Hi Mike, You & crew are very welcome to swing by our pregame tailgate party to say hi, and have a bite/beverage. Our traditional spot in El Camino Grove.The vibe is as malevolent as ever. Cheers, and congrats on #42, old man -- #39 for me.

I was not one of the 500,000 people at the game. I was coaching the Cal speech team at a tournament in Southern California. Some people came rushing in hooting and hollering because UCLA had just beaten USC on the last play of the game. I asked - do you know what happened with Cal-Stanfurd and a person said "I think your [Cal] team won with something at the end, but I don't know". Satisfied with news of a win, I went back to coaching. A team member had his 21st birthday that day, so we went out that night to celebrate. Got back late. In the morning, woke up to the Los Angeles Times and "whaaaaaaaaa?" My lovely spouse, however, was at the game.

Was there, but you all know the roller coaster of emotions that went on.

My added story is that after getting my BS at Cal, I went to Furd for grad school, and was a House Leader in graduate student housing for a couple years. Each year as Big Game approached, I'd hold a little gathering to teach new grad students about this "Big Game" --- but of course I did so in full Cal regalia and accompanied by video of The Play...

Thanks, we will definitely stop by. The entire tribe won't be going, just Lynae, her husband, me and hopefully Leah but she has school and probably will just make it for the game. Now I got to get those news articles out and reread them.

I was in graduate school at Northwestern. Being pre-Internet, couldn't watch or listen to the game. I did go to Northwestern games (seeing them break the 60-game losing streak), and then would listen to Wisconsin, Illinois and Notre Dame on the radio. Anyway, didn't find out what happened until the next day, when all the Sunday sports shows were going "You have to see how this game ended!!" On Monday, when we got back to class (journalism), everyone that knew I had gone to Cal was coming up to me and just shaking their heads. I didn't hear Starkey's call until I came home for winter break. My mom had taped one of the replays of his call and saved it for me. As I recall, my reaction was that it was typical Starkey, since he didn't actually describe what happened.

I was a recent grad, still subsisting on somebody else's student ticket (which meant I was near 50 yd line on the east side).

1. Many students seemed very amused at our stirring vocal rendition of "The Cardinals Be Damned", prior to the game.

2. Even before the end, we were all thinking it was one of the greatest Big Games ever, what with us trying to hold on to upset them, Elway's senior year, including the two amazing TD catches (Mariet Ford and Wes Howell).

3. On Stanfurd's drive at the end, people started celebrating after their failed 3rd down. Nooooo!!! That, of course, was followed up by the Elway to Emile Harry catch for a first down.

4. We couldn't really see what happened towards the end of The Play, though it seemed we took it into the end zone. What with all the chaos, NO WAY did we think it would hold up, and it seemed to take several minutes before... Woo HOO! Dancing on the field like a pogo stick for 30 minutes!

5. I received a cassette tape of the game that Christmas. Played the HELL out of it for about a week! To this day, my friends and I can quote many of the calls and comments by Starkey and Jan Hutchins. ("So THIS is the Big Game... awesome flow of emotions back and forth... great football..." And that one's not even about The Play.)

Let's get 'em this Saturday! Go Bears!!!

I have the poster. I do not believe the poster was distributed at the 1982 Big Game but could be wrong.

I was in the student section, around the south 48 yard line, 55-60 rows up. There were so many good things about that day, and in hindsight, the only really horrible thing, LSJU getting an apparent winning FG, was a really good thing, since it led to something truly grand.

I had an unblocked view of Dwight Garner's knees. I thought he got the ball off before his knees were down, but it was very close, and that season had seen an unusual number of bad calls when it wasn't that close as to whether a runner was or wasn't down, either calling no fumble, runner down, when the runner wasn't as close to Garner was as being down, or calling fumble when the runner was clearly down, with about half the calls benefiting Cal, half hurting the Bears. I was ready for the refs to blow this one, but no official signaled that Garner was down.

After that, I believed right away that the flags were on the Stanford bench for coming onto the field. Gordy Ceresino said the same right away on the TV broadcast. Based on when and where the flags were thrown, it seemed obvious.

I lost sight of the ball after Rodgers pitched to Ford. I saw bodies moving toward the end zone, and presumed the ball was in there. When an official raised his hands to signal TD, I figured the ball must have gotten in. As a Cal fan, I am usually prepared for the worst, but at that moment, I thought the score would count. NO whistles blown, no flags on Cal, and I was confident the TD would not be taken away for the LSJU scatter band having prematurely scattered on the field. "I don't f#@*in' believe it!" was about all I could say, over and over.

