McGwire Should Be a Big Deal

Not that he would be inclined to the contrary, but Dan McGwire better stay on the straight and narrow.

He would never last if he took to a life of knocking over banks or liquor stores.

“Well, officer,” the victim would explain, “the guy had red hair, freckles and a strong, athletic build. Oh yes, and he stood about 6-8.”

Where would a person like that hide?

Unfortunately, McGwire has a place. He can put on his San Diego State football uniform, go out to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium on game nights and know there won’t be many witnesses. Jimmy Hoffa may be in the stands in Mission Valley, rather than buried under the end zone at the Meadowlands.

Who would know it?

Of all the numbers SDSU football has put on the board this fall, the most perplexing may be 19,179 and 19,704 and 25,504. Those were attendance figures for the first three home games. The fourth comes Saturday night against Hawaii.

McGwire, having started his career at the University of Iowa, was not accustomed to such apathy.

“People come from all four corners of the state to see the Iowa Hawkeyes,” he said. “Here, I guess there are so many side distractions. But what else is there to do on Saturday night at 7 o’clock? Movies? I’m baffled.”

McGwire is a guy worth watching. Forget the trivial stuff, like he is the tallest quarterback in college football history. Consider instead that he triggers an offense ranked fourth in the nation in both scoring and passing.

A quarterback like that in an offense like that should be enough to turn a community upside down with excitement. Put a passer like this in a place such as Knoxville or Baton Rouge or South Bend and there wouldn’t be a person within 100 miles who didn’t know how many freckles he had on his right arm.

Indeed, McGwire is ranked third in the nation in passing efficiency and two of his receivers, Patrick Rowe and Dennis Arey, rank first and sixth, respectively, in yards per game. These guys can move the football.

And yet . . .

“Dan and Patrick are almost better known outside of San Diego than they are in San Diego,” said John Rosenthal, SDSU’s sports information director.

McGwire, in fact, may be the best quarterback in town, though Mark Vlasic’s supporters might disagree. McGwire figures to be a first-round choice in the 1991 draft, and his name has popped up among contenders for the Heisman Trophy.

There is no way, of course, that Dan McGwire is going to win the Heisman Trophy. SDSU will never have such an animal as long as it persists in playing night games, which are reported a day late and many details short in most of the nation. It would help, too, to have a winning record and a bit of television exposure, but the starting times damage the latter as well.

“I’m sort of the quiet guy out West,” he said. “Ty Detmer (BYU) and Shawn Moore (Virginia) have gotten the national exposure. They’ve had more press and TV time. I’m just honored to be part of that group.”

Even as a part of that group, generically known as Heisman hopefuls, he has had to cope in a pleasant way with another shadow. He was on the cover of one national publication because (a) he is exceptionally talented and (b) the other person on the cover was his brother Mark, one of the Oakland Athletics’ stars.

“I’ll always be the little brother of Mark McGwire,” he laughed, “but I’m starting to earn my own identity.”

Part of his identity problem, if you can call it that, has more to do with the team than with him. SDSU has a 3-4 record, mainly because the offense has scored 34, 51 and 31 points in losing causes.

The crusher was the 52-51 loss to Wyoming.

“If we would have beaten them,” McGwire said, “we’d be in a good situation as far as a bowl bid.”

In truth, the Aztecs might still be marginal. Even if the record was 5-2 instead of 3-4, bowls always take community support into consideration, and SDSU football has precious little.

Reality is that the Aztecs have four games remaining, three at home. Maybe they can do something in the next three weeks, like win three in a row, to awaken the sleeping multitudes for Miami’s Dec. 1 visit.

“That,” said McGwire, “will be our bowl game. We should be on a high for that game. Personally, it will be my bowl game.”

Maybe that game will get San Diegans out of the theaters, or wherever they spend their Saturday nights, and out to the stadium. Anyone who does not like the Chargers’ 1990 offense can see what looks an awful lot like the Chargers’ 1980 offense when this Dan and these Aztecs are playing.

It will be a shame, of course, if it takes the community until the last game of Dan McGwire’s SDSU career to get out and take a look at what he can do with a football.

Maybe then, Dan McGwire won’t walk into a convenience store and have someone say: “Gee, you must be a basketball player.”

Giggle giggle.