Brown and White Vol. 106 no. 22

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 106 no 22 tuesday november 24 1998 all the lehigh news first hawks cinch victory to end perfect season by jenn rauch managing editor this year's football team lehigh's 115th is the best ever in school history not even its 134th meeting with its biggest rival could throw the mountain hawks off course as they cruised to a 31-7 victory over lafayette college the hawks once again showed why they are the 1998 patriot league champions and why they are headed to an ncaa division l aa playoff game against the university of richmond in college's most-played rivalry lehigh sealed its perfect 1 1-0 season the most wins for a lehigh team since 1977 when the team was 12-2 and division ii champions three of that team's victories however came in the playoffs for the seniors on the lehigh team it was the fourth year in a row that the team beat lafayette they are only the fourth team to achieve this feat in athletics — and i've been coaching 20 years — there are very few times you have a chance to be around a group of coaches and players able to do everything they have to do to be successful coach kevin higgins said there always seems to be one letdown that puts a blemish on your record we talked friday night in our team meeting about how we established the foundation for the season back on aug 17 in camp our whole thought process then was one practice at a time once we finished those we felt like we had the beginning of a foundation and we just kept building and building building is what lehigh did against the leopards they built an early lead and never looked back junior ron jean who was named the game's most valuable player rushed for 1 79 yards and three touchdowns jean tied the patriot league record for the longest run with a 92 yard third quarter sprint into the lafayette end zone he tied former teammate rabih abdullah 97 who set the record in 1994 against cornell university jean has 13 rushing touchdowns this year moving him into seventh place on the lehigh all-time rushing touchdown list his run came after the stellar lehigh defense stopped lafayette on four downs inside the 8-yard line on third and six jean cut inside and broke into the clear outrun photo courtesy ofdaphnie sicre ron jean 00 dives for one of his touchdowns during lehigh's 134th meeting with rival lafayette college with 179 yards rushed jean was named most valuable player of the game bonfire ignites spirit by michael carone and eric luehmann news writers the bonfire at goodman campus thursday night accomplished its goals of psyching up students for saturday's football game but the organizers of the event wished that more people had come and shown their support for lehigh's team tim shotmeyer 00 student senate bonfire committee co-chair said he had hoped there would be a higher turnout the only regret i have is that more peo ple were not there shotmeyer said it was special for the team there is no reason why we cannot get six or seven hundred people there at the bonfire kirk gibson 99 the other bonfire committee co-chair said he also thought participation could have been higher however shotmeyer and gibson were pleased with the people who did show up b w photo by scott reynolds students socialize at thursday's bonfire pallone remembers life behind the mask by jamie swanson news writer dave pallone a former national league umpire talked during a candid speech last thursday about the struggles he experi enced while revealing his homosexuality pallone began his speech with a video from his days as an umpire he explained that participating in baseball had always been his childhood dream and as an umpire he got to live out that dream pallone became an umpire at the age of 25 making him the third youngest umpire in baseball history however it was at the same age he realized something else about himself — he was gay a fact that forced him to choose his childhood dream over his personal life pallone said i was lying to my friends and family but mostly myself i was so worried about someone finding out my secret i was truly living in the closet when pallone met the man who would become his partner of three years john pallone kept him a secret too john was hit by a car and died leaving pallone heartbro ken yet pallone's double-life prevented him from telling john's family how much he cared for john afterwards pallone slowly ventured out into the gay community but he never gave his real name and he told people he was a shoe salesman pallone was outed by the new york post in 1986 when it alleged pallone was part of a teenage sex ring the story was picked up by papers all over the country see victory page all see bonfire page a4 see pallone page a4 ________________________________■_■ ffllrllihl'm rhriih-fritt___i quick a pull-out section this year's turkey trot antibiotics have i r i highlights football attracted more than become less effective team's perfect season 500 participants against some illnesses penguins can jump as see pages 81 84 see page a3 see page a7 hi 9 h as 6 feet in the air - sports al o-1 2,81 4 news al-a4 science a5-a7 women's bb al2 world news briefs a2 science briefs a7 deron braswell b3 gym passes a3 _. .. , _ _ __ . a _ source.www.geocities.com/nashvile pregame rituals b3 turkey trot a3 2490/animai htmi