After the TD was confirmed, our group slowly made it down to the field. The best thing about being on the field was going over in front of the Stanford section and seeing the stunned looks on their faces. They were so stunned they couldn't move. It was awesome.

Much of our group stayed together celebrating through the evening, watching the late night replay on KOFY at Rochdale where one of my friends lived. It was pretty fun watching the whole thing that night. Knowing what was to come, we HOWLED with laughter when Gordy Ceresino said, "Book your plane tickets to Birmingham, the Hall of Fame Bowl is on its way!" As I felt live, Gordy felt right away the TD would count, it was fun to hear his agony. An awesome night.

In hindsight, however, the most important thing was that a woman in our group said with 4 seconds left, "We can still win this." I thought, "What an idiot." Given the outcome, I had no choice but to start dating her 20 months later (pretty much as soon as we were both unattached), and 3 years after that, marry her. Saturday we will attend our 31st Big Game together as husband and wife.

GO BEARS!!

[url=.html][/url]

Cal8285 said:

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I was in the student section, around the south 48 yard line, 55-60 rows up. There were so many good things about that day, and in hindsight, the only really horrible thing, LSJU getting an apparent winning FG, was a really good thing, since it led to something truly grand.

I had an unblocked view of Dwight Garner's knees. I thought he got the ball off before his knees were down, but it was very close, and that season had seen an unusual number of bad calls when it wasn't that close as to whether a runner was or wasn't down, either calling no fumble, runner down, when the runner wasn't as close to Garner was as being down, or calling fumble when the runner was clearly down, with about half the calls benefiting Cal, half hurting the Bears. I was ready for the refs to blow this one, but no official signaled that Garner was down.

After that, I believed right away that the flags were on the Stanford bench for coming onto the field. Gordy Ceresino said the same right away on the TV broadcast. Based on when and where the flags were thrown, it seemed obvious.

I lost sight of the ball after Rodgers pitched to Ford. I saw bodies moving toward the end zone, and presumed the ball was in there. When an official raised his hands to signal TD, I figured the ball must have gotten in. As a Cal fan, I am usually prepared for the worst, but at that moment, I thought the score would count. NO whistles blown, no flags on Cal, and I was confident the TD would not be taken away for the LSJU scatter band having prematurely scattered on the field. "I don't f#@*in' believe it!" was about all I could say, over and over.

After the TD was confirmed, our group slowly made it down to the field. The best thing about being on the field was going over in front of the Stanford section and seeing the stunned looks on their faces. They were so stunned they couldn't move. It was awesome.

Much of our group stayed together celebrating through the evening, watching the late night replay on KOFY at Rochdale where one of my friends lived. It was pretty fun watching the whole thing that night. Knowing what was to come, we HOWLED with laughter when Gordy Ceresino said, "Book your plane tickets to Birmingham, the Hall of Fame Bowl is on its way!" As I felt live, Gordy felt right away the TD would count, it was fun to hear his agony. An awesome night.

In hindsight, however, the most important thing was that a woman in our group said with 4 seconds left, "We can still win this." I thought, "What an idiot." Given the outcome, I had no choice but to start dating her 20 months later (pretty much as soon as we were both unattached), and 3 years after that, marry her. Saturday we will attend our 31st Big Game together as husband and wife.

GO BEARS!!

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Nice story. I was there too with my future wife. We celebrated our 34th anniversary just a few days ago.

We were sitting in the section next to TT where our season tickets were because our section of seats was given to Big Donors or the Furds. Can't remember which. We were mad about that.

I saw the first few laterals but then didn't know where the ball was. A few weeks (?) before I had seen a TV show with the clip of a fan coming from the sidelines to tackle the opponent.


The opponent was awarded the TD.

Also on that show was the clip of the Cal fan tackling Tom Harmon


At any rate, I figured that we would have one more play if there was a penalty for the band being on the field since I didn't know that we had scored at that time. I then remember everybody yelling around me. I asked what happened and was told we scored. I was so excited, I felt that I was going to faint. I remember thinking I had now seen everything and nothing could ever top "The Play"

My friend Sharon said, "We request that you stay off the field". LOL

I looked at the Furd Section. Minutes before they were jumping around in joy but after the TD was signaled, you didn't see one person move. It was great!

This version of "The Play" has the Axe exchange


Anybody see themselves in the video? TouchedtheAxein82? Your links are fun to watch, too.



Big Game Titration


Lego Version of "The Play"


It's a shame that I am unable to bring all of my Big Game links and pages to the new site as I am no longer working for BearInsider.

WE WANT THE AXE!

