UPS delivers for Cards on rough travel morning
ATLANTA - It was anything but a normal travel experience for the Louisville basketball team, but UPS gets credit for a big assist in helping the Cards navigate Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and arrive on time for their 2 p.m. game at Georgia Tech.
Hoping to avoid the snowstorm that dumped a wintry mix on the Southeast late Friday night and into Saturday, U of L opted to fly into Atlanta the morning of its game here. The team met at the airport at 7:30 a.m. and was in the air by 9. An hour later, the Cards were on the tarmac at Harsfield-Jackson, but that was only the beginning of their troubles.
The commercial gates at Hartsfield-Jackson were all closed Saturday morning, which forced U of L and Georgia Tech's sports information and basketball staffs to scramble. While Georgia Tech contacted Delta looking for assistance to no avail, U of L reached out to contacts at UPS, and the package delivery company came through for the Cards.
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U of L's plane waited for about 45 minutes after it landed, but UPS scrounged up de-planing stairs to help the Cards and their travel party get off the plane, Louisville's sports information director Kenny Klein said.
The icy steps were a couple feet too high for U of L's charter jet, which is smaller than the typical UPS freight jet, so the players, coaches, staffers and others who traveled had to step up to go down, said Bob Valvano, a radio host on ESPN 680 who does color analysis for U of L's basketball broadcasts.
The plane, Valvano said, is parked between massive metal storage bins at the UPS facility.
"It was something else," Valvano said as he and play-by-play man Paul Rogers prepared for the game's radio broadcast on WHAS-840.
Once U of L got off the plane around 10:45 a.m., buses took the Cards to the team hotel for breakfast.
U of L coach Rick Pitino joked with his players to "go get some rest" before the game, Valvano said, knowing full well the Cards only had time to go gather their things to travel to Georgia Tech's McCamish Pavilion.
The Cards were on the floor for pre-game warmups by 12:40 p.m.
Valvano said it reminded him of a story involving his brother Jim's NC State team. NC State, hassled by weather conditions, traveled to Atlanta on two planes, and Valvano and seven of his players arrived before the rest of the team. The players, in full uniform, entered the arena and walked down the aisles past fans to get to the floor minutes before tip-off.
It wasn't quite that close of a call for U of L, though it's a rarity for the Cards to travel the day of an afternoon game. U of L does do some same-day travel, Klein said, but that's typically for night games. The Cards flew to South Bend, Ind., on Wednesday morning for their 9 p.m. game earlier this week.
They plan to leave Saturday evening after the game, Klein said. And with conditions rapidly improving, it does look as though it'll be easier for the Cards to get out of town.
