ESPN ad gives Tangier islanders 15 minutes of fame

In case you missed it on "Monday Night Football," tiny Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay is The Biggest Sports Town in America.

Per capita, that is.

Residents of the remote island agreed over the summer to star in an ad campaign for ESPN3.com, which streams sports over the Internet. Because the island just recently got broadband service, and because the residents really are pretty big on sports, it was a natural fit, said Donna Bozza, tourism director on the Eastern Shore.

In one of the eight ads, you will see Dorothea Pruitt wearing an Alabama Crimson Tide T-shirt and saying of the team's coach, "Don't tell my husband, but I got a crush on Nick Saban," and then laughing heartily.

You'll see Tangier Mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge holding up a blue crab, which is holding up its pincers, and Eskridge saying, "Hook 'em Horns," referring to the Texas Longhorns' hand gesture.

You'll see island residents using a golf cart to pull a net across the airport runway so they can play tennis, and Craig Bonniwell unfurling a banner proclaiming, "Go Beavers" from the top of the island's water tower, which he has just climbed.

"I don't know why he would do that," said island resident Glenna Crockett, and she laughed, too. She also said that the tennis/runway bit wasn't really how they do things on Tangier. But, she added, "It's just so funny. It's good funny."

All the ads, including one with crab races, can be seen online. The day was so hot when that ad was shot that the crabs didn't want to move, Bozza said.

"They kept having to dump them back in the water to revive them," she said, and also laughed. "I don't think the film crew really had crabs in a starring role in any of their productions before."

ESPN3 is hoping the ads bring more traffic to its website. Tangier is hoping they bring more tourists to its streets (no cars, only golf carts; no highway access, only ferries and planes).

The ads are a hit among the island's 507 residents, but the process was even more popular than the finished product.

The film crew spent a whole week on Tangier, paying for lodging and food and hiring locals to drive them around. Guess who laughed all the way to the bank.

Diane Tennant, (757) 446-2478, diane.tennant@pilotonline.com