Number 2, Proud of It : After 102 Mostly Futile Years, Mr. Jefferson’s University Is a Power

Introducing the University of Virginia--Thomas Jefferson’s legacy to higher education, khaki pants khapital of America, home of the undefeated and second-ranked Cavaliers.

At Virginia, if it moves, it’s wearing khaki or, at the very least, it’s wearing a monogrammed, button-down collared shirt, preferably something in light blue with medium starch. Wear this stuff to a Raider game and you would be heckled out of the Coliseum, told never to return until you own something in black leather or have a nostril pierced.

But the Brooks Brothers look is the attire of choice here. Of course, the fellows at the local Sigma Nu house take it a bit further. Frat rats always do.

On football game days, they wear the khaki uniform with pride, complete with blue blazer. And if the weather is on the hot and muggy side, as it occasionally gets here in early autumn, they keep the sportcoats, ties and shirts on, but replace the pants with shorts.

Then they file into cozy Scott Stadium, capacity 42,000, and go nuts, as any self-respecting Virginia student would these days. After all, these are giddy, almost awkward times for a university unaccustomed to watching its football team scale such heights.

Virginia began playing football in 1888. And now, 102 mostly frustrating years later, the Cavaliers, 5-0 this season, are making their first true run at a national championship.

They are led by Coach George Welsh, 57, a former Navy man who treats his team as if it were a ship’s crew. Welsh is the captain, his assistant coaches the executive officers, his team the obedient sailors. Jefferson may have founded this place, but democracy remains a foreign concept on Welsh’s team. You do it Welsh’s way or you’re given directions to nearby Interstate 64.

Virginia also possesses the firm of M&M;: multitalented quarterback Shawn Moore, a fifth-year senior who was here during the latter days of the Virginia dark ages; and wide receiver Herman Moore, who wears thick glasses, high jumps higher than anyone in the Atlantic Coast Conference and could be one of the first receivers taken in the NFL draft, if he decides to make himself available. And for the thousandth time, Moore and Moore aren’t related, although Herman once made the mistake of telling a reporter that they were cousins.

This is the combination--Welsh, Moore and Moore--that helped bring Virginia its first ACC championship, its first 10-victory season (as opposed to the four 10-loss seasons in the last 31 years) and earlier this fall, its first victory over Clemson in 29 tries.

“Every week it seems to put me more and more in a dreamland,” Herman Moore said. “When I got here, I was just hoping we could help change the program and finish above .500. That was it, just finish above .500.”

Moore’s wish has been granted. Since his arrival in 1987, the Cavaliers are 30-11. And since Welsh was hired in December, 1981, Virginia is 55-40-2, and that includes a nine-loss season his first year here. The Cavaliers’ threesome hasn’t changed the football program, they have rescued it.

In the process, Cav-mania has struck this charming, genteel town. University Avenue, which runs past the grounds (they don’t call it a campus), is decorated with giant orange V’s, courtesy of proud city fathers. Local souvenir shops are doing boffo business. Season tickets, always available in years past, became the newest status symbol. Virginia quickly met its sales quota of 21,160, a school record.

Many of those same ticket owners stormed the field when the Cavaliers recorded their historic 20-7 victory over Clemson in September. A goal post was quickly torn down, pieces of which later were found resting at the feet of Jefferson, whose weather-beaten statue guards the famous university rotunda he designed.

Herman Moore recalls that day with wide-eyed amazement. Just before the game officially ended, Moore strapped on his helmet and made a mad dash for Virginia’s locker room. He was stopped at the 40-yard line, mauled at the 30, stripped of parts of his jersey at the 20, enveloped at the 10 and back-slapped silly at the goal line. It took him half an hour to escape the mayhem.

“It looked like I had come off a battlefield,” he said. “I almost got my neck ripped off.”

On behalf of an overjoyed Virginia crowd, David Sloan apologized to Moore. Sloan was there that day, too. Knowing better, he dashed onto the field and savored each precious moment.

“Yeah, I went down on the field like an idiot,” Sloan said. “Can you believe it? I’m 35 years old and I did that.”

Sloan has an excuse. He played fullback at Virginia from 1973-76. During that time, the Cavaliers were 10-33, with four of those losses coming against teams now competing on the Division I-AA level, two of them to Welsh’s Navy teams. Virginia was 5-17 in the ACC during Sloan’s days as a starter. He went through three head coaches and 28 assistants.

