BRISTOL, Va. – A sea of maroon and orange filled the Bristol Public Library as a standing-room only crowd arrived Tuesday to see Virginia Tech Football Coach Frank Beamer speak and sign autographs.
“Any time I come out to speak to groups like this I’m kind of reminded where I come from,” said Beamer, who grew up in Fancy Gap, Va., a small town off Interstate 77 between Hillsville and the North Carolina border.
Beamer has coached football at Virginia Tech since 1987 and has an overall record at the school of 176 wins, 89 losses and two ties.
He’s perhaps best known for the 2007 football season when he led Tech’s team to an Atlantic Coast Conference championship after a lone gunman shot and killed 33 people at the school’s campus that April.
“He’s a great coach,” said Chris Vaughn, who brought his 3-year-old son to see Beamer’s speech. “I’ve literally missed work to watch his team play.”
Vaughn also brought about 10 things he hoped Beamer would autograph for him at the event. Vaughn said his cousin was at Virginia Tech when the shooting happened and the leadership Beamer and the football team showed helped bring the school back together after the tragedy.
Vaughn said that quality, along with Beamer’s reputation for fairness, genuineness and belief in others, goes well with people in Southwest Virginia and was one of the reasons the coach attracted the crowd that he did Tuesday.
“The only problem is that you’ve got a lot of Tennessee fans down here too,” said Vaughn, who has often wondered why the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech have never faced in a game.
After the speech, Beamer said he didn’t think such a game, which would likely take place a the Bristol Motor Speedway, could happen.
He said Tennessee would probably be unwilling to split ticket revenues with Tech from the 160,000-seat Speedway when they get every penny brought in from their 100,000-seat stadium in Knoxville. He also said national media outlets would be more interested in a game between Tech and a college from a different part of the country, such as the University of Nebraska, than a game between two colleges from the same part of the country.
During his speech, Beamer talked about a few of the lessons he’s learned in his life, including the value of a positive attitude, maturity, and the fact that a person’s life can change in a split second.
In keeping with this message, Beamer said he would support former Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick in his efforts to get re-instated with the National Football League. Vick, who played at Tech before he went to Atlanta, was suspended from the NFL in 2007 after he was charged with running a dog-fighting ring out of his Surry County, Va., home. Vick, 28 of Newport News, Va., pleaded guilty to the charges in November 2007 and was sentenced to spend 23 months in federal prison.
“[Michael Vick’s] sorry for what he’s done and realized he’s made a mistake,” Beamer said.
Letting Vick play football again, Beamer said, would give the former quarterback a chance to show the world how it’s possible for a person to redeem themselves after they’ve made a mistake.
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518
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