ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9601020067
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
A 30-YEAR-OLD DEFENSIVE back for the Longhorns apparently isn't who he says he is.
Ron McKelvey really wasn't the backup left cornerback on the Southwest Conference championship football team.
Ron Weaver was, although the Longhorns' depth chart for tonight's Sugar Bowl - and all season - listed McKelvey.
That's because they are the same person. Or, the Longhorns thought they were the same person. So did the coach at the college from where Texas recruited the man thought to be McKelvey.
In what has to be one of the most bizarre stories in the 62-year history of the Sugar Bowl, Texas officials said Saturday that McKelvey is ineligible and would not play in tonight's game at the Superdome against Virginia Tech.
That's because McKelvey apparently isn't McKelvey. The man they thought was McKelvey bolted from the New Orleans Hilton, the team hotel, with his belongings Saturday morning after several conversations with coaches and university officials.
Texas officials spent much of the game's eve checking into the background of the player they thought was McKelvey, a California junior college transfer in his first season with the Longhorns' program.
When Tech coach Frank Beamer was asked at Saturday's news conference for his thoughts on Texas having a 30-year-old player, Beamer was clueless.
He wasn't alone.
Texas coach John Mackovic learned Friday night that The Californian, a Salinas newspaper, was to publish a story in Saturday's edition that said McKelvey was an imposter.
The story apparently was right.
McKelvey is listed as a 23-year-old junior who made only four tackles for the Longhorns this season. He played in 11 of Texas' 12 games, missing only the last-second victory over Virginia. He played 60 plays on defense and 60 on special teams.
The Californian reported, however, that Joel Ron McKelvey's real name was Ron Weaver, that he's 30, and that he played football for six seasons at two California junior colleges under two assumed names.
A statement from the university said the school ``believes ... McKelvey provided false information upon enrolling at the university.''
The Longhorns intend to turn their findings on the matter over to the FBI.
``We are satisfied that our information suggests that he falsely represented himself,'' Mackovic said in the statement. ``I am very disappointed something like this could happen.
``It in no way reflects the quality of our program. Fraud and deceit are despicable on a personal basis, but when they possibly affect so many other people, it's disgusting.
``We will do everything possible to assist law enforcement agencies in apprehending this individual, and assist them in filing criminal charges if they are warranted.''
The Salinas paper said McKelvey - or Weaver - had admitted the ruse in a telephone interview. The newspaper said Weaver had borrowed the McKelvey persona from another Salinas man because he's writing a book on college football.
The Californian quoted Weaver as saying, ``I'm here for other purposes than what you think. I'm working on a book. In LA, I have a publisher. It's the scandals of college football.''
The man whose identity is uncertain also fooled his coach at Pierce Junior College in 1993 and '94.
Bill Norton, the coach at Pierce Junior College in Los Angeles, told the Salinas newspaper that a person known as McKelvey spent two years at the school, winning all-state JUCO honors.
He was recruited by Texas, Texas A&M, Brigham Young and San Diego State, among others.
Mackovic said McKelvey ``was upset'' when confronted with the story Friday night. Within 12 hours, he had disappeared.
Former Virginia Tech assistant coach Steve Bernstein was McKelvey's position coach at Texas. Bernstein not only had no idea McKelvey was an imposter, he and his wife Carolyn, a Christiansburg, Va., native, had McKelvey and the other Longhorns defensive backs at their Austin home for dinner recently.
John Bianco, Texas' assistant sports information director who works closely with Mackovic's program, said there had been a few problems with McKelvey's transcript from Pierce, but any discrepancies had been answered.
However, the Californian reported that a 23-year-old in Salinas named Joel McKelvey said he knows Weaver from Weaver's job at his parents' liquor store in Salinas.
The newspaper also said a Texas media guide photo of McKelvey was identified by two Salinas residents as being Ron Weaver, who played two seasons at Monterey Peninsula College and two seasons at Sacramento State, ending in 1989.
A woman the paper identified as Weaver's mother, Sung, told the paper, after seeing the photo, ``That's him. He came home for a couple of days, left three days ago.''
The newspaper also asked Seaside, Calif., police Sgt. Louis Lumpkin, a former teammate of Weaver's at Monterey, to identify a Texas media-guide photo. Lumpkin was quoted as saying, ``It looks exactly like him [Weaver]. If it's not him, this guy is his twin.''
Texas could be subject to an NCAA ineligibility ruling that could affect the Longhorns' 10-1-1 record and championship in the final football season for the Southwest Conference.
If the NCAA would rule Texas should have known McKelvey's identity and played him, the Longhorns' record entering the Sugar Bowl would be 1-11, with only the Virginia game counted as a victory because McKelvey didn't participate.
The Longhorns also suspended two players Saturday for tonight's game. Freshman quarterback Marty Cherry and walk-on running back Ricky Hinnant were suspended for breaking unspecified team rules.
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshot of McKelveyby CNB