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Main Virginia Cavaliers Athletics article: Virginia Cavaliers

The Virginia Cavaliers are a college football program that competes in NCAA Division I-A and the Coastal Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Established in 1888 playing local YMCA teams and fellow state teams without pads, the Cavaliers have evolved into a multimillion dollar operation in front of 60,000 fans at recently renovated Scott Stadium.

History

Beginnings

The Virginia Cavalier's first team--a helmetless band of young men in tight shirts, laced-up pants and high-top cleats--opened its season on a gravel-strewn field, the historic contest witnessed by a sparse gathering of fans and no press coverage. That 1888 squad of 11 men and one substitute played three games, winning two and losing one, on a five-acre tract behind what is now Madison Hall.

President Grover Cleveland spoke at finals in 1888. The next fall, the first intercollegiate football game was played at UVa, with the team dressed in new school colors--orange and blue--that replaced the original, Confederate-inspired red and gray. The first squad, its coach forgotten by history, was run club-style by a "Foot Ball Association." The '88 team defeated Pantops Academy and Episcopal High School, and lost decisively to Johns Hopkins.

The General Athletic Association was formed to govern UVa sports in 1892, and Virginia joined its first league, the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1894.

Lambeth Field

Work began in 1901 on 21-acre Lambeth Field, propelling sports development at UVa. The trend was not welcome in all corners, however, according to University historian Philip Alexander Bruce, who wrote disparagingly of the arrival of "professional athletes in disguise" from all over the country. School President Edwin Alderman was significantly alarmed to appoint an investigating committee in 1904, and a strict athletic code was written in 1906.

Between 1900 and 1915 saw Virginia change coaches 10 times and achieve 10 winning seasons with help from a quarterback named Robert K. "Bobby" Gooch and a Walter Camp All-America halfback named Eugene N. "Buck" Mayer. Season tickets were $7.50 for students and $9.50 for alumni when 8,000-seat Lambeth Stadium opened in 1913, with a price tag of $35,000. The season began with three home shutout victories for Virginia, followed later in the season by a home game with Vanderbilt that was billed as The Football Classic of the South. Trainloads of alumni rolled into Charlottesville to watch Virginia crush the Commodores, 34-0, at Lambeth's dedication.

1900 - 1920

For years hence, it was traditional to designate "a greatest home game" each season. In 1914, it was Georgia -- a "Rally 'Round the Rotunda" won by UVa, 28-0, in a drizzle, as Bobby Gooch "general-led his men with rare ability," the Alumni News gushed. Betting was heavy on Yale for a 1915 game that ranked as the biggest all-time win at that stage of Virginia's history. No Southern team had ever defeated the Ivy League power until Virginia--led by quarterback Norborne Berkeley and Buck Mayer--won 10-0 in New Haven. Headlines in the Charlottesville Daily Progress read, "Yale Bowl a Soup Tureen--Virginia Eleven Serves Dish of Bulldog Stew!"

The University's first-ever losing football season occurred the next year, including a 61-3 payback at Yale. "Played them too early in the season," moaned a 1916 Alumni News. Questions about the role of athletics were cast aside in 1917, dwarfed by a larger battlefront now known as World War I. Athletics were curtailed in 1917 and 1918 "in an effort to adapt this University to the stern necessities of a people at war," according to the Corks & Curls.

The war ended, enrollment began to rebuild, and football practice resumed in 1919 with only two lettermen. "All Trains Lead to Charlottesville!" proclaimed posters promoting the "Great Post War Gathering of Virginia Alumni" for the November 15, 1919, home game with Vanderbilt. UVa lost, 10-6, and dropped the traditional Thanksgiving Day game with North Carolina to finish the "start-up" season at 2-5-2.

In December of 1919, Dr. Rice Warren was hired as coach in 1920. Warren led the 1920 squad to a 5-2-2 record. UVa also joined the Southern Intercollegiate Conference in 1920, which would become the Southern Conference in 1923. Rice Warren's tenure ended before the 1922 season, and new coach Thomas Campbell guided the team to a 4-4-1 record--not so mediocre considering the '21 team had managed only three points in its final four games.

Beginning of the Cavaliers

University teams became the Virginia Cavaliers around 1923, and the leader of the first "official Cavs" was Earle "Greasy" Neale. Although his 1923 record was 3-5-1, his teams enjoyed winning records from 1924-27 before falling to 2-6-1 in 1928. Student indifference ran high, participation ran low, and Neale resigned after the '28 season.

