TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Amid cries of "undefeated," a
chanting, tomahawk-chopping crowd greeted the Florida State team
Wednesday when the national football champions returned home.
Several hundred fans were on hand, some wearing newly printed
national championship hats and T-shirts, when the players filed off
their chartered jet at Tallahassee Regional Airport.
"We're really proud of them. They've come through a lot," said
Gerald Losey, 67, a retired Air Force major from Tallahassee. "I
think ol' coach Bowden deserved it. It almost brings tears to your
eyes."
Florida State's 46-29 victory Tuesday night over Virginia Tech
in the Sugar Bowl at New Orleans gave coach Bobby Bowden his first
undefeated season -- as well as his and Florida State's second
national championship.
"Seminole Jim" McKenna, 57, was at the jetway exit waving a
large FSU banner as Peter Warrick, Chris Weinke and other Seminole
players waved to the fans.
"It's hard to be humble when you are a Seminole," McKenna
exulted.
But he admitted it wasn't always so, recalling 0-11 and 1-10
seasons during the 1970s.
"Everybody was beating 'em." he said. "I said, 'Ain't nobody
rootin' for them people.' So I started rootin' for them and I've
been rootin' for 'em ever since -- the good, the bad and the ugly."
McKenna, who lives in nearby Reno, Ga., is a fixture at Seminole
home games. A local radio station offered to take him to New
Orleans but his doctor advised against the trip because he has
emphysema and heart trouble.
It was mostly an older crowd at the airport. Florida State
students could not get excused from their first day back in class
after winter vacation, unless they had purchased tickets to the
game.
Jeff Doran, 40, an association manager from Tallahassee, brought
his five sons, ages 3 to 10, to the terminal. He left his
11-month-old daughter at home. But she, too, is a Seminole fan.
"The first thing that she learned was the Seminole chop and the
chant," Doran said. "She doesn't know how to say 'Mom' or
'Daddy.' But she knows how to go 'woo-oow-oow-woo.' "
