Lowery Gets Call as Lead Slinger : SDSU: Rock ‘n roll quarterback will try to put the offense in concert.

Fans were screaming. The house was rocking. The scene made Wall Street look about as frenzied as Howard and Marion Cunningham’s living room.

And David Lowery, who Saturday will make his first start at quarterback for San Diego State in Hawaii, was in the middle of the action.

But this was not a football game. This was the fifth row, on a hot August night in Los Angeles, on the last stop of a 1991 Guns ‘N Roses tour.

“David is kind of crazy when it comes to having a good time,” said Tom DeWitt, who was president of Lowery’s Sigma Chi fraternity pledge class last spring.

Lowery, who figures personalities don’t get much better than Guns ‘N Roses lead singer Axl Rose, had gotten up early one morning to get tickets. When they handed out lottery numbers for the concert, Lowery got lucky. His was first.

Lowery has a knack for getting good seats.

And drumsticks.

“At the end of the concert, the drummer threw a drumstick close to where David was,” said DeWitt, who was with Lowery at the concert. “David jumped over a bunch of chairs and knocked over a bunch of people. I saw him rolling around.”

And he came up with it.

But that was just a start.

The drummer threw a second drumstick. It landed a little farther away. Lowery tore after it.

“There was a group of about 20 people fighting him for it,” DeWitt said. “They were rolling around on the ground. He gets up covered with spilled stuff, like his shirt was a mop.

“He was screaming and yelling, raising his hands.”

And holding the other drumstick.

Once, Lowery was happy to be part of a cheering crowd. Now, having won the SDSU quarterback job, he will step onto the stage, front and center.

Yes, a quarterback’s seat can be the best in the house, but it isn’t any good unless he takes advantage of it. Determination is a prerequisite.

So is resourcefulness.

“When we were leaving, they were selling concert T-shirts, but they were $35,” DeWitt said. “David raised a drumstick and screams, ‘Who wants to buy me a T-shirt for this drumstick?’

“He came home with the shirt and a drumstick.”

The drumstick is hanging on his bedroom wall. The shirt lays draped over a shelf against the wall, on display. When he’s not wearing it.

“Dave’s a fighter,” said Tom Norman, Lowery’s best friend from high school.

Norman, a teammate of Lowery’s at Trabuco Hills High and now a linebacker for Saddleback Community College, told of the time their high school team won its league championship. The two of them were walking back to the team bus after the game, Norman said, and Lowery was crying.

“He gets real emotional about winning,” Norman said.

Somehow, Lowery finds a way to win. He broke his jaw in a fraternity fight last winter and couldn’t participate in the first two weeks of SDSU’s practices last spring. But he hung around in the shadows long enough to prevent SDSU Coach Al Luginbill from naming a starter until this fall.

When fall came, indications were that the SDSU coaching staff was looking for the opportunity to name Cree Morris as the starter. But Lowery’s tenacity forced Luginbill twice to delay deadlines he had set for naming a starter.

But when game week arrived, Morris got the nod. Lowery didn’t get angry. He just talked about waiting for his opportunity, refusing to become frustrated. And opportunity arrived this week.

“If I got really frustrated, I don’t think I’d be in the position I am now,” he said.

He referred to a discussion he had recently with Steve Fairchild, SDSU quarterbacks’ coach.

“He told me, ‘You’ve made the situation a lot easier by the way you’ve handled things,’ ” Lowery said. “If I would have been a jerk about it . . . I think it’s easier to go with a guy you like.”

Three games and three quarters into the season, with SDSU in a 24-0 hole against UCLA, Lowery was summoned to replace Morris.

The first thing he did when he reached the huddle was stare at the rest of the offense.

“We’re going to get our . . . in the end zone,” he told the Aztecs. “There is no way we’re going to get shut out.”

Lowery, a redshirt sophomore, certainly wasn’t spectacular. He completed only four of 13 passes for 71 yards. He lost a fumble.

But in his defense, receivers dropped at least a couple of decent passes. And he did lead the Aztecs to two touchdowns.

And now, after what has seemed like a two-year uphill battle, his week has come.

“This is what I’ve always wanted to do,” he said. “This is the one thing I’ve really strived for.”

He caught football fever as a youngster in Laguna Hills. His parents are from Ohio, and Lowery was a big Ohio State fan. They--Lowery, his parents and even Ohio State--used to go to Rose Bowls.

In high school, he was a quarterback on his freshman team before playing defensive back and linebacker his next two years. He finally played quarterback again his senior year, during which he led the state in passing with 3,325 yards. Morris was second with 3,232.

He arrived at SDSU, studied under Dan McGwire for two years and then was ready to seize his big break.

But the break wasn’t what he expected. It came when a fist connected with his jaw.

“I don’t think he was the cause of it,” said Dave Lay, SDSU offensive coordinator. “But I can see David being where the action is.

“David is a fun-loving, little bit mischievous guy.”

One night last February, Lowery and a few guys were leaving the Sigma Chi house. According to Doug Case, SDSU Inter-Fraternity Council adviser, a couple of members of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity--located across an alley from the Sigma Chi house--were fighting.

Lowery’s group stopped. He said he was trying to break up the other fight. Words were exchanged. Next thing Lowery knew, he was on the ground.

And spring football was only four weeks away.

“I started crying in the hospital when the doctor told me it was broken and I would be out six weeks,” Lowery said. “I was thinking, ‘Why now?’ I still get jitters thinking about it.

“I had looked forward to that time even while redshirting (in 1990). It was devastating at first. I had to get the attitude that I can’t let my life stop. I did a lot of praying during that time.”

A smile made its way across his face.

“I’m doing a lot of praying this week.”

His assignment is to find a way to move a stagnant SDSU offense. It will be interesting to see how he does, because he is not cut from the Dan McGwire/Cree Morris mold. He stands only 6 feet, but he is mobile and has the ability to make something out of nothing.

The scouting report says he has a strong arm--not a cannon, but decent--good leadership qualities and the toughness of a saloon bouncer. He is a scrapper, and SDSU coaches like that.

“I think he’ll do well,” Lay said.

And for now, football has become the most important thing to Lowery.

“My whole life didn’t revolve around football until I came here, where it pretty much has to,” Lowery said. “I don’t watch football as much as I used to. I needed a release. I think that’s why I joined a fraternity.”

Now, he has plenty of releases--including the latest two from Guns ‘N Roses. A couple of weeks ago, Lowery and some of his friends lined up at a record store at midnight to be among the first to purchase “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II.”

“I’m the adventurous type,” Lowery said. “I love to go out on adventures like that.”

And now he is SDSU’s rock ‘n roll quarterback, with several more adventures ahead of him. He is a gritty, blue-collar player, the kind who likes to make the tackle himself after an interception.

And he isn’t much different off the field. He’ll pass on Kenny G. Give him screaming guitars and T-shirts.

“If I had a son, I would hope he’d be a little bit that way,” Lay said. “David takes care of everything pretty well and then enjoys himself.

“I guess the best thing you could say about him is that he’s just a guy.”