Sports world pays tribute to the fallen
Clark Ruhland, CT Staff Writer
April 19, 2007
Virginia Tech's sporting world began to resume on Wednesday. The baseball and softball teams began to pick up the pieces and resumed practice. A baseball game will be the first sporting event on campus since the shooting tragedy on Monday when the Hokies host Miami at 7 p.m. on Friday night. Softball will play a double-header on Saturday against Maryland. Tech's lacrosse team will resume practice on Friday night in preparation for Saturday's scheduled contest against Maryland.
The University of Miami baseball team wore black armbands and had a moment of silence on Wednesday in its home game against North Florida. The Hurricanes will travel to Blacksburg today in preparation for their weekend series against the Hokies starting on Friday night at 7 p.m. A check will be presented to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund for $10,000 from the University of Miami before Friday night's contest.
The University of Virginia also held a moment of silence before their sporting events on Wednesday. The Cavalier sports teams are working on a way to memorialize Monday's events on their teams' uniforms.
Florida State also honored Virginia Tech with a moment of silence in its sporting events on Wednesday. The Seminole track, tennis and golf teams will all wear orange & maroon at this weekend's Atlantic Coast Conference championship events.
The Richmond Braves, the Atlanta Braves AAA baseball team, wore Virginia Tech hats Wednesday night Louisville. Braves players will wear the same hats again today, and following the game the hats will be auctioned off with 100 percent of the proceeds to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund.
Penn State's students are planning to memorialize Virginia Tech during its annual football spring game this Saturday. Senior Bill Solomon has led the charge to set up the entire student section to wear orange & maroon t-shirts at the game. Known for its giant "S" section at football games, the section will be laid out for a maroon VT logo in front of an orange background. The whole idea started with a Facebook group with over 10,000 members. The Nitanny Lion athletic department has donated 800 shirts and those beyond that number are urged to wear orange to the game. The game annually draws 60,000 fans.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be donning Virginia Tech shirts and hats during the NFL Draft on Apr. 28-29. Team general manager Bruce Allen, brother of former Virginia Senator George Allen, ordered the paraphernalia for the entire coaching staff for practices and meetings.