In Part 1, I looked back at eight college football moments that happened before the dawn of social media that would have been all across people’s timelines. Of course, that list barely touched on an extensive history of the sport pre-social media. I gathered several more college football events that would have blown up the internet.
Nebraska Goes for Two
Going into the 1983-1984 bowl games, No. 1 Nebraska held 51 of a possible 54 first-place votes. No. 2 Texas (three first-place votes), No. 3 Auburn, No. 4 Illinois and No. 5 Miami were all looking up at the Cornhuskers. Of course there was no playoff, but what happened next was the next closest thing. All five teams played in their bowl games on Jan. 2, 1984, and after Texas and Illinois lost in their games, it came down to Auburn playing an unranked Michigan, and Nebraska and Miami squaring off in the Orange Bowl.
Despite being 10.5-point favorites, Nebraska was in for a tough game. With the Hurricanes leading by a touchdown in the third quarter, Auburn’s game had concluded with the Tigers barely winning 9-7, putting the Hurricanes in prime position to take the top spot in the final AP Poll. In the fourth quarter, Nebraska began a drive down 31-24 after a 42-yard Miami field goal was missed that kept it at a one-score game. Getting down to Miami’s 24, Turner Gill threw to a wide-open Irving Fryar on second-and-8, only to have Fryar drop the pass. Two plays later on fourth-and-8, the Cornhuskers leaned on their option offense, which had carried them to this point, running right with Gill pitching to backup Jeff Smith, who was in for the injured Heisman winner Mike Rozier. Smith got to the corner, diving into the end zone to bring them within one. Then came the fateful decision by legendary head coach Tom Osborne.
A tie would have sealed up the title (overtime would not be implemented until 1996), but Osborne decided to go for the win. Lining up on the left hash, Gill rolled out and threw to Smith, but Miami’s Kenny Calhoun tipped the pass away. Nebraska’s onside kick was recovered by Miami, sealing the Hurricanes’ first title and in large part launching “The U,” while Nebraska finished at No. 2.
“The Play”
The 1982 edition of the “Big Game” featured two middling teams as California hosted Stanford. After converting a fourth-and-17 from their own 13-yard line, John Elway and the Cardinal got in position for a 35-yard field goal attempt. However, Elway was told by head coach Paul Wiggin to call timeout with eight seconds left. The reasoning was in case there was a penalty on Stanford. The kick was good, and California’s radio announcer Joe Starkey was ready to concede the game with Stanford leading 20-19.
“Only a miracle can save the Bears now!” said Starkey. But there were four seconds left on the clock because of the timeout decision. As the teams lined up for the kickoff, California somehow put only 10 players out to return. The kick was squibbed and madness ensued.
Kevin Moen grabbed the ball near the Bears’ 45 on the left side of the field. He went nowhere and lateraled to Richard Rodgers, who quickly lateraled to Dwight Garner. Garner gained five yards only to have five Stanford players surround him. Garner was tackled but he threw the ball back to Rodgers. As the play continued, the Stanford band and several Stanford players ran onto the field, believing Garner had been down. Rodgers sprinted right then pitched to Mariet Ford as the mass of Stanford red met the incoming California scrum. Ford was brought down at the Stanford 27, but not before he tossed the ball back blindly. The ball was caught by Moen who maneuvered through the mass of humanity and one final Stanford player’s tackle attempt to score and in the process trucked Stanford trombone player Gary Tyrrell. After what seemed to be an eternity and a debate over whether Garner was down and whether all the laterals were legal, the play was officially ruled a touchdown, giving California a stunning 25-20 victory.
Woody Hayes Implodes
Woody Hayes is one of college football’s all-time legendary figures in the history of the sport, finishing with a 238-72-10 record and five national championships. However, he was notorious for his strong temper, and it led to an abrupt end to his career. Trailing Clemson in the 1978 Gator Bowl 17-15, the Buckeyes had the ball at the Clemson 24. A short pass was picked off by defensive lineman Charlie Bauman, who ended up out of bounds on the Ohio State sideline. As soon as Bauman was standing, Hayes grabbed him and threw a punch at Bauman’s throat. Bauman wasn’t hurt at all, in fact he seemed more confused. There was a brief bench-clearing brawl, and eventually things calmed down, only to have Hayes run onto the field and grab an official’s shirt. Ohio State athletic director Hugh Hindman confronted Hayes in the postgame locker room and gave Hayes the option of resigning. Hayes refused, saying that would be the easy way out for Hindman. After the situation was reviewed between Hindman and school president Harold Enarson, Hayes was fired the next day.
