This post was the editorial in the 9/25/99 edition in the Coastland Times. I cried when I read it sitting at my desk that day and I cried again as I posted it today.
“ Saturday’s football games were undoubtedly the last thing on the minds of most flood victims of eastern North Carolina. But there were at least 20 of them on the East Carolina team facing its biggest game of the year under almost impossible circumstances.
By now, you probably know the story even if you aren’t a big football fan --- how the Pirates overcame just about every obstacle one might imagine, including a 20-point deficit, to beat ninth-ranked Miami, ironically the Hurricanes, and join the elite of the nation’s top 25 teams at number 19 in the latest AP poll.
In the first half of Saturday night’s game --- a home game played away from home at Raleigh because of the flooding in Greenville --- they looked like a team that had been stranded in Columbia, South Carolina, for a week with only the clothes on its back and without sufficient means to fully prepare.
The 27-23 victory, however, was no fluke. This is a Pirates team with a good deal of talent, pride and an immensely competitive spirit; what sports writers call heart.
It has never had the following of UNC or NC State, but it can sure play with the big dogs. The 1974-79 teams had 48 victories to 43 for State and 40 for UNC. In 1983, the Pirates lost only three games --- by one point to Florida State, by seven to Florida and by five to eventual national champion Miami.
And then there was that 1991 come from behind victory by ninth-ranked ECU over NC State in the Peach Bowl that captured the national attention, but nothing like the past Saturday night’s victory.
The best may lie ahead for the 1999 Pirates but for now they have proven that they, like other victims of hurricane Floyd, will not stay down; they they will overcome, whatever the odds.
The gave the entire state, as well as the nation, something to cheer about.”
Note-the reference to being stranded in Columbia, SC was exactly what had happened to the team.
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