After his final game, a 28-0 loss to Maryland, Sloan shed his equipment for the last time and almost smiled. At last, he was through with weekly beatings.

“I was glad it was over with,” said Sloan, who had been recruited by Alabama, North Carolina State and North Carolina. “The football experience for me at Virginia wasn’t much fun at all. The football experience was lowly.”

Things didn’t get much better after Sloan left. The Cavaliers, under Dick Bestwick, averaged more than eight losses a year during the next five seasons. Even at Virginia, where losing records had been tolerated for decades, this was too much. Bestwick was dismissed and plans were made to hire the no-nonsense Welsh, who was fresh from a successful nine-year stay at the Naval Academy, his alma mater, where he won more games than anyone in academy history.

On the day of his interview, Welsh drove down from Annapolis and met with Virginia administrative and athletic department officials. A tour of the stadium and practice facilities was planned, but for whatever reason, that part of the visit was scratched as the day wore on. It was getting late and Welsh still had about a three-hour drive home.

For this, Virginia should be thankful. If Welsh had seen the sorry state of those facilities--and he uses the term loosely--the Cavaliers might have someone else as their head coach.

“If I would have, I may not have (come),” said Welsh, wearing--you guessed it--khaki-colored pants with a light blue button-down collar shirt. “I had reservations after I got here. It was worse than I had anticipated.”

The practice fields were fine. The stadium was functional. But the rest of it--weight room, film rooms, offices, etc.--was a joke.

“We had the worst facilities in the conference,” he said.

Then there was the football program itself. The Cavaliers had just finished another 10-loss season and team morale was nonexistent.

“There was some talent left, but there wasn’t enough, though,” Welsh said. “And then, they had forgotten how to win. They didn’t know how to practice, at least, not the way we wanted them to. I don’t think they were very tough mentally. There had been too many changes for them.”

So Welsh and his staff hit the road in search of recruits. Good luck.

Virginia’s reputation as a haven for eggheads and a wasteland for football had preceded every Welsh recruiting attempt. The best players in the state wouldn’t even visit the school. Nor would they grant Welsh or his assistants a chance to meet their parents.

“We never got into the houses,” Welsh. “The real good players turned us off right away. We went to the high schools and tried to (recruit), but we never got into the homes.”

Asked if he blamed them, Welsh said, “No.”

The Cavaliers went 2-9 during Welsh’s first season. They won six games in 1983, eight in 1984, which was the most victories by a Virginia team since 1952. Welsh was slowly building a foundation for success.

The breakthrough year probably came in 1987, when the Cavaliers finished 8-4, won the All-American Bowl and proved that a 3-8 record the previous season was an aberration, not a return to failure. This was also the same year that the athletic department began soliciting contributions for new football facilities. Pens seem to glide more easily across a check when your team is winning.

In 1988, Moore and Moore became starters and the Cavaliers won their last five games. Today, they are most dangerous passing combination in the conference, if not the country.

The Moores weren’t considered national-caliber recruits. Virginia got Herman Moore because Virginia Tech wouldn’t commit a scholarship to him until he scored high enough on his Scholastic Aptitude Tests. When the Cavaliers said they would offer him a scholarship no matter the outcome, Herman became a Virginia convert. Shortly thereafter, he scored well enough on the SATs. Sorry Hokies.

“Virginia was willing to take a chance,” Moore said.

The fourth-year junior has touchdown catches in 12 of his last 13 games, and 53 of his last 56 receptions have resulted in a first down or touchdown. All this from a guy whom Welsh didn’t even talk to during the recruiting process. And when Moore finally arrived on the grounds, he never received a dinner invitation to Welsh’s house, as other freshmen players had.

A suggestion: Welsh might want to invite him over for supper before Herman makes that NFL decision.

As for Shawn Moore, most of the ACC schools and Virginia Tech were after him. They wanted him for his versatility and his athleticism. If he faltered at quarterback, there would always be room for him in the defensive backfield or at wide receiver. He was that good.

Welsh isn’t what you would call a dynamic recruiter. He likes to recruit only marginally more than he wants to clean an attic. With Shawn Moore, he provided a short and simple speech.

“He told me, ‘It’s all here for you,’ ” Moore said.

That was about it. If he wanted to come to Virginia, there were opportunities aplenty, but no promises. Shawn Moore appreciated the soft sell and signed quickly.

“Coach Welsh, well, he’s a ‘to-himself’ person,” he said.

