Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994 TAG: 9406290108
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Shoaf, 69, was a letter-winner on UVa teams that posted four consecutive winning seasons between 1946-49 and was drafted by the Washington Redskins in 1950.
"We were the closest of friends," Shoaf's former teammate, Rock Weir, said. "We went to school together. We raised our kids together. He had a heart of gold."
Shoaf embodied the annual Virginia alumni-varsity spring football game and played in all 25 before the series was discontinued in 1977.
"We tried to get him to quit," Weir, coach of the alumni team, said, "but he wouldn't quit. He was 52 that last year."
Former Virginia coach Dick Bestwick recalls that Shoaf scored the last alumni touchdown in the final alumni-varsity game.
"Keep in mind, that was not his only play of the game," Bestwick, an athletic administrator at the University of Georgia, said Tuesday. "He was typical of the Virginia guys who loved to come back and be part of the program."
Shoaf played at Jefferson High School in Roanoke and scored the first touchdown in Jefferson's 33-0 win over William Fleming on Sept. 12, 1942. It was the first high-school game at Victory Stadium, then unnamed and not to be dedicated until two months later.
Shoaf entered the Marine Corps upon graduation, and it was 1946 before he entered Virginia, where, in addition to his football exploits, he was runner-up in the NCAA heavyweight boxing championship.
"That's where he got his fame," Weir said. "They called him the Sandman because he put so many guys to sleep."
Shoaf worked for the Miller Container Corporation in Richmond before retiring to Charlottesville. He is survived by his wife, Suzanne, and five sons.
"He had a second operation this year for a circulation problem in his legs," Weir said, "but had not been hospitalized [recently]. I watched the Kentucky Derby and Belmont with him. It's a big shock."
TAYLOR MAKES PLANS: Former All-Group AAA quarterback Shannon Taylor from Roanoke, still waiting for scores from his final Scholastic Assessment Test, said he will enroll at Fork Union Military Academy in the fall.
Taylor, who committed to Virginia in February but never signed with the Cavaliers, said he expects to make the score by next year and then sign with UVa.
"I need a little more work in school to do well at the next level," he said. "I have no problem with discipline; I don't mind wearing a uniform."
Taylor, one of eight quarterbacks chosen to the "Dream Team" selected by Blue Chip Magazine, recently played in the inaugural All-America high school football game in Allentown, Pa. He leaves this week for the Virginia High-School All-Star Game in Hampton.
MAKING THE SCORE: Two of UVa's prize football recruits, wide receiver Germane Crowell from Winston-Salem, N.C., and defensive tackle Tony Agee from Charlottesville have posted the test scores required for a Division I scholarship and freshman eligibility.
Agee, rated one of the top 25 prospects in Virginia by the Roanoke Times & World-News, committed to the Cavaliers in December but never signed with UVa while awaiting test scores. Crowell did sign in February because he was relatively close to the qualifying standard.
Crowell, rated the No.10 prospect in North Carolina by SuperPrep Magazine, and Agee are the 14th and 15th Virginia football recruits to qualify. On hold are defensive linemen Tony Dingle from Fayetteville, N.C., and Maurice Anderson from Fork Union.
AUCTION TOPS GOAL: UVa's first sports auction raised $245,000, to be divided evenly among 23 intercollegiate sports. Assistant athletic director Wood Selig had set $200,000 as a target.
Honorary chairman Bruce Hornsby, a Virginia fan, offered two backstage passes to any of his summer concert tours with Bonnie Raitt that netted $2,800 each. An autographed Denver Nuggets jersey belonging to former UVa star Bryant Stith went for nearly $1,000.
by CNB