By Harry Minium
With less than two dozen players, there weren't quite enough guys and gals to field two complete football teams at the 52nd annual Priority Automotive Charity Bowl Friday night at S.B. Ballard Stadium.
That didn't matter, as they split up into smaller teams, and played for more than an hour anyway. The game wasn't a full-speed affair, given the diversity of ages and genders, but was fun to watch, especially because it featured some former Old Dominion football stars.
Yet the most important part of the game, said Ray Potter, who helped found the game in 1968, "is what they're doing up there," he said, pointing to the Priority Automotive Club.
While former college players, TV personalities, and one very determined former student equipment manager for the Monarchs, went at it in a flag football game, dozens of people were in the Priority Automotive Club being entertained by the Spin Doctors.
Those donors and others gave more than $800,000 that will be distributed to 39 different charities in Hampton Roads that benefit children.
That's more than twice what the event raised for charity just three years ago and $300,000 more than last year. And the credit goes to Dennis Ellmer, my old Norview High School classmate, who has been relentless when it comes to raising money for kids.
Ellmer took over the Charity Bowl, then just a football game, more than a decade ago and turned it into a major fundraising event. Not only is a football game played, so is a concert.
TJ Ricks, Blake LaRussa and Karen Simonic
Attracting the Spin Doctors, by the way, was a pretty big deal. I last saw the band a couple of decades ago with my daughters and then-wife and about 10,000 other people in Williamsburg. On Friday, they played exclusively in the Priority Automotive Club for a few hundred people who dug deep into their pockets to help children.
The band played with gusto, as if they were also playing for the kids.
Ellmer is a self-made millionaire, a poor boy who grew up in Norfolk's blue collar Ocean View neighborhood, worked hard and built Priority Automotive into a major business with car dealerships all over Hampton Roads and other parts of Virginia and North Carolina. He has two daughters and a son, upon whom he dotes upon, and perhaps that explains his penchant for helping kids.
Over the years, he's raised and donated millions of dollars to children's charities.
The Spin Doctors played in the Priority Automotive Club
He said one of the reasons he's pushed to make the Charity Bowl such a big fundraiser was the loss of Norfolk Southern, a Fortune 500 company that moved from downtown Norfolk to Atlanta.
"When we lost Norfolk Southern, that left a big void," Ellmer said. "They were very charitable.
"But the rest of the community has stepped up in a big way."
Many of the donors who attended Friday night's event are also ODU donors, but some aren't – they just care about kids and when Ellmer told them there's a need to be filled, they gave generously.
On Sept. 20, Priority Lexus will host a golf tournament at Virginia Beach National to raise money for the event. Below is a link to the list of charities that will benefit, including ForKids, St. Mary's Infant Home and the Joy Fund.
Priority Charity Bowl Beneficiaries
Former ODU quarterbacks David Washington and Blake LaRussa led the ODU team to an easy victory over the Priority Auto team, which had some big-name players: former Penn State star D.J. Dozier, and and T.J. Morgan, from the University of Richmond; and former Booker T. Washington and UR star James Church, a Priority executive.
They also had former Norview High and Norfolk State star Orlando Goodhope and former Norfolk Nighthawks standout Anthony Stringfield.
They were joined by WTKR journalists Beverly Kidd, Kurt Williams and April Loveland, all three of whom are pretty good athletes.
Back on the ODU side, former student manager Karen Simonic, a teacher and coach the last four years at Kempsville High, played her first football game. No one hustled faster than Karen did the three years when she worked for equipment manage Danny Cornier at ODU.
"It was just a cool opportunity to play a football game," she said. "I've been around football a long time. Just having the opportunity to play a game, and be with the guys I've been around, that was awesome."
LaRussa, the hero of ODU's 49-35 victory over Virginia Tech in 2018, said he misses football and coming back even for a flag game felt good. Tommy Reamon, one of the first players to sign with ODU, also played.
Former ODU star TJ Ricks, who looks like he's still in playing shape, said he came out to relive some old memories.
"That's what I miss most, being with my teammates, just hanging out with them," he said. "And being here," he added, looking around at the stadium.
The Charity Bowl will again be played in April, a date Ellmer hopes will be permanent, and he's hoping more ODU football players will participate.
"I called a bunch of guys to try to get them out here tonight," LaRussa said. "But it's Friday night and they're all coaching high school football games.
"They won't have that excuse next year."
Donors mingling just outside the Priority Automotive Club
Ellmer said he wants to make the Charity Bowl more of an ODU game, since it is being held on campus.
"And we don't want to limit it just to former ODU football players," he said. "Any former ODU athletes who want to come out, we want them to be here."
Ellmer estimates that nearly half of the $800,000 will come from the golf tournament and as soon as that's over, he, Ray Potter and others will get together and begin planning the next Charity Bowl.
Ellmer and the Charity Bowl Board of directors vet every charity the game benefits. Ellmer is joined by Ed Amoroso, Stacy Cummings, Bruce Rader, Roland Davis and Brad Swartz, whose top priorities are making sure every dime raised goes to kids in Hampton Roads. You would be surprised at how much money from other "local" charities ends up in other regions.
"Most of the kids these charities are helping are the ones that need the most help," Ellmer said. "Some don't have great parents at home. We're helping kids that need a helping hand the most."
Which makes all of the effort expended Friday night, from the food servers in the Priority Club to the players to lead guitarist Chris Barron and Karen Simonic, more than worth it.
Minium was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in his 39 years at The Virginian-Pilot and won 27 state and national writing awards. He covers ODU athletics for odusports.com Follow him on Twitter @Harry_MiniumODU, Instagram @hbminium1 or email hminium@odu.edu
Minium: Dennis Ellmer, Charity Bowl Raised $800,000 Friday Night for Local Charities
