7.5 Seconds Of Fame

For those of you who follow VT Football, you know that the Hokies clobbered Syracuse on Saturday, after a two-year streak of losses to the Orangemen. But there was another quest going on during the football action: to get us on ESPN.

First, we randomly landed great seats, right above the alcove in Lane Stadium where the Hokies take the field (essentially the same seats we had for the Miami game in 2001). We quickly noticed that both the HokieVision and ESPN cameras were not too far from us. And since the HokieVision guy kept panning back to us at different points in the game, getting our mugs on the Jumbotron, we thought there'd be a chance for the ESPN guy to do the same. One of our traditions is to throw streamers when the clock counts down to zero on a Hokie win, and we've always wanted national TV recognition for it. I mean, who wouldn't?

So, if you were watching ESPN coming back from a commercial break toward the end of the first quarter, you could probably see Dave, Gerritt, and a quarter of my head, screaming like hooligans. We were testing out the ESPN waters. After halftime, Gerritt, Jen, Gina, and I cooked up an elaborate plan to get on TV involving Jen writing a note on a napkin, several failed attempts to get the ESPN guy's attention, an old HokieVision guy rubbing Gina's head, Gina and Jen flashing smiles at cameramen, and an extremely cool red-shirted security guard (not the kind that always died on Star Trek) who we saw dancing to the MV's Stick It In cheer. Red Shirt Security Guy promised he'd get the cameramen's attention as time wound down so we could throw our streamers in full national-TV glory.

When the time came, our Elaborate Plan was a success. Sort of. ESPN Guy did swing his camera around as time ran out, but the network didn't cut to his feed until well after the streamers had flown. But, my friends, our faces were still on national TV. The tape will show that we were there, being crazy Hokies, for about ten seconds at the end of the game. Nice work, everyone! I'll be signing autographs tomorrow.

Note: Josh has promised to convert the VHS of this event for Internet consumption, as soon as I can get a tape out to him. Look for that and more soon!