Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 13, 1993                   TAG: 9308130449
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DON'T DRIVE THAT REDSKIN BUG NEAR BIG D

It would be foolhardy to jump into his rolling Washington Redskin helmet while circumnavigating the football-rabid Texas city.

Two decent cities - Washington, D.C., and Dallas - each full of millions of fine people, but hormonal waves of mutual hatred overcome them, come football season. Football season fast approaching, Jimmy Gusler's car might not be a safe ride in Dallas.

Here in Redskin country, Gusler's 1968 Volkswagen Beetle brings people to their feet. It stops traffic. It can prompt total strangers to break into spontaneous cheers.

The doors bear the Redskin logo; the front hood is striped with the bars of a facemask.

It may be the ultimate Redskin knickknack - a helmet with four cylinders and new tires that gets pretty good gas mileage.

"We were stopped at a light in Radford last weekend," said Gusler, "and this guy gets out of his car and comes over to us. My wife says, `What's this guy doing?' I was ready to deal with him.

"All he wanted was a photo."

Gusler and his wife were in the New River Valley on Saturday to watch the races at New River Speedway.

The Beetle fresh out of the paint shop, Gusler wanted to show it off.

"It was unbelievable," said Gusler. "I drove a couple of laps around the track, and everyone there was standing. Redskins fans were cheering. Some people were booing. But they were all standing."

It's an old dream come true for Gusler. He says that 22 years ago, he was doodling during an art class at Northside High School. "I drew a Redskins helmet. Then I drew wheels underneath it. It looked like a Beetle, so I turned it into one," he said.

Money being eternally tight in Gusler's life, as in yours, his vision never materialized - until this year.

After opening G's Sports Collectibles off Williamson Road in February, Gusler knew the VW could be a valuable advertising vehicle. At its roots, it's still out-of-control allegiance to a for-profit professional sports team; but suddenly, Gusler's Beetle dream wasn't an adolescent whim, it was a businessman's strategy.

He got the Redskins' approval to use the logo, bought a powder-blue Beetle and recruited a friend at a body shop.

Tooling about town in the wheeled helmet, Gusler has driven into a lot of preseason football conversations, has stirred some business for his sports card and souvenir shop and has flushed out some outraged Cowboy fans holed up here in Redskin country.

He plans at least two more Beetle helmets. Someday, he dreams aloud, he just might have all 28 NFL helmets painted on Volkswagens.

Gusler aspires to a much more modest height for now. Though a lifelong fan, he has never been to a Redskin game. He hopes his car will wrangle him an invite to RFK Stadium. Maybe some players will autograph his car.