ONCE the last of the bowl games is out of the way, the 26 National and American League football teams will sit down to draft this year's college seniors into the ranks of the pros. At that point, the most important man on every coach's staff will be his chief scout. How really valuable is that scrambling, rollout quarterback who has been dazzling college fans all fall and has the press clippings to prove it? Can that light little scatback or that skinny, glue-fingered end stand up against the agile brutes of the big leagues? Who are the sleepers, the unsung stars from little-known schools who will grab the headlines when they play for pay? The scouts' answers add up to something more than vital information for their teams. For the scouts have surveyed all of college football, big time and small; chosen by their demanding criteria, the top men at every position make up the most authoritative of All-America teams.
Herewith, the 1969 All-America, as named for TIME by the chief scouts in the N.F.L. and A.F.L.:
OFFENSE QUARTERBACKS: MIKE PHIPPS, Purdue, 6 ft. 3 in., 207 lbs. "Phipps has all the qualifications of a topflight quarterback," says one scout. "He has a great arm, plenty of poise and is a born leader." Phipps' brilliant three-year record includes 375 completions for 5,432 yds. and 37 touchdowns; he threw only 34 interceptions. The pros like his ability to drop quickly into the pocket and stay there; they rarely go for scramblers, although, says one observer, "he runs well enough to be an effective rollout passer, too." They also like Phipps' size and strength. "He can take a helluva beating," says one scout, "and still come back for more." For all Phipps' talent, though, several scouts say that TERRY BRADSHAW, 6 ft. 2 in., 210 lbs., Louisiana Tech, may be even better—possibly the No. 1 draft choice. "He's much like Roman Gabriel," says one report. "He's big, he stands in there like Gabe, and he has a pro arm." Indeed he does. Bradshaw throws a football like the national high school javelin champion he once was; he fired 390 completions for 39 touchdowns in three spectacular years. "If you were going to save a franchise with a quarterback," advises a scout, "this guy would be the one."
RUNNING BACKS: STEVE OWENS, Oklahoma, 6 ft. 2 in., 216 lbs.; and CHARLIE PITTMAN, Penn State, 6 ft. 1 in., 197 lbs. This year's Heisman Trophy winner, Owens rewrote the record books with career totals of 3,867 yards rushing and 56 touchdowns—the latter eclipsing the three-year mark of 51 set in 1946 by Army's legendary Glenn Davis. He impressed one scout as "a crusher, with good balance—one of the great competitors of the '60s. He does it all the hard way." Though he lacks the blinding speed of Gale Sayers or O. J. Simpson, Owens is a driving, slashing runner who, as one scout puts it, "can carry the ball 55 times a game and five-yard you to death." If durable is the word for Owens, slippery is the term for Pittman, who racked up 31 TDs for the Nittany Lions. "An elusive will-o'-the-wisp," reads one scouting report. "You go to tackle him and there just isn't anybody there. He has an uncanny knack for picking his hole and getting through it before the defense knows what's happened."