By Hal Lamar
When tow meets leather Saturday afternoon at 12:30pm to begin the 1999 Heritage Bowl and when similar ceremonies a few hours afterward signal the beginning of the third annual Pioneer Bowl, history will have been made.
For the first time ever, two bowl games will be played under one roof.
Both the Heritage and the Pioneer Bowl will be played at the Georgia Dome. Although bowl games have been historically played on New Years Day, their venues are miles apart. This is the first time that two post-season outings have been held one behind the other.
In the opener, which will receive live coverage via NBC, The Pirates of Hampton University will take on the Jaguars of Southern.
For the latter, the trip to Atlanta is old hat. Southern has been involved 5 of the last 8 Heritage Bowls.
They were one of the first two teams to play in the game when it moved from Florida to Atlanta on January 1 1994. Before a crowd estimated at 35,000, the Jaguars blanked the Bulldogs of South Carolina State 11-0. The team returned to Atlanta in 1995 and defeated Florida A&M 30-25. They have returned every year since then and lost only one of the three outings. In 1996, the Jaguars lost to the Bison of Howard University 27-24.
At 6pm at the Georgia Dome, Winston Salem State University will take on the Tigers of Tuskegee in the third playing of the Pioneer Bowl.
The Rams, under head coach Kermit Blount, finished the season as this year's CIAA champs with a 7-0 conference and 7-3 overall. It was the first championship for Blount who came to WSSU in 1993 and the first conference crown for the school since 1991.
Tuskegee, black college football's winningest college, finished second in the SIAC this year with a 5-1 conference and 9-2 overall. Their two losses were to Fort Valley (31-28) and Alabama A&M (54-0).
Heritage officials are again predicting a crowd of over 40,000 which would be about 8000 more than they had last year. Their attendance might be affected by the live coverage afforded them by the network but Heritage executive director Craig Cason sees it as a big plus.
"This is an excellent recruiting tool for the conferences and the schools involved, " he said. It might hurt the gate a little early on but I think that will be temporary. Watching it on TV is one thing. Being here is another."
Pioneer bowl officials are generally mum about crowd expectations. Their first game drew over 10,000 fans to Herndon Stadium. Last year, the crowd was disappointing because of the steady rain all game-day. Reports were that many fans from both Tuskegee and Livingstone had made the trip to Atlanta but opted to remain in their hotel rooms.
GAME NOTES: This is will not be the first time that Hampton Head Coach Joe Taylor and Southern's Pete Richardson have faced each other on the gridiron. Notwithstanding their annual battles as Division 1AA opponents, the two men first gazed at one another from opposite sidelines in 1992 . Hampton was still a part of the CIAA and Richardson was head coach at Winston Salem State.....A number of Hampton players will get a chance to play before the hometowners. The listing includes quarterback Roy Johnson (Redan High), Damon Dawson (Westlake), Iris David Dawson (Westlake), Ronnie Jones (Redan), Rashad Muhyee (Westlake), Marques Parks (Redan) and Jason Thomas (Beach High . Savannah).
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