Former UVA QB issuing Cavaliers an Orange Bowl invitation was ‘surreal’

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Wayne Schuchts remembers what it was like when he arrived at Virginia in 1982, transferring from Colgate to play for new Cavaliers coach George Welsh.

They were both stepping into a football program that had just gone 1-10, and had experienced only two winning seasons in the previous 29 campaigns. Things were bleak, but there was hope. Welsh was determined to turn UVA’s pigskin fortunes around.

Schuchts quarterbacked the Cavaliers to a 2-9 record that first year, but managed to direct Virginia to a winning season in 1983, going 6-5 and 3-3 in the ACC, highlighted by upsetting 19th-ranked North Carolina in the next-to-last game of the year. He finished his two-year career at UVA with 3,124 passing yards and 17 touchdowns.

That’s why when Schuchts stood in John Paul Jones Arena on Sunday afternoon, about to officially invite Virginia into the 2019 Orange Bowl, it was a mind-blowing experience.

“It’s fantastic,” Schuchts said of having the honor of hosting his alma mater at one of the New Year’s Six bowl games. “To think back to when George Welsh came in in 1982, to talk about the program where it was then, and to think about Virginia now playing in the Orange Bowl, I don’t know if you could have dreamed that.

“When the team in 1990 was ranked No. 1 in the nation, that was great, but to now elevate and have the opportunity to be in the Orange Bowl, it’s the next level. It will be interesting to see where this group goes from here. For Virginia to be in the Orange Bowl is surreal.”

The Cavaliers won the ACC Coastal Division championship for the first time since the conference went to divisional play in 2005, and lost to No. 3 ranked Clemson in the ACC Championship game last week.

If Schuchts thought UVA going to the Orange Bowl was surreal, then what in the world must Don Slesnick, past president of the bowl and a Virginia alum, think?

“It’s especially surreal to me because when I was in school here, Virginia just broke the 28-game losing streak,” Slesnick said.

Slesnick, by the way, is a dual alumni of both Orange Bowl participants this season, Virginia and Florida. Well, at least he won’t have to deliberate on what colors to wear.

Schuchts, who is a member of the Orange Bowl committee, was roommates with former UVA basketball standout Rick Carlisle, now head coach of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. Schuchts also works in the same company (the Miami office of Avison Young real estate) as another former Cavalier basketball star, John Crotty, who was in Charlottesville on Monday.