By Harry Minium
Dear Virginia Tech football fans,
I hear thousands of you are headed for Norfolk this weekend to watch the Hokies take on Old Dominion. And although the stadium here is far smaller than Lane Stadium, I can promise you the atmosphere will be better than what you experience at many ACC road games.
ODU’s Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium seats just 20,118, but the fans get revved up. It’s an intimate stadium with acoustics that seem to amplify crowd noise.
This won’t be like visiting Boston College, Pitt or North Carolina, where often more than half of the seats are empty. The place will be packed and jumping.
With that said, be forewarned that the creature comforts here are far from sumptuous. The concessions area and restrooms are inadequate and the seats are a bit cramped. It’s an 82-year-old stadium built at a time when creature comforts weren’t a priority, and frankly, when people were shorter and lighter than they are today.
The good news is that this is ODU’s last season playing at Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium as we know it.
ODU had hoped to have a makeover completed in time for this game, but delays pushed it back. ODU will spend $65 million in the offseason on an ambitious renovation of Ballard Stadium. The next time Tech returns in 2022, you’ll see a beautiful facility and far better fan comforts.
Regardless, you’ll experience tailgating at ODU on Saturday that’s passionate and surprisingly popular for an urban university. Tailgaters here rival some schools in the Power 5.
I covered Tech football as a reporter for The Virginian-Pilot, so I’m familiar with your legendary tailgate parties. My wife, Ellen, and I spent three hours in the tailgate lots last season when the Monarchs played at Lane Stadium and were impressed with your hospitality.
Many of you invited blue-clad ODU fans eat and socialize. I recall many asking about ODU’s football history.
You should expect the same hospitality here. When ODU football began in 2009, ODU’s tailgate lots were full from the first game.
It was as if a tailgate culture evolved almost instantly.
From campers with 70-inch TVs to people cooking out on a camping stove in a parking lot, thousands of ODU fans tailgate. Fans here are friendly. Mingle with them.
If you come down Friday night, the ODU and Tech alumni associations will have a joint pep rally in downtown Norfolk at the Waterside District. It’s a pretty cool place with a view of the Norfolk-Portsmouth harbor.
If you don’t have tickets to the game, there will be a watch party Saturday afternoon at the Waterside District. The city will sponsor a shuttle service for those of you staying downtown.
For those who don’t know a lot about ODU’s history, here’s a short primer.
The school is located in the center of the Tidewater area, midway between the world’s largest Naval base and downtown Norfolk. The Virginia Beach Oceanfront is 30 minutes away.
ODU was founded in 1930 as the College of William & Mary in Norfolk. Eventually, it became known as the College of William & Mary and VPI in Norfolk.
Yes, at one time the school was part of Virginia Tech.
At first, the school focused on training teachers and engineers, and while the school has expanded to many other fields, its education and engineering programs remain highly respected.
The school became independent in 1962 and seven years later became Old Dominion University. It has grown from a commuter school when I attended in the 1970s to a school with 5,000 students living in residential halls. Thousands more live in adjacent neighborhoods.
Many of its academic programs, from oceanography to the Strome School of Business, are nationally respected. ODU has been a national leader in researching sea-level rise and is among the top schools in the nation in social mobility, meaning many of its graduates are the first in their families with a college degree.
ODU’s nearly 25,000 students study in 156 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. If you’re looking for online courses, ODU is among the nation’s leaders in distance learning.
ODU was recently ranked among the nation’s best public schools by U.S. News and World Report.
The school has grown tremendously under President John R. Broderick, who is entering his 10th year and has overseen an increase of $800 million in private and public funding.
The old Norfolk Division played football for a decade, then abandoned the sport in 1940. There were attempts to bring football back, but none came to fruition until 2007, when the Board of Visitors approved re-starting football.
ODU hired Bobby Wilder, the offensive coordinator at Maine, and played its first season in the Football Championship Subdivision as an independent in 2009. ODU opened that first season with a 36-21 victory over Chowan and finished 9-2.
In 2011, ODU football joined the Colonial Athletic Association and got a bid to the FCS playoffs, advancing to the second round. Then, in July 2012, ODU announced it was would join Conference USA and move up to FBS in 2013. It was an audacious move by a school preparing for just its fourth season.
