ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140040
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
THE HEISMAN TROPHY was a part of Eddie George's fancy when he played at Fork Union.
There is the Fork Union post-graduate program that has produced hundreds of college football players, including 1986 Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde, and then there is the Fork Union prep program that takes anybody who walks in the door.
``I'm forever having coaches call and ask, `Do you know such-and-such player?' And I have to tell them, `Wrong guy,' '' said Mickey Sullivan, coach of the Fork Union prep program since the late 1970s. ``If I have to explain the difference once, I have to do it 50 times a year.''
The postgraduate program always has been the one with the college prospects. Until Eddie George came along, that is.
``He just showed up,'' Sullivan said. ``There's a space on the application where kids are asked if they want to participate in athletics. He said he had an interest in football, so I sent him a letter, which is what we do with everybody. We don't recruit.''
It was George's uncle, Derrick McCarthy, who had recommended Fork Union. McCarthy attended Fork Union in 1979-80 and told his sister, a flight attendant from Philadelphia, that it might be a good environment for her son.
So little was known about George as a football prospect that he was placed on the junior varsity in 1989. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards in 1990, but was ruled ineligible after the sixth game of the 1991 season.
``It was the result of a gentleman's agreement that we had misinterpreted until that point,'' said Sullivan, who felt George could continue to play for the prep team even though he had graduated following the 1990 season. ``It's something we had done with previous kids.''
George ended up leaving Fork Union after 21/2 years and enrolling at Ohio State for the second semester of the 1991-92 school year.
``I've been reading that Virginia liked him,'' said John Shuman, the Fork Union postgraduate team's coach. ``Hey, Virginia could have had him. It just took [the Cavaliers] too long to make up their minds.''
Sullivan confirmed Shuman's story and said Ohio State got involved almost on a lark.
``Our student trainer and company commander the year before was a kid named Dan Osman,'' Sullivan said. ``He went to Ohio State and was working in the training room his first year. He mentioned Eddie's name to the recruiting coordinator and, almost out of curiosity, they requested a film.''
Sullivan was at the Downtown Athletic Club on Saturday and said he almost made a fool of himself screaming as George was presented with the Heisman Trophy.
``When Eddie asked, `What about this school?' I was the guy who said, `Eddie, they don't think you're good enough,' or `Eddie, they want to move you to linebacker,''' Sullivan said. ``I was there with him through the heartbreak. When we had to forfeit those games, he was devastated.''
George used to sit in his room at night and talk about winning the Heisman Trophy, according to a story that has been passed down from George's roommate to his brother, now a cadet at Fork Union.
``Did I think Eddie would win the Heisman Trophy?'' Sullivan said. ``I'd have to say, `Hell, no.' But, he had the dream and he was willing to pay the price. It's like [Ohio State coach] John Cooper said, `He was the first one on the practice field or in the weight room and the last one out.'
``You know, he's going to graduate this spring with a degree in landscape architecture. It's not quite the same as basket-weaving. At Fork Union, it's like you're their parents. When he won the Heisman Trophy, it was like my own kid won it.''
Sullivan didn't see ``Good Morning America'' on Monday morning, but was told George said he would be on the streets of Philadelphia if not for Fork Union.
``It's just an amazing thing,'' Sullivan said. ``It should really help us. The admissions people say the phone's been ringing off the hook. I just tell them, with all those people who want us now, just let us have one more player like Eddie George.''
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Fork Union alumnus Eddie George arrives at Columbusby CNB(Ohio) International Airport on Wednesday with his Heisman Trophy in
hand. The trophy broke when it became stuck in an airport X-ray
machine. color.