Hootie Takes Wayback Machine To The Days Of Robert “Rock” Weir
Posted on Saturday, Sep. 29, 2018, 5:00 pm by Jerry Ratcliffe
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I got a little bored Friday night, so I decided to step into “Hootie’s Way Back Machine,” and just push the button and end up where it may.
Little did I know, I’d be drifting way, way back to Nov. 26, 1949. It seems the Way Back Machine likes to land in Chapel Hill for some reason. This time, it was the Thanksgiving clash between the two oldest rivals in the South: Virginia at North Carolina.
Bumped into my old pal, God rest his soul, Robert “Rock” Weir, who played for Virginia, and Notre Dame. There’s hints that he might have played for Princeton, too, but I can’t find any evidence of that.
Rock was a tough customer on the football field, a rugged defensive player who could literally rock your world, but not in a good way. Once I got to Charlottesville during the George Welsh era, then Al Groh, then Mike London, “Rock” used to come into my old newspaper office and always complained that whoever the coach was at the time “doesn’t blitz enough.”
So, back to the trip …
Here’s the description of unranked UVa’s visit to No. 19 Chapel Hill that day in ‘49, a close 14-7 loss against none other than Tar Heels star running back Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice. Justice would eventually go on to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame for an outstanding career.
“If we tied or beat Carolina, we were supposed to go the Cotton Bowl,” Weir once told me in a sitdown interview in November of 1996. “The only problem we had was Colgate Darden (UVa’s president at the time), hated football.”
Virginia coach Art Guepe told Weir and his teammates before the game there was no way the Cavaliers were going to the Cotton or any other bowl.
According to Weir, Guepe had three scouts following Carolina for five games leading up to the big holiday clash between these bitter rivals.
“Our scouts could tell you what time Charlie Justice changed his underwear,” Weir beamed a wide smile.
In those days, Carolina ran the single wing offense. The week before the UNC-UVa game, the Tar Heels played Notre Dame in Yankee Stadium and Choo-Choo sat out the game with a bad leg and the Irish whipped Carolina.
“For one solid week before the game, our scouts hounded me about this bootleg Carolina ran with Justice,” Weir said. “They would fake a student body to the right or left, and Charlie would run a bootleg in the opposite direction.
“The theme in practice all week was that Choo Choo NEVER cuts back. He just tries to outrun you on the edge,” Weir said.
If Weir heard that once, he heard it a thousand times that week. Justice never cuts back, ever. Even when the Cavaliers got off the bus at Kenan Stadium, the scouts were still relentless with their message, preaching the “he never cuts back” sermon.
As expected, the game between the Wahoos and the Tar Heels was a battle, 7-7 in the fourth quarter.
“Carolina is on our 10-yard line and the ball is 15 yards in on my side of the field,” Weir remembered. “In the single swing, the tailback puts his right hand out for a lead snap from the center. Well, this time, Choo Choo puts his left hand out.
“Being a Phi Beta Kappa, I say to myself, ‘Here it comes. As soon as the ball is snapped, take off for the side lines, because he never cuts back, and I’ll run him out of bounds,’” the Rock recalled.
“I am standing, waiting on Choo Choo, and he comes right at me, dukes (fakes) me, and I fall right on my face,” Weir said, his teeth gritted in regret. “He cuts inside and to prove that he really had a bad leg problem, limped into the end zone.”
Weir said the other 10 Virginia defenders went with the student body right.
Carolina went on to the Cotton Bowl. Virginia finished the season with a 7-2-0 record and went nowhere as predicted.
“And since that day, my jock strap is enshrined in gold on the 10-yard line of Kenan Stadium,” the Rock laughed a big ol’ laugh.
Nice visit, great story by Weir. But time to get into the Way Back Machine and head to Raleigh for Virginia’s game at N.C. State.
Oh yeah, Rock will be watching from his perch in the clouds, and regardless of what happens in the game, he’ll undoubtedly be barking, “C’mon, whata ya waiting for? Blitz the SOB’s.”