Earl Abell took the football reins for two years in the midst of another athletic department reshuffle. The position of athletic director was created, and James G. Driver--a three-year letterman at UVa--was named Athletic Director.

Lambeth Field was outgrown by the spring of 1930, as varsity and first-year teams in football, baseball, track, and lacrosse attempted to practice there. UVa historian Virginius Dabney related that spring football workouts were stopped due to the javelins and discuss throwers

New Stadium

The University began negotiating to obtain land for a new sports site, and plans were finalized for Scott Stadium to open in October, 1931. Land for practice fields between Ivy Road and the C&O Railroad tracks also was acquired.

Support for UVa football had become spasmodic--even fraternity brothers were betting openly against the Cavaliers--around 1930, but in 1931, a dynamic new coach named Fred Dawson buoyed spirits. Losing seasons and a lack of athletic scholarships took a toll on Dawson's enthusiasm, however, and he quit after '33--succeeded by Gus Tebell.

Just as frustrated at the dearth of notable wins was University President Edwin Anderson Alderman, who impaneled a committee to study the situation. Virginia decided in 1936 to resign from the Southern Conference, which prohibited players from being paid, in order to be able to offer sports scholarships.

Tebell bowed out after three losing seasons, succeeded in 1937 by Frank Murray. Although the Cavaliers went 2-7 during Murray's first year, the team produced a state championship and near hysteria in the student body in 1938 with a 4-4-1 record.

WWII Years

The 1940s arrived in Charlottesville, soon to be etched in memory as a decade of war and the era of "Bullet Bill." William McGarvey Dudley, a 168-pounder from Bluefield, Virginia, is called the best ever to wear a Virginia uniform. Dudley, number 35, ran, passed, kicked, blocked, tackled and intercepted his way to All America honors.

Under Murray, the 1940 team--running out of a T-formation--went 4-5, but improved to 8-1 in 1941, the only loss a 21-19 upset at Yale. In his final game as a Cavalier, Dudley scored 22 points at North Carolina in a Thanksgiving classic broadcast nationally. After a 28-7 UVa win, his teammates carried him off the field. Dudley finished fifth in the 1941 Heisman Trophy balloting. Murray's 1942 squad dropped to 2-6-1, having lost 29 players to graduation and "scholarshipping for Uncle Sam."

2006 Season

Currently the Cavaliers are 4-6, 3-3 in the ACC:

Coaching Staff

Current

Previous Head Coaches

• 1888-1892 Unknown
• 1893-1894 John Poe
• 1895 Harry Mackey
• 1896-1897 Martin Bergen
• 1898 Joseph Massie (Virginia 1893)
• 1899-1900 Archie Hoxton (Virginia 1896)
• 1901 Wesley Abbott
• 1902 John De Saulles
• 1903 Gresham Poe
• 1904 Foster Sanford
• 1905-1906 William Cole
• 1907 Hammond Johnson (Virginia 1907)
• 1908 Merritt Cooke, Jr. (Virginia 1906)
• 1909 John Neff (Virginia 1908)
• 1910 Charles Crawford (Virginia 1908)
• 1911 Kemper Yancey (Virginia 1909)
• 1912 John “Speed” Elliott (Virginia 1909)
• 1914 Joseph Wood (Virginia 1914)
• 1915 Harry Varner (Virginia 1911)
• 1916 Peyton Evans (Virginia 1915)
• 1917-1918 No Team
• 1919 Harris Coleman (Virginia 1916)
• 1913, 1920-1921 Rice Warren (Virginia 1905)
• 1922 Thomas Campbell
• 1923-1928 Earle "Greasy" Neale
• 1929-1930 Earl Abell
• 1931-1933 Fred Dawson
• 1934-1936 Gus Tebell
• 1937-1945 Frank Murray
• 1946-1952 Arthur Guepe
• 1953-1955 Ned McDonald
• 1956-1957 Ben Martin
• 1958-1960 Richard Voris
• 1961-1964 Bill Elias
• 1965-1970 George Blackburn
• 1971-1973 Don Lawrence
• 1974-1975 Sonny Randle (Virginia 1959)
• 1976-1981 Dick Bestwick
• 1982-2000 George Welsh
• 2001-Present Al Groh (Virginia 1967)

Stadiums

• 1888-1912 Madison Hall Field
• 1913-1930 Lambeth Field
• 1931-Present Scott Stadium

