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Show Addresses Quarterback Club Gabriel big on 'character9 pionship game with Minnesota in 1969. We had a real opportune in the game to go to the Super Bowl. Even though we lost, it was my favorite game because of the experience it was." The loss was one of several Ham downfalls in playoff games during Gabriel's term as quarterback. Why didn't the Rams ever win the big game? "The Rams were short one or two big play players. Everyone was consistent, but no one was capable of coming up with the really big play. The Rams are doing so well now because they have those big play players. Also, George Allen's philosophy on offense was 'don't make mistakes-defense will win games'." Which players stand out in Gabriel's mind during his long pro career? Not surprisingly, the menacing Dick Butkus, of the Chicago Bears, topped the list. "This man had tremendous desire. He absolutely denied anyone with a different colored jersey, to cross the goal line." The quarterback-turned-coach also had fond memories of Utah-native Utah-native Merlin Olsen. "We roomed together lor 11 years and had a lot of great experiences together," said Gabriel. "I don't think there was anyone ever better at his position." After brief stints in broadcasting, acting and various businesses, Gabriel returned this year to what he's desired to do-coaching. "I've always wanted to coach. It allows me to have the kind of lifestyle I want. (Gabriel lives in a rural setting, 45 minutes from the Cal Poly campus on 1.5 acres, with "horses, chickens and goats.") I wasn't a very good actor, anyway." Gabriel has found the Cal Poly job challenging. "I've had to crack down. A lot of players had been babied and pampered. Seventy-five percent of coaching is not on the field; it's involved with running down problems." Gabriel's new perspective per-spective as a coach may also help him with his son, a promising back-up 6-5, 215-pound quarterback quar-terback for New Mexico. Having a former pro quarterback as coach has seemed to help Cal Poly. The team has obviously better learned basics in blocking, passing, running, run-ning, receiving. And character. By LEE WARNICK Record Editor It's funny that former NFL quarterback Roman Gabriel mentioned "character" so much in his talk to Cedar's Quarterback Club Friday night. "Character" is exactly what his team, Cal Poly-Pomona, Poly-Pomona, demonstrated Saturday, when they rallied from a 35-17 defecit early in the fourth quarter to defeat Southern Utah State 38-37. 38-37. "One thing I can promise you," the former all-pro promised the night before, "is that Southern Utah will play a ballclub with character. They will play a team that knows the difference between winning and losing. They will play a team that battles for four quarters." Gabriel felt he had good mentors in the art of "character-building." The Wilmington, N.C. native went to school at North Carolina State University, where he played under Earl Edwards. Ed-wards. "Earl graduated 95 percent of the people who played under him. Those included a lot of people from Pennsylvania coal mine towns, who didn't have much of an educational backround before college. If a player didn't go to class, he wouldn't suit him up. It was that simple." Gabriel emerged as one of the better quarterbacks quar-terbacks in the nation, but the only all-American honors he earned were as an academic all-American. all-American. He felt that was more important anyway. Sixteen years of pro quarterbacking followed, 11 with the perennially- powerful Los Angeles Rams. There he played under who he termed another key in his "character-building," George Allen. "George Allen was one of the greatest organizational minds in the history of the game. But he was also one of the greatest psychologists. He would go to each in-" in-" dividual before a game and tell them something that would really make them want to play. He seemed to know exactly what to tell each person." But pro football wasn't all serious business for Gabriel. He recounted an experience from his 1963 rookie season in a game in Detroit: "I was playing third string, and both of the quarterbacks ahead of me were injured. It was a tough, physical game, and in one of my first plays, Roger Brown and Alex Karras came steaming in on me. They grabbed me by the pants and pulled them down around me knees. In the Detroit papers the next day, the headline n id, 'Rams make I 'st showing of the yea. "' Another in Gabriel's string of "character-building" "character-building" experiences came in 1973, when he was traded from the Rams. "No one really wanted me. They said I had arm problems; that I was all washed up. I ended up going to Philadelphia, and a team that was formerly last in the NFL in offense went to second in offense. That was a big challenge." Gabriel also reminisced a bit about his years in pro football. "If I had to single out a highlight in my career, it would be the cham- |