McGonnigal has become an integral part of football folklore at the
University of Virginia, where many fans tell varying accounts of how McGonnigal was injured while searching for his girlfriend's dog, some time prior to the game against
Georgia Tech in
1990. McGonnigal ruptured his
spleen and received a
concussion from the fall incurred during the nighttime search. The spleen injury sidelined him for the rest of the 1990 season. At the time of the accident, the
Virginia Cavaliers football team was ranked #1 in both major polls. Without McGonnigal, the Cavaliers fell to eventual
NCAA champion Georgia Tech, 41–38. Late in the game, with the Cavaliers trailing 38–35,
quarterback Shawn Moore threw what would've been a go-ahead
touchdown pass to new starting tight end Aaron Mundy; however, the play was overturned because a back-up tight end had not come onto the field causing there a penalty for too few players on the
line of scrimmage. Coach
George Welsh then elected to kick a tying
field goal, but the Yellow Jackets then drove for the winning field goal. Many University of Virginia football fans speculate that had McGonnigal never been injured, the Virginia Cavaliers might have gone on to win at least a share of the NCAA national championship. ==Professional career==