Conference Championships

Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championship

• 1908

ACC Championships

• 1989
• 1995

Individual Award Winners

First Team All Americans

• Jim Bakhtiar, fullback, 1957
• Will Brice, punter, 1995
• Ahmad Brooks, linebacker, 2004
• Elton Brown, offensive guard, 2004#
• Mark Dixon, offensive guard, 1993#
• Jim Dombrowski, offensive tackle, 1985$
• Bill Dudley, halfback, 1941#
• Percy Ellsworth, defensive back, 1995
• D'Brickashaw Ferguson, offensive tackle, 2005
• Thomas Jones, tailback, 1999#
• Patrick Kerney, defensive end, 1998
• Noel LaMantagne, offensive tackle/offensive guard, 1999
• Eugene Mayer, halfback 1915
• Heath Miller, tight end, 2004$
• Herman Moore, wide receiver, 1990#
• Shawn Moore, quarterback, 1990
• Joe Palumbo, middle guard, 1951
• John Papit, fullback, 1949
• Anthony Poindexter, defensive back, 1997 & 1998#
• Ray Roberts, offensive tackle, 1991
• Ray Savage, defensive end/ outside linebacker, 1989
• Tom Scott, defensive end, 1952
• Chris Slade, defensive end, 1991 & 1992#
• John St. Clair, center, 1999

Retired Numbers

• 12—Shawn Moore, quarterback
• 24—Frank Quayle, halfback
• 35—Bill Dudley, halfback
• 48—Joe Palumbo, middle guard
• 73–Jim Dombrowski, offensive tackle
• 97—Gene Edmonds, halfback

College Football Hall of Famers

• Bill Dudley, halfback, inducted in 1956
• Earle "Greasy" Neale, head coach, inducted in 1967
• Tom Scott, defensive end, inducted in 1979
• Frank Murray, head coach, inducted in 1983
• Joe Palumbo, middle guard, inducted in 1999
• George Welsh, head coach, inducted in 2004

NFL Hall of Famers

• Bill Dudley, halfback, inducted December 6, 1966
• Earle "Greasy" Neale, head coach, inducted September 13, 1969
• Henry Jordan, tackle, inducted July 29, 1995

Maxwell Award

• Bill Dudley, 1941

John Mackey Award

• Heath Miller, 2004

Draddy Trophy

• Thomas D. Burns, 1993

Current NFL Players

• Ronde Barber - Cornerback, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Tiki Barber - Running Back, New York Giants
• Brian Barthelmes - Center, New England Patriots
• Darryl Blackstock - Linebacker, Arizona Cardinals
• Aaron Brooks - Quarterback, Oakland Raiders
• Ahmad Brooks - Linebacker, Cincinnati Bengals
• Elton Brown - Guard, Arizona Cardinals
• Brad Butler - Tackle, Buffalo Bills
• Chris Canty - Defensive end, Dallas Cowboys
• Angelo Crowell - Linebacker, Buffalo Bills
• Isaiah Ekejiuba - Linebacker, Oakland Raiders
• Patrick Estes - Tackle, San Francisco 49ers
• James Farrior - Linebacker, Pittsburgh Steelers
• D'Brickashaw Ferguson - Tackle, New York Jets
• Marques Hagans - Quarterback, St. Louis Rams
• Dennis Haley - Linebacker, Baltimore Ravens
• Thomas Jones - Running Back, Chicago Bears
• Patrick Kerney - Defensive end, Atlanta Falcons
• Ryan Kuehl - Long Snapper, New York Giants
• Wali Lundy - Running Back, Houston Texans
• Billy McMullen - Wide Receiver, Minnesota Vikings
• Heath Miller - Tight End, Pittsburgh Steelers
• Alvin Pearman - Running Back, Jacksonville Jaguars
• Wali Rainer - Linebacker, Houston Texans
• Matt Schaub - Quarterback, Atlanta Falcons
• John St. Clair - Tackle, Chicago Bears
• Marquis Weeks - Running Back, Seattle Seahawks
• Terrence Wilkins - Wide Receiver, Indianapolis Colts
• Jamaine Winborne - Cornerback, Baltimore Ravens

Other Famous Players

• Jim Grobe - Head Coach, Wake Forest Demon Deacons football
• Don Majkowski - Retired NFL Quarterback
• Herman Moore - Retired NFL Wide Receiver

See Also

• University of Virginia
• Virginia Cavaliers
• Virginia Cavaliers basketball
• Carl Smith Center

References

1. Philip Alexander Bruce, History of the University of Virginia, 1819-1919 (New York: The MacMillan Co. 1920-22), 5 vols.
2. Charlottesville Daily Progress
3. Corks and Curls Yearbook web site
4. Richmond Times Dispatch

• Atlantic Coast Conference
• Virginia Cavaliers football
• University of Virginia