Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 8, 1993                   TAG: 9311080032
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

ALLEN DIDN'T WIN ON HIS RECORD AT UVA

It was 20 years ago in October that George Allen Jr. nearly rewrote one very significant chapter of Virginia football history.

Allen, then nearing the end of a modest college career, came off the bench and drove the Cavaliers to the Clemson 11-yard line in the closing seconds of a 32-27 loss to the Tigers.

It was Virginia's 15th consecutive loss to the Tigers in a series that set national standards for futility before the Cavaliers ended a 30-year losing streak to Clemson in 1990.

For most of that game, indeed, for most of the 1973 season, Allen watched from the sideline as sophomore quarterback Scott Gardner directed Virginia's offense. Gardner went on to set virtually every UVa passing record.

"I had another year [of eligibility] left," said Allen, who was elected governor of Virginia on Tuesday, "but I had gotten into law school and felt that was more important."

Allen, the son of former Washington Redskins coach George Allen, had transferred to UVa after one year at UCLA.

"They brought in a whole new coaching staff [at UCLA] after my first year," said Allen, a standout high school quarterback in Palos Verdes, Calif. "Tommy Prothro, who had recruited me, was replaced by Pepper Rodgers, who switched from a passing offense to the option."

Almost everybody who watched Allen play for Virginia remembers his strong arm, but a running quarterback he was not.

"The year [1971] he was redshirted, I played with him on the scout team and he could really throw the ball," said John Walker, now the principal at Jefferson Forest High School in Bedford County, "but I think there were some unfair expectations associated with his celebrity status.

"It's not that George couldn't play. The biggest thing that affected his career was Scott Gardner."

Allen has been described as a backup quarterback and, for most of his Virginia career, he was. However, it might surprise some people to learn that Allen is listed in UVa's record book as the Cavaliers' leading passer in 1972, with 650 yards.

"I didn't know that," Allen said in a phone interview last week.

Virginia used four starting quarterbacks during a 4-7 season in which the Cavaliers lost their last five games. Remarkably, after going 7-for-9 against VMI in his first start, Allen was benched in favor of Gardner, who had accounted for three touchdowns in the same game.

When Gardner struggled the next week against Clemson, Allen came on in relief and had perhaps his most effective game. He passed for 181 yards and two touchdowns in the second half as the Cavaliers fell 37-21 after trailing 24-0.

Head coach Don Lawrence rewarded Allen with a start the next week against Maryland in what was the most fateful game of Allen's career. After UVa had gone ahead 23-3, Allen threw five interceptions in the second half and Maryland won 24-23 in what Terps coach Jerry Claiborne called "the greatest win I've ever been associated with."

"I can still remember calling an audible to start the second half and having the ball bounce off Ken Shelton's chest and into the arms of a Maryland defender," Allen said. "That was the low point. Thanks to [Maryland's] Randy White, I've still got loose cartilage in my knee."

He didn't even play the next week at North Carolina State and, although he was the top backup to Gardner in 1973, Allen attempted only 15 passes.

"Normally, there aren't many highlights when you're 4-7," Allen said. "I've got some mixed feelings as far as the W's and L's. I wish we had won more games when I was there. Virginia didn't have a winning attitude at the time and there was never much depth in the program."

Allen would be pleased to know that the years have clouded the memory of former teammates Walker and Gerard Mullins about the 1972 Maryland game.

"I don't remember who the quarterback was," said Mullins, a Roanoke insurance salesman. "I do remember it was a devastating loss [the first of 16 in a row to the Terps].

"I felt like he was a leader. I've thought about it a lot since he started running for governor. He was kind of different. You wouldn't expect a guy from LA to drive around in a four-wheeler and chew [tobacco]."

Allen was a politician even then, serving as student body president his senior year.

"Back then, I don't think anybody aspires to be governor," Walker said, "but you could tell he had interests other than football. He was so engaging. I didn't know him that well, but that's not unusual. On a team of 90 to 100, you're always going to fall in with a group of four, five or six guys."

If Allen had rallied Virginia to victory over Clemson, the Cavaliers' opponent Saturday, one of his fellow heroes would have been Mike Dowe, a sophomore back from Roanoke whose 36-yard run carried UVa into Clemson territory.

"People would have had to find something else to write about all these years if we had won," said Dowe, who works for USAir in Roanoke. "I remember George as a guy who knew what he could and couldn't do but was always willing to do the job.

"He was a leader in the sense that all quarterbacks are leaders, but I wouldn't have figured then that I would be voting for him as the future governor. I'm happy for him. It's quite a shock."

Lawrence was fired as UVa's coach after the 1973 season, but has had a distinguished career as an NFL assistant. The athletic director was Gene Corrigan, now the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

"There may have been some people who said, `This guy is transferring from U-C-L-A. Wow!' " Corrigan said. "But no one around the program expected him to be the savior. I always liked George. He was a loosy-goosy guy, so different from his father."

Corrigan grew fond of Allen's father, who attended Virginia games when he could.

"He never asked for a parking pass, didn't want to sit in the press box, liked being with the other parents," Corrigan said. "His dad would call on Mondays and we talked about a lot of things. He was a big supporter of the program and encouraged me to enlarge the stadium."

Joe Mark, who was the Virginia quarterbacks coach in 1973 and later headed the school's athletic fund-raising office, has followed Allen's post-football career as a delegate and congressman from the Charlottesville area.

"He's not like a lot of politicians who said they played and it turned out they didn't," Mark said. "He definitely was not a phenom. He was more of what you'd call `a plugger,' but he did play."