ODU finished 11-2 and sixth in the FCS national poll that season. And by the way, in nine seasons, ODU is 17-1 against FCS schools in Virginia. The only loss came to William & Mary, a four-point defeat in ODU’s second season.
Quarterback Taylor Heinicke, who would become the state’s all-time passing leader, led ODU to 8-4 and 6-6 records in ODU’s two transition seasons into FBS. In 2016, ODU won its first bowl game, 24-20 over Eastern Michigan in the Bahamas Bowl and finished 10-3, a remarkable accomplishment for a program that was just eight years old.
Now its 10th season, the Monarchs are hosting nationally ranked Virginia Tech. That may not seem like a big deal to you, but it is to the people at ODU, who never dreamed when they played their first game at Chowan that the state’s preeminent program would come here.
ODU athletic director Wood Selig said Tech’s embrace of ODU last season in the tailgate lots reminds him of his travels to places such as Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee in the SEC.
“That’s the way SEC fans respond and react,” he said. “They’re very friendly and accommodating before the game. They welcome you with open arms.
“But once the game kicks off, they are no longer your friends.”
You should expect no less from ODU faithful.
Like I said, the place will be jumping.
Virginia Tech football games in Norfolk
Nov. 6, 1897, Maryland-Baltimore County 18, Virginia Tech 4
Nov. 28, 1901, Virginia Tech 21, VMI 0
Nov. 9, 1903, Virginia Tech 21, North Carolina 0
Nov. 10, 1906, Bucknell, 10, Virginia Tech 0
Nov. 26, 1908, N.C. State 6, Virginia Tech 5
Nov. 25, 1909, Virginia Tech 18, N.C. State 5
Nov. 24, 1910, N.C.State 5, Virginia Tech 3
Oct. 6, 1911, Virginia Tech 12, Maryland-Baltimore County 0
Nov. 30, 1911, Virginia Tech 3, N.C. State 0
Oct. 28, 1916, Virginia Tech 40, N.C. State 0
Nov, 17, 1917, Virginia Tech 7, N.C. State 7
Nov, 16, 1918, Virginia Tech 25, N.C. State 0
Nov. 15, 1919, N.C. State 3, Virginia Tech 0
Nov. 11, 1920, N.C. State 14, Virginia Tech 6
Nov. 11, 1921, Virginia Tech 7, N.C. State 3
Nov. 22, 1922, Virginia Tech 24, N.C. State 0
Nov. 10, 1923, Virginia Tech 16, N.C. State 0
Oct. 16, 1926, Virginia Tech 24, N.C. State 8
Oct. 15, 1927, Maryland 13, Virginia Tech 7
Nov. 3, 1928, Virginia Tech 9, Maryland 6
Nov. 16. 1929, Maryland 24, Virginia Tech 0
Nov. 15, 1930, Maryland 13, Virginia Tech 6
Oct. 7, 1933, Virginia Tech 20, Maryland 0
Oct. 20, 1934, Maryland 14, Virginia Tech 9
Oct. 7 1939, North Carolina 13, Virginia Tech 6
Nov. 2, 1940, Virginia Tech 6, Virginia 0
Nov. 1, 1941, Virginia 34, Virginia Tech 0
Oct. 31, 1942, Virginia Tech 24, Virginia 14
Oct. 29, 1949, N.C. State 14, Virginia Tech 13
Oct 20, 1951, Duke 55, Virginia Tech 6
Sept. 29, 1956, Virginia Tech 35, N.C. State 6
Sept. 27, 1958, Wake Forest 13, Virginia Tech 7
Sept. 19, 1959, N.C. State 15, Virginia Tech 13
Nov. 15, 1969, Virginia Tech 48, Duke 12
Nov. 1, 1975, Virginia Tech 24, William and Mary 7
Nov. 15, 1980, Virginia Tech 21, VMI 6
Nov. 20, 1982, Virginia Tech 13, VMI 3
Oct. 6, 1984, Virginia Tech 54, VMI 7
Oct. 18, 1986, Temple 29, Virginia Tech 17 (Temple later forfeited).
Tech’s record in Norfolk: 22-16-1