SMU Death Penalty
In the early-to-mid 1980s, SMU football went on a hot streak. It started under head coach Ron Meyer and continued with Bobby Collins. Meyer got SMU up to No. 5 in the final AP Poll following the 1981 season while Collins followed the next year with SMU at No 2. From 1981 to 1984, SMU went 41-5-1 and looked poised to become a national powerhouse. That was until sanctions began to pile up. SMU was given recruiting violations following the 1980 season, and after Meyer left for the NFL, Collins and SMU kept rolling until investigations of paying players and the existence of a slush fund to help fund these activities along with gifts of items such as an alleged gold Trans Am to star running back Eric Dickerson, led to a ruling on Feb. 20, 1987 that SMU was receiving the “Death Penalty.” The list of penalties were:
– Upcoming 1987 schedule was completely canceled.
– Their 1988 home games were canceled.
– They were banned from bowls and live television until 1989.
– A loss of 55 scholarships over 4 years.
– Boosters involved in payment were banned.
– Instead of being allowed nine full-time assistant coaches, only five were allowed.
– Off-campus recruiting was denied until August 1988, with no paid visits to campus for recruits allowed until the 1988-89 school year.
It would take until 1997 for SMU to finish with a winning record (6-5) again and until 2009 for the Mustangs to appear in a bowl game, a 45-10 victory over Nevada in the Hawaii Bowl.
Wide Right I/II/III/Wide Left
For about a decade, Florida State and Miami battled at the top of the sport in all-time classic games. Four of these games came down to a final kick, and unfortunately for Florida State, they all ended on the losing side.
In 1991, No. 1 Florida State hosted No. 2 Miami in a clash of undefeated teams late in the season. Leading 17-16 with 29 seconds left in the game, all the Hurricanes could do was hold their breath as Gerry Thomas, already 3-3 on the day, trotted out onto the field for a 34-yard attempt from the left-hash marks. The visitors exhaled victoriously as the kick sailed just right of the upright. Thomas and Florida State were unlucky in more ways than one. Before the season, the NCAA narrowed the goal post width by four feet and 10 inches, which would have been more than enough for the kick to have been good. The win helped propel Miami to a fourth national championship, defeating Nebraska, while Florida State had to settle for a Cotton Bowl win.
Early the next year, the teams played in an early-season tilt as both teams were once again undefeated and highly ranked. No. 3 Florida State looked poised to spoil the day for No. 2 Miami as the Seminoles put together an epic drive in the final moments of regulation to tie the game. This time it was Dan Mowrey lining up from 39 yards from just inside the left hash marks trailing 19-16. Kicking into the windier, open end of the Orange Bowl, Mowrey’s kick gave Florida State horrible déjà vu as the ball missed right again. Miami would end up in the national championship but lost to Alabama while Florida State finished 11-1 and, in cruel irony, won the Orange Bowl in the stadium of its rivals as it defeated Nebraska — the team Miami had beaten the year before in the national championship.
The kicking shenanigans reared its head again in 2000. This time Miami came into the matchup with a loss ranked No. 7 while undefeated Florida State sat atop the rankings. With five seconds left in regulation, Florida State was staring at a left-hash mark 49-yard attempt and was relying on the leg of Matt Munyon to tie the game at 27. But it wasn’t to be as the home crowd roared when the kick ended the trilogy of “Wide Right” pain, giving Miami the win. In a twist, both teams finished with one loss, but Florida State was selected by the BCS system to play undefeated Oklahoma for the title game while Miami was relegated to play Florida in the Sugar Bowl. The Hurricanes got the last laugh as they dominated Florida and the Sooners defeated the Seminoles 13-2.
