Casserly Has Worked His Way Up to the Head of the Class : Redskins: General manager made the key deals in a short time to get team to the Super Bowl.

The Washington Redskins in the last quarter-century have had only four general managers. They are household names for the most part: Vince Lombardi . . . George Allen . . . Bobby Beathard . . . and Charley Casserly.

Lombardi, and Charley who?

Well, they’re still asking that, even in Washington.

But the Redskins wouldn’t be where they are today--in a hotel near the Minneapolis Metrodome, site of the Super Bowl Sunday--without Charley who.

There’s no point introducing him before accounting for what Casserly has done for the Redskins, which is the most striking thing about him--and the hardest to believe. It’s this:

--Since succeeding Beathard less than three years ago, on May 6, 1989, Casserly has built a Super Bowl defense, filling eight of the 11 starting positions on the defensive team that helped the Redskins post a 14-2 record this season.

--He got only one of the eight in the draft, linebacker Andre Collins, a potential Pro Bowl player.

--He traded away the club’s two fourth-round 1991 draft choices to get the Redskins’ starting defensive tackles, Eric Williams and Tim Johnson.

--He used the Plan B free-agent machinery to bring in the five other defensive starters: end Fred Stokes, linebacker Matt Millen and three-fourths of the secondary--cornerback Martin Mayhew and safeties Brad Edwards and Danny Copeland.

--And to complete the haul, he also brought in, via Plan B, the Redskins’ 12th starter, designated pass rusher James Geathers.

Explaining himself the other day, Casserly, who is in his 15th year with the Redskins, said: “I think we have one of the league’s finest defensive staffs--Richie Petitbon is certainly the outstanding game-day coach--and I always wondered what they’d do if we went out and got them some players.”

Now it’s Buffalo that’s wondering about that.

All right, who’s Charley Casserly?

He’s just a guy--a former small-college football player who wrote a letter to the Redskins one day.

“I told them I’d work for free, breaking down film, cleaning the locker room, anything,” he said.

Hired as one of several Redskin interns, Casserly worked for eight months without pay--even expense money.

That was very pleasing to his employers, Allen and club owner Jack Kent Cooke, both of whom were famous in the Washington area for their knowledge of the value of a buck.

They were also famous for hiring unusually talented people. Well, Cooke hired Allen--and also Joe Gibbs, who will be coaching the Redskins in his fourth Super Bowl on Sunday.

And Allen hired Marv Levy and Ted Marchibroda, who will be coaching the Buffalo Bills.

But if Cooke and Allen spent the early months of 1977 congratulating themselves for getting Casserly on the cheap, what they didn’t know was that Casserly was congratulating himself for getting the better of them .

“All I wanted was to hang around awhile, and pick up some Redskin stationery,” he said. “The thing I was after was a job as an assistant coach on a college team.

“I thought I’d stand a better chance if I applied on a Redskin letterhead. Few if any colleges would consider me if I’d written them a letter on Minnechaugh stationery.”

Minnechaugh?

“It’s a Massachusetts high school,” Casserly said. “I was coaching football there at the time.”

He is Eastern born and bred, and in his rimless glasses he could still pass for an Eastern prep school teacher, one with a rock star’s long hair.

Son of an Albany, N.Y., meat salesman, Casserly, described by his friends as a tenacious worker, was reared in New Jersey and played football at Springfield College. He lives with his wife and daughter near Redskin Park in Herndon, Va., an hour west of Washington’s RFK Stadium.

He lives there now, that is. When he left Minnechaugh 15 years ago, he put all his possessions in an old car and drove to a Washington suburb, Alexandria, Va., where he moved into a YMCA room for $8 a night.

“I thought it was a good deal, and it was all I could afford,” he said. “I didn’t realize it was 40 miles from the (Redskin) office.”

Casserly was 28 when he settled in as a Redskin intern and began moving up through the ranks as a scout and an assistant general manager. He was 40 when he became one of the NFL’s youngest general managers, after Beathard left for San Diego in 1989.

Beathard’s new team, of course, is still in the driveway, idling its motor. Under his successor, Beathard’s old team has sped to the top of the mountain.

“Don’t worry about (Beathard),” Casserly said. “The Chargers have got the best front-office guy in the NFL.”

What about Casserly?

“Anybody could do it here with Jack Kent Cooke,” he said. “Owners win football games, not scouts. All you have to do is tell (Cooke) what you need. He questions you till he’s sure you know what you’re talking about, then he says yes. He never says no.”

What did Casserly tell him in 1989 when he took over?

“I said Plan B is the wave of the future,” Casserly said. “I told him that the other (NFL) clubs all assign one scout to scout pro teams. And I told him that we’d have to assign three. That must have sounded extravagant, but he went along.”

Didn’t Cooke try to have him get by with two pro scouts for a while?

“No, all he said was, ‘Get the three best you can find,’ ” Casserly said.

Casserly’s three pro scouts first intensively scouted the entire league. Then they recommended the players who have been brought in to revitalize the defense. Most were unwanted elsewhere. For one or two, Casserly won bidding wars with Cooke’s money.

So far, so good. What next?

“You trade to get ahead,” Casserly said. “You draft to stay ahead. We want draft choices now.”

How many?

“We have two firsts this year,” he said. “I hope we’ll always have two firsts.”