Most serious Virginia fans have an all-time favorite player. Maybe it was someone in your family, like it was for me with my cousin Mike Cubbage. Mike played quarterback here and also got the very first baseball scholarship UVA ever gave. Perhaps it’s a guy that played the game with the heart of a lion, like Fredericksburg native Charles McDaniel. This favorite all-time guy just might be someone that re-wrote the record books during his time here on grounds like Chris Slade, or even Chris Long. I’m not sure I could pick one Virginia former student-athlete whom I could call my all-time favorite until yesterday when I read Jerry Ratcliffe’s column in the Daily Progress about Vic Hall.
Vic Hall is not the best college quarterback statistically to play at UVA. Nor is Hall the best punt-returner, defensive back, wide receiver or special teams player to play here in Charlottesville. Vic just might be the best wild-cat QB we have had because he is the only one we have ever had!
So, as the story goes, Vic Hall walked into Al Groh’s office last week and flat out told his coach that Jameel Sewell deserved to be UVA’s starting QB and that Hall would do whatever Groh needed him to do so that the Hoos could start winning again. This, of course, was coming from one of the best high school QB’s of all time in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Groh absolutely was blown away by the humbling nature of Hall’s comments. So blown away, that on Saturday in Chapel Hill Hall played the most positions I have ever seen one dude play in all my years of watching college or NFL football.
On that winning Saturday in Chapel Hill, Hall played: tailback, quarterback, slot-receiver, holder for extra-points, holder for field-goals, safety and cornerback in the dime package on defense. In this day-and-age of big-mouthed, moronic team-killers like, Marcus Vick, DeAngelo Hall, Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson, something like this makes me realize why I played this amazingly team-oriented game of football for all those years. It also makes me remember why I root for the little guy like Vic and why it is important for people to be cognizant of what football is really all about: Teamwork, dedication to the greater goal of winning far ahead of ones personal goals, and never, ever giving up. Sometimes you have to take yourself out of the spotlight and realize you can help the team much more by playing in a less glamorous position.
Vicqual Hall, of tiny Gretna, Virginia is now my favorite Wahoo of all time not because of statistics, or what it might or might not say in any record book. Vic has always had a sixth sense about where he needs to be on the field. Hall is my all-time favorite Wahoo because he knew he could help this team win at another position then where he was slotted to play. Hall stepped-up, took that chance by speaking his mind to his coach, and as much as anyone that field Saturday, Vic Hall knew he could help Virginia win that game. And he was right!
So, Virginia fans, who is your all-time favorite UVA football player?