If the board is an Uno with the AVR in the socket (rev 0 to rev 3, the "Pro" has an SMD chip) then you can get a bootloaded ATmega328P (might cost $5, DIPMicro sells bootloaded 328P's) and put that in the socket. It's one reason I don't worry as much about burning a pin on my Unos, sure I could ruin the USB chip but short of that or worse I can replace the chip I program.
PS -- oh wait! There is another solution. The Arduino has an ICSP header, you may be able to program the chip through that. You wouldn't need to connect USB but you would need a chip programmer (another Arduino will do, a real cheap one, software and tutorials exist for it) and jumpers, maybe a capacitor too.