Sept. 26, 2011

This story on Daniel Drake recognizes a special young man who made a very big play that made him an instant hero in Saturday’s down-to-the-wire victory over UAB. As the story reveals, this young man has already made a lot of big plays in just three games that were not as noteworthy but just as important to the future of ECU Football.

However, there were also almost 50,000 unsung “heroes” in the stands during Saturday’s game.

At his press conference today, Coach Ruff gave the game ball to every member of the Pirate Nation who came to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on a gray, rainy Saturday afternoon against UAB.

Let me also add my “THANK YOU,” and the thanks of all who care about East Carolina University, to those of you who simply would not allow our Pirates to become frustrated or feel the fatigue of the mighty battle fought on Bagwell Field. It would have been easy for you to quit on us after seven turnovers and head for the comfort of your cars.

But this was an important game and YOU provided an MVP performance. On every third down, you stood to support a defense that was able to deny scores on all but one of the six turnovers that they had the opportunity to defend. You didn’t quit when the going got tough and your example inspired everyone on that field. The Conference USA win Saturday was a good start in ECU’s quest to capture our third conference title in four years, and was our 11th win in the last 12 C-USA East Division games.

Saturday’s game against UAB was ECU’s fifth sell-out in the last eight games since Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium was expanded to 50,000 seats. This week’s game against UNC is already sold-out. ECU currently ranks 42nd nationally in attendance, which stands in the top one-third of all FBS programs. This is great statement by Pirate fans and the foundation of this program for future success.

The Pirates simply have a better chance to win games they might lose under normal circumstances because they know the Pirate Nation is behind them and will not quit until the final whistle sounds.

It is important to also remind everyone that some of the luster of last year’s great win over N.C. State was lost due to unsporting behavior by a very small group of Pirate fans who embarrassed the university and the rest of the Pirate Nation with vulgar cheers, one during the National Anthem, and by cursing and otherwise harassing visiting fans.

Please do your part to welcome all guests to our campus – every visitor will have relatives who are potentially future ECU students and student-athletes. If you observe unsporting behavior or harassment of our visitors, please text 252-916-5713. There is nothing that can be gained by treating anyone in attendance poorly.

LOUD AND PROUD AND SHOWING OUR PURPLE PASSION WHILE SUPPORTING THE PLAYERS ON THE FIELD!

GO PIRATES!

TH