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Packman, Southern Fried Tour brings media attention to Mountaineer football |
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Tuesday, 17 October 2006 |
by RYAN WIXTED
Intern Sports Reporter
The Southern Fried Football Tour made a stop in Boone this weekend for the Appalachian State University football game.
The
tour, sponsored by WFNZ-AM sports radio station based in Charlotte,
travels across the Southeast region to tailgate with college football
fans.
Host Mark “Packman” Packer, who started the tour in 1998, has been coming to Boone the last couple of years.
“We love coming here, it’s one of our favorite stops on the tour,”
Packer said during a Monday phone interview on WASU radio show Sports
Yapp.
Appalachian is the only division I-AA school of this year’s tour.
“I definitely do believe ASU has a chance to repeat as national
champions, they’re a team that definitely has the talent to do so,”
Packer said.
Before kickoff, fans were lined up at the Southern Fried Tour bus to
meet with Packer and to enjoy tailgating food provided by WFNZ-AM.
“I think this is pretty cool that the Southern Fried Tour stops here in
Boone every year,” junior building sciences major Scott G. Lail said.
“I am a big fan of Packman’s show. It provides ASU with some great
publicity.”
Having one of the top fan bases in I-AA football, Packman believes Kidd Brewer Stadium is one of the toughest places to play.
“You don’t need 40,000 fans in order to have a strong fan base,” he
said. “ASU, in my eyes, has one of the strongest fan support [groups]
around the south.”
Appalachian’s national championship last season has become a popular
topic on Packer’s show, “Primetime with The Packman” on WFNZ-AM sports
radio every weekday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
“It’s a great thing that we are getting all this media attention,”
WASU’s play-by-play football broadcaster sophomore Bryce T. Johnson
said. “People around the Carolinas are now starting to understand that
we are a legitimate football school.”
Appalachian moved up to No. 1 in Division I-AA after the University of New Hampshire lost.
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