shorts.

"I'm almost 60 years old, and this is my first college football game," he explained.

Legault will have more games under his belt by the end of the fall - he bought season tickets to cheer ODU. "We're starving for sports around here," he said. "I've been here since noon. I was just so excited. I couldn't get here early enough."

- Meghan Hoyer

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Blue man? Um, no

Saturday marked the first away appearance for the Smurf Club, the heavily body-painted group of superfans from Chowan.

Jason Villegas, a 21-year-old religion major, took a charter bus to Norfolk from Chowan's campus Saturday morning. He arrived across from Foreman Field and immediately lathered up in blue and white.

Villegas started the Smurf Club as a freshman and has organized as many as 20 to 30 Smurfs for one game.

ODU fans snapped pictures of Villegas as he put his game face on. They were excited by the school spirit and awed by the paint, as if they were witnessing the making of Blue Man Group. But they were soon disappointed. After the pictures, Villegas told them his group was made up of fans from Chowan. (The two schools have similar color schemes.)

With six Smurfs, the group members write "CHOWAN" on their chests. With four, as they had Saturday, they simply spelled "GO CU."

- Mike Gruss

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Gear for fearless

One of the popular items sold at Saturday's game was a wig of wild blue hair that only added credence to the phrase "Monarch Maniac."

Matt Rowlands, 14, of Stafford bought a wig before the game and said it was the latest purchase in a long line of ODU gear. He owns a long-sleeve T-shirt, a sweatshirt and a basketball T-shirt with the ODU logo.

Having watched traditional college football powerhouses such as Virginia Tech and Michigan play in person, Rowlands said he hoped the wig added to the big-game atmosphere associated with Saturday's matchup.

Before the game, when he wasn't wearing the wig, he was petting it. It quickly became evident, no amount of flattening was going to make the hair on that wig stay flat.

Regardless, Rowlands said he expected to don the new 'do for the entirety of Saturday's game.

- Mike Gruss

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A mane event

Is Big Blue king of the jungle or king of the tailgate?

In a parking lot near ODU's library Saturday afternoon, the head of Big Blue, the school's crowned mascot, was resting atop a green pickup.

So much for those T-shirts claiming "our mascot can beat up your mascot."

In this case, the costumed lion mask belongs to Rob Dalby, an ODU alum who was the former equipment manager for the school's basketball team. While in college, Dalby was emptying the trash one night when he spotted the mascot's noggin. He couldn't leave Big Blue like that, so he nabbed it for himself.

Saturday, it made a reappearance, as the lion's head was proudly displayed as the centerpiece of a 15-vehicle tailgate.

The newer Big Blue was spotted later in the afternoon, head intact.

- Mike Gruss