Presented by POOL SCOUTS.
This Day In Sports…November 20, 1982:
On the final play of the game, now known as “The Play,” California makes five laterals on a kickoff return to score the game-winning touchdown as the Bears defeat Stanford in the Big Game 25-20, spoiling John Elway’s final game with the Cardinal. The Cal players had to weave their way through the Stanford band, which had prematurely come onto the field—with a trombone player being leveled in the end zone. The moment was immortalized by the words of Bears play-by-play man Joe Starkey: “The band is out on the field!”
Elway had marched the Cardinal down into position for what looked like a game-winning field goal with four seconds left. Stanford, 5-5 going in but with wins over Ohio State and Washington, was set to be invited to the Hall of Fame Bowl with its presumed 20-19 victory. But after the field goal, the Cardinal were called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which put Cal 15 yards closer to a miracle on the ensuing kickoff.
Stanford’s Mark Harmon squibbed the kick, and Cal’s Kevin Moen retrieved it. Moen couldn’t advance, so he lateraled to Richard Rodgers, who was also corralled. Rodgers pitched it to Dwight Garner, who gained five yards before lateraling just before his knee touched (that’s when Stanford and its band thought the game was over). But no—Garner managed to get the ball back to Rodgers, who then raced downfield. Rodgers lateraled to Mariet Ford as the wild mass of players and the band were on a collision course. Ford blindly pitched backward, Moen caught it, and into the end zone he went.
The Stanford trombone player was Gary Tyrrell, who said he didn’t see the kickoff as the band was preparing for its postgame appearance. “It was pretty tight back there as the game was nearing the end,” said Tyrrell. “The band had gone down to field level for our traditional postgame concert, which we thought was gonna be a victory rally, and it was pretty tight in there. And so once the clock went down to zero, it just sort of loosened up. I backed up into the end zone, and Kevin Moen just ran right through me.”
Boise State’s ending in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma—Ian Johnson’s two-point conversion—put a capper on what many call the most exciting college football game ever played. But “The Play” had those who witnessed it saying, “Hold my beer.” Incidentally, the late Pokey Allen, Boise State’s coach from 1993-96, was Cal’s secondary coach that year (Moen was one of his players). And Al Borges, Allen’s offensive coordinator during his first two seasons with the Broncos, was a part-time assistant for the Bears that season.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
