Ravens fans send their 'aura' to TampaRoost did what it had to in order to push team to winBy LAURI LEBO and TED CZECHDispatch/Sunday News January 29, 2001 RAVENS ROOST No. 41 -- The game was over. Oh sure, there was still 3:49 left in the third quarter. But as far as anyone sitting at The Cove was concerned, it all ended when the Ravens' Duane Starks intercepted a Kerry Collins pass and ran 49 yards for a touchdown. At that moment, folks here at this York County haunt for diehard Ravens' fans hugged each other and slapped high-fives. They chanted, "Shut out. Shut out." Children clasped their father's hands and danced in joyful circles. The guy with the big wooden spoon was gleefully banging away on his soup pot. Ron "Digger" O'Dell threw back a celebratory shot of cinnamon schnapps. Trumpets blared and the Red Sea parted. Yep, as far as everyone was concerned, this was the last play of the game that mattered. Until the next play. When the Giants' Ron Dixon ran back the kick-off for a touchdown, murmurs of concern spread among the less devoutly faithful. Only moments ago, it all seemed so ... so ... so over. Now, the first ever Super Bowl shut out that these fans whispered of in the second quarter wasn't going to happen. The Giants were on the scoreboard. And, technically, they could still come back and win it. "It's still over," the fans reassured each other, nodding emphatically and looking just a teensy bit nervous. But then ... Jermaine Lewis ran 84 yards on the next kickoff return for a Baltimore touchdown and O'Dell was hollering for the bartender to set him up with another schnapps. "Hey, you know what that means?" O'Dell yelled, "I got to do another shot." In an unusually high-scoring game for the Ravens, a team renowned for their stellar defense, the Dallastown man drank a "firewater," as the drink is called, for each TD they scored. It was all part of his commitment to help the team win. "The aura of this group -- and all the other groups (of Ravens' fans drinking in bars throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania) -- pushes out onto the field," O'Dell said. "The Ravens know that." Committed: O'Dell wasn't the only one making sacrifices for the team. Under normal circumstances, in most places, a 6-foot-8-inch-tall man with a bright purple beard, purple shorts, donning a construction helmet with a bird glued to it by its feet, might attract a bit of attention. But, here, last night, Ralph Marston of Stewartstown, was just one of the guys. Clutching a yellow plastic chain, he was one of the designated offensive cheerleaders. "Move those chains. Move those chains. Move those chains. Ooh," he shouted, each time the Ravens' netted another first down. In the back of the room, Susan Selegrath led the room in a different cheer. But her repeated screams of "Who let the dogs out?" -- to which everyone replied, "Wooh, Wooh, Wooh" -- cost the Mount Wolf woman her voice. By the end of the night, she could barely croak out even one "Wooh." Selegrath would pay for last night's support today. An underwriter of commercial mortgages, she spends all day on the phone. "It's going to be a long day," she said, hoarsely. Jim Hagar did his part to get ready for the game by digging out his Ravens purple underwear from the drawer where they had been buried for the past year. Demurely, he offered a peek. "I don't like them very much," he said. "They don't really fit right." Mixed crowd: Meanwhile, about a mile north on George Street, a sign hanging from the mezzanine at Cobblestone's called the establishment "Super Bowl Central." And as unified as the fans were at The Cove -- only one Steeler fan was reportedly in attendance there -- this group at Cobblestone's was divided. Fans on both sides traded high-fives, cheers and claps. It was a marked contrast to last year, when a snow storm struck and hardly anyone showed up at the downtown sports bar. One table at Cobblestone's had a mix of Ravens fans, Giants fans and fans whose favorite team was not in the Super Bowl. "After half time, I still had confidence," said Giants' fan Brian Moore of Tom's River, N.J., speaking of the Ravens' 10-0 lead at that point in the game. His confidence was short-lived. "The Giants had momentum and then that just killed it," Moore said of Lewis' TD scamper. The Ravens' fans at Moore's table ordered shots of liquor every time their team scored a touchdown, an interception or a sack. Sean Billings was wearing a blue jersey with a white 31 on it, similar to that worn by Giants defensive back Jason Sehorn, "The Ravens played good -- they kept good field position for their offense and they beat us," said Billings, originally from New York and who now lives in York. "They shut down Kerry Collins, that's what cost us the game." Some sports fans may have left Cobblestones disappointed, but for the folks at The Cove, trumpets blared and the Red Sea parted. It was that kind of night.
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