All of which suited Moore, a to-himself quarterback, just fine.

Since then, he has set at least 29 school records and two conference records, most notably the ACC record for most touchdowns in a career. He is the first player in the ACC ever to pass for more than 5,000 yards and rush for more than 1,000 in a career.

This season, Shawn Moore, who earned a degree during the summer, has thrown for 13 touchdowns and run for four more. He has one interception in 120 passes. All this while overseeing an offense that prides itself in being balanced.

Just think of what he could do if Welsh allowed him to pass more often?

“We’ve got a lot of weapons,” Shawn Moore said diplomatically. “It’s the kind of offense you want to be a part of.”

But it is Shawn who makes it work. Welsh admitted that much.

“He can beat you every which way you want,” Welsh said.

Added sophomore running back Terry Kirby, one of the most highly recruited players a year ago and the brother of Dodger triple-A outfielder Wayne Kirby: “Shawn, he’s a hell of a guy, the backbone of our team. He’s Mr. Excitement.”

Just in case America isn’t aware of that, the Virginia sports information department is spending $12,000 to spread the word about Shawn Moore. Color postcards bearing his photo arrive in sportswriters’ mailboxes every week, along with updated statistics. The Heisman Trophy isn’t specifically mentioned, but the message is clear enough: Don’t forget our man.

“I’m just enjoying the year,” Shawn said. “I’m still the same person. Nothing’s changed.”

That’s not entirely true. Last week, as the Cavaliers enjoyed an open date, Shawn Moore noticed actor Louis Gossett Jr. eating dinner at a local restaurant. Turns out Gossett was in Charlottesville to film a movie at a nearby military school.

Moore began to approach Gossett when an overprotective agent stopped him.

“Forget it,” the agent said.

Moore returned to his dinner, only to be interrupted by the agent.

“You guys play football?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“Well, Lou wants to meet you.”

They met and Gossett later invited them to visit the movie set.

“He’s a cool guy,” Moore said. “He said he had read a couple of things about me. I don’t know if he’s just saying that or not.”

Maybe the Virginia sports information office has Gossett’s address; it has everyone else’s.

As Shawn Moore and the Cavaliers enjoy their new-found popularity, so does the athletic department. For years, the men’s basketball team carried most of the financial weight. No longer. A $9-million athletic support facility, made possible mostly because of the football team’s success, is expected to be completed by spring.

It couldn’t come a day too soon.

“Look at this,” said Athletic Director Jim Copeland, as he stepped inside the cramped weight room used by all Virginia athletes. “We’ve got four bench presses. We’ll have quadruple that and the room in our new place.”

Copeland visited the training room. There are only a handful of tables. During a regular practice day, players would be lined out the door waiting to have their ankles taped. So bad is the overflow that trainers do most of the taping in the hallway.

Upstairs in University Hall, a member of the department’s Student Aid Foundation works in a cramped, windowless, unventilated “office.” Not long ago, it was a closet.

“We use every one of them now,” Copeland said.

And outside are three trailers, used as offices for Virginia’s assistant football coaches. Welsh, tired of trying to operate out of his tiny office, bought the trailers for $5,000 years ago. He got the idea while driving by a local elementary school, where trailers served as temporary classrooms.

“A coaching friend of mine from Utah visited here this summer,” Copeland said. “He looked at our facilities and said, ‘Welsh must be a magician.’ ”

Not true. Welsh has Moore and Moore. He has Kirby, a fiercely loyal staff, a vocal and well-dressed fan base.

The Cavaliers have Welsh, who holds the rare distinction of holding records for coaching victories in a career at two schools: Navy and Virginia.

Virginia faces North Carolina State Saturday. It will do so ranked higher than anyone would have imagined 10 years ago, heck, five years ago. Higher than any Virginia team ever. The Cavaliers are six games from a perfect regular season and a chance at--gasp!--a national championship.

“But there’s still that teeny element of doubt,” said Sloan, who owns a restaurant in Charlottesville. “Are we really that good?”

A game ball from the Clemson victory, a gift from Shawn Moore, sits in Copeland’s office. A look at the polls finds Virginia but a heartbeat away from No. 1. The record remains unblemished.

Is Virginia that good? Let Herman Moore answer that one.

“This isn’t a cocky team, it’s a confident team,” he said. “We take everybody serious.”

Including themselves. Opponents ought to do likewise.