Florida State’s kicking woes stayed away for a season. In 2002, the Seminoles were ranked No. 7 and were in position to beat the defending champs and top-ranked Miami on the Hurricanes’ homecoming weekend. In a tightly-contested game, Miami stormed back from a 27-14 deficit in the fourth quarter and led 28-27 as Xavier Beitia stood lined up just to the outside of the right upright facing the open end of the Orange Bowl. The kick started for the middle then veered hard, missing left. Miami would lose to Ohio State in the infamous “Pass Interference” game while Florida State stumbled to a 9-5 finish, losing to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
Invention of the Forward Pass
It is impossible to think of football without the forward pass. Even triple-option teams will sneak in the occasional non-lateral. But after it was first invented, the forward pass was against the rules for almost 40 years as the game was much like today’s rugby. That was until an outcry against the brutal injuries and deaths caused by the sport. Over a two-year span, 37 players died from football-related injuries. Schools threatened to ban the game, and it looked like football was going extinct. However, thanks to many, including President Theodore Roosevelt, rules were put into place to help open up the game. The thought was that spreading it out would lessen injuries caused by mass scrums common in the game, and they were right. Along with the changes was a forward pass. There were detractors, saying it would ruin the “manliness” of the sport. But others, including the legendary head coach John Heisman, believed that it could make the game more exciting.
St. Louis’ Bradbury Robinson threw the first ever legal forward pass on Sept. 5, 1906. It was incomplete, and because it was not touched after Robinson threw it, according to the rules it was a turnover. But later, Robinson threw a 20-yard pass to Jack Schneider for the first-ever touchdown pass. St. Louis went on to dominate its opponents with the help of this new weapon, putting up a 407-11 scoring differential on its way to an 11-0 record and helping to make the forward pass a staple of football.
Hello Heisman
No. 4 Michigan led against No. 18 Ohio State 17-3 in the second quarter as Desmond Howard drifted back to his own 8-yard line to field a punt. Howard stepped right then juked a Buckeye out of his shoes. He turned on the jets, easily slipping away from the only player to get a hand on him then scooted by the punter as he ran past the Ohio State sideline. Beginning his celebration at the Ohio State 25-yard line, his free hand held high the number one until he crossed into the endzone. Then Howard paused between the “C” and “H” and struck the famous pose:
The Wolverines ended up crushing the Buckeyes 31-3 and won the Big 10 while Howard took home the Heisman by a 1,574-vote margin — the fifth most in history. What many forget is that right before his teammates dogpiled him, Howard struck the pose again. But the first pose is the one that stuck in everyone’s minds, the moment punctuated by the great Keith Jackson timing his call perfectly as Howard crossed the goal line.
“Hello Heisman.”
Marshall Completes Comeback
One of the saddest moments in college football history was when Southern Airways Flight 932 took off on Nov. 14, 1970, with the Marshall football team on board following a 17-14 loss against East Carolina. It was the team’s first game where they had flown in, and they wanted to put it behind them. They would never get the chance, as bad weather affected the pilots. The plane flew too low and clipped trees. Crashing into a hill, all 75 on board were killed. The team slowly rebuilt, and the NCAA waved a rule to give Marshall freshman varsity eligibility. It all led to its game against Xavier, 10 months and 11 days after the plane crash.
The previous week, Marshall had lost at Morehead State, but a touchdown in the final moments to make it 29-6 was an enormous moral victory. However, the Thundering Herd wanted an actual victory, but it wasn’t looking good as they trailed 13-9. Sophomore Reggie Oliver led the team down the field, avoided a near interception when the pick was dropped, and had his team at the Xavier 13-yard line with eight seconds left. The play call came in, a variety of the “Two-13 Bootleg” play-action that had worked for them against Morehead State. This play was “213 bootleg screen,” and as Oliver looked to throw he had his freshman fullback Terry Gardner open. Gardner caught the pass and took off, with tackle Jack Crabtree taking out the only tackler with a chance at Gardner. The final of the exciting finish was 15-13, but it meant so much more for a program that had been through so much.
About the author
I’m a Washington Huskies fan who is still amazed but not surprised that we didn’t have more success under Chris Petersen (I blame Jake Browning). Sports are my life. I know nothing else. I graduated from Bethany Lutheran College with a degree in Communication. I’ve been a part of a newspaper since 8th grade, including my college’s official newspaper where I was co-copy editor.
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