USD Football 1994

Trains,Planes and Automobiles continued their opponents were accessible by rail, and also because their coach, Bowden Wyatt, didn't like to fly. "We would normally fly Morris College, and Carnegie Mellon University. Robert Morris is a business college with an enrollment of approximately 3,500 students. Its basketball team made an unprecedented jump from

plenty of interesting side trips for Lackner and his players. "We've been to The Alamo (San Antonio), and when we were in St. Louis we visited The Arch and the Anheuser-Busch Brewery," said Lackner. "This year, when we go to Rhodes Col- lege, in Memphis, we plan to visit Graceland. We've been on a boat ride down the Mississippi, we've been to the Eastman- Kodak mansion in Rochester, New York, and we've toured the McDonald-Douglass plant. We've had some great trips." Back at the Division I level, Texas A&.M's R.C. Slocum is one who believes in the educa- tional opportunities road trips can provide-even to America's most exotic tourist haven. "I was afraid of that (Hawaii) trip when I first heard that we were going to play there," said Slocum. "We were the first team to win there in three years, and I talked to some of the people I knew in the military and got quite a bit of input about what you do in the military when you have to move troops across sev- eral time zones. We bused to Houston, then took a direct flight to Honolulu. As I recall, we went on a Wednesday. We gave them their one day at the beach, but you have to remem- ber that this is not pro football. These are college students, too, and I thought it would be a shame if as part of their educa- tion we didn't take a bunch of American kids out to see Pearl Harbor." And what about the hazards of training for a football game in the Aloha State? "We didn't stay too long at the beach because of the sun- burn factor," said Slocum. "And those motor scooters were also off-limits."

road trips to be planned. BobMcBee, the school's ath- letic director last spring, is now in his first year as A.D. at East- ern Illinois University, but before leaving RM, McBee was responsible for seeing that the first edition of Robert Morris football had its travel plans squared away. "We're looking at a travel party of somewhere between 75 to 80 people, which for us means two buses," said McBee, referring to a road slate of Way- nesburg, Central Connecticut State, Wagner, St. Francis, PA, and Mercyhurst. "OnlyWagner and Central Connecticut State are overnight trips; everything else is up and back (the same day), so we're in pretty good shape. In the future, what you'd like to do is stay at some of the same places (hotels) for football that you use for men's and women's basketball. That gives you some bargaining leverage when you're looking to book rooms for football." Carnegie Mellon, an NCAA Division III member institu- tion, is located-literally-down the street from the University of Pittsburgh. Noted for its engineering and theater arts departments, its long list of for- mer students includes a young artist named Andy Warhol. Rich Lackner, a native Pitts- burgher, has coached the Tar- tans for eight years. Unlike most Division Ill schools, CMU normally makes one or two plane trips a year-usually to St. Louis and/or Chicago, and even as far as to San Anto• nio, Texas, where it plays Trin- ity University. A road trip for the Tartans generally means two nights away from home, for various reasons. "When we take a trip, we always stay two nights," con- firmed Lackner. "That provides us with a less expensive plane ticket, but it also provides us with a chance to do some tour- ing while we're in that particu- lar city, and gives our kids a chance to enjoy the city." Trips to St. Louis, Chicago and San Antonio have provided

anywhere that was more than a four-hour trip, or any trip where we had to go over the moun- tains, 11 said Majors. But a road trip is still a road

junior-college status to NCAA Division I in 1976, and has par- ticipated in five NCAA Divi-

Mississippi State head coach Jackie Sherrill finds it helpful to choose a hotel away from the game site to allow his players to avoid distractions on the road.

SAM SCIULLO JR. IS ASSISTANT SPORTS INFORMATION DIRECTOR AT THE U NIVERSITY OF PITTS- BURGH. H E HAS ALSO WORK.ED AT ROBERT M ORRIS COLLEGE AND TEXAS A&.M UNIVERSITY.

sion I basketball tournaments. This fall, RMC is fielding a football team for the first time ever. As of May 1994, the Colo- nials had 19 players committed to play football this fall-plus a nine-game schedule with five

trip, and players and coaches from Division II and Division Ill schools have to make arrangements just like the folks at Division I schools. Two unique cases exist at schools in the Pittsburgh area-Robert