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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, December 27, 2000
Tech's fans in cold storage before bowl
HOUSTON, Dec. 27, 2000 (AP) - Promoters of the galleryfurniture.com
Bowl have done their best to make a success of the first bowl game played
in the Astrodome since 1987.
Now it's up to Texas Tech and East Carolina to put on a good show and
the fans to show up to see Wednesday night's game.
"If we do a good job marketing this, we should have between 30,000 and
40,000 people at the game," sponsor Jim McIngvale said. "I think 40,000
would exceed my wildest expectations."
That might be a stretch since icy weather threatened to sock in Tech
fans from West Texas and East Carolina fans purchased only about 3,000
tickets, well below expectations.
Early on, there were misunderstandings over the progress of ticket sales.
Promoter Jerry Ippolito said in early December that 28,000 tickets had
been sold. In reality, only 4,200 tickets had been sold at that point.
Despite the early overstating, McIngvale expects a good first year after
giving away 250,000 memorabilia items and heavy advertising to promote
the game.
"Houston is a football town," McIngvale said. "We have been without
the NFL for several years now, and it's coming back. The college bowl game
is coming back."
Texas Tech (7-5), the No. 7 from the Big 12, and East Carolina (7-4),
Conference-USA's No. 3 team, have their energies focused on the field.
Both teams offer potentially high-scoring offenses with Tech led by
quarterback Kliff Kingsbury and East Carolina's more balanced offense,
led by junior quarterback David Garrard.
"We have to step up and play like it's our last game," Garrard said.
"It is the last game of the season but we've got to play like it's the
last game you'll play in your life.
"We are kind of known as a slow-starting offense but we can't do that
in this game. Once you put yourself in a hole it's hard to come out of
it. We've had that happen to us this year."
Garrard completed 164 of 312 passes for 2,332 yards and 19 touchdowns
this season and ranked 32nd nationally in passing efficiency. He was East
Carolina's second leading rusher with 358 yards.
"The main thing we have to do is swarm to the ball and gang tackle him,
don't let him get loose," Tech defensive tackler Kris Kocurek said. "We
can't give him time in the pocket to set up and throw the ball. We have
to get heat on him and make him throw the ball quick."
Rec hoops skills class deadline Friday
PECOS, Dec. 27, 2000 -- Friday is the final day for boys and girls to register
for the Reeves County Community Sports and Recreation Department's youth
fundamentals classes, before the start of the winter youth basketball league.
The RCCRC will be enrolling boys and girls for the winter Pee Wee Basketball
league until Jan. 5, but those wanting to have their children participate
in the pre-season fundamentals program have to sign up at the RCCRC office
in the old Pecos High School gym by Friday.
The program is open to all boys and girls between the ages of 5 and
12. A birth certificate and signature from both parents is needed at the
time of registration, along with the $10 entry fee per player.
Registrations can be done at the RCCRD between 5 and 10 p.m. today through
Friday for both programs, and through Jan. 5 for the Pee Wee league only.
For further information, call 447-9776.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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