The Play was a little before my time so I never had a direct experience with it. But outside of watching the Play (and perhaps seeing Elway cry like a baby), my favorite aspect of The Play these days is the class and good humor that Gary Tyrell exhibits when talking about it. We live in highly contentious and often mean-spirited times but sports rivalries are supposed to fun. A little snark and playful ribbing is of course allowed, but it still ought to be fun. And I have a ton of respect for GaryT for being such a good sport about it. Cheers to you!

I'd never seen the LEGO version before. That's awesome.

The Gus Johnson "call" of the Play is pretty excellent as well.

TheSouseFamily said:

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The Play was a little before my time so I never had a direct experience with it. But outside of watching the Play (and perhaps seeing Elway cry like a baby), my favorite aspect of The Play these days is the class and good humor that Gary Tyrell exhibits when talking about it. We live in highly contentious and often mean-spirited times but sports rivalries are supposed to fun. A little snark and playful ribbing is of course allowed, but it still ought to be fun. And I have a ton of respect for GaryT for being such a good sport about it. Cheers to you!

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Elway's classiness when it comes to The Play is why I don't hate him.

Thank you for these links and all you have done for this site over the years. Go Bears! Mike

okaydo said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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The Play was a little before my time so I never had a direct experience with it. But outside of watching the Play (and perhaps seeing Elway cry like a baby), my favorite aspect of The Play these days is the class and good humor that Gary Tyrell exhibits when talking about it. We live in highly contentious and often mean-spirited times but sports rivalries are supposed to fun. A little snark and playful ribbing is of course allowed, but it still ought to be fun. And I have a ton of respect for GaryT for being such a good sport about it. Cheers to you!

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Elway's classiness when it comes to The Play is why I don't hate him.

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Elway has come to grips with it more recently and now calls it "funny" but at the time, he called The Play an "insult to college football" and complained that the officials "ruined my last game as a college football player."

TheSouseFamily said:

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okaydo said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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The Play was a little before my time so I never had a direct experience with it. But outside of watching the Play (and perhaps seeing Elway cry like a baby), my favorite aspect of The Play these days is the class and good humor that Gary Tyrell exhibits when talking about it. We live in highly contentious and often mean-spirited times but sports rivalries are supposed to fun. A little snark and playful ribbing is of course allowed, but it still ought to be fun. And I have a ton of respect for GaryT for being such a good sport about it. Cheers to you!

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Elway's classiness when it comes to The Play is why I don't hate him.

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Elway has come to grips with it more recently and now calls it "funny" but at the time, he called The Play an "insult to college football" and complained that the officials "ruined my last game as a college football player."

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Thanks for that comment Souse! I kept seeing comments talking about Elway being classy about it, and I kept wondering if the users were being sarcastic, or if they were talking about his more recent comments rather than his early whining.

YamhillBear said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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Elway has come to grips with it more recently and now calls it "funny" but at the time, he called The Play an "insult to college football" and complained that the officials "ruined my last game as a college football player."

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Thanks for that comment Souse! I kept seeing comments talking about Elway being classy about it, and I kept wondering if the users were being sarcastic, or if they were talking about his more recent comments rather than his early whining.

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Was Elway whining or whinnying? I've always wondered.

YamhillBear said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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okaydo said:

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TheSouseFamily said:

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The Play was a little before my time so I never had a direct experience with it. But outside of watching the Play (and perhaps seeing Elway cry like a baby), my favorite aspect of The Play these days is the class and good humor that Gary Tyrell exhibits when talking about it. We live in highly contentious and often mean-spirited times but sports rivalries are supposed to fun. A little snark and playful ribbing is of course allowed, but it still ought to be fun. And I have a ton of respect for GaryT for being such a good sport about it. Cheers to you!

---

Elway's classiness when it comes to The Play is why I don't hate him.

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Elway has come to grips with it more recently and now calls it "funny" but at the time, he called The Play an "insult to college football" and complained that the officials "ruined my last game as a college football player."

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Thanks for that comment Souse! I kept seeing comments talking about Elway being classy about it, and I kept wondering if the users were being sarcastic, or if they were talking about his more recent comments rather than his early whining.

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Elway wasn't directly part of The Play, although it affected him.


It was the 25th anniversary of The Play 10 years ago.

He was asked to tape a one-hour special interview on The Play.

He didn't have to do it. He enjoyed a lot of success since. It probably took a lot of time out of his life.

Again, he didn't have to do it. At all.

And yet he did. And I have a lot of respect for him because of that.

Because, honestly, I probably would've said "*****off!"

Thanks (which I will rescind from 5 PM until 9 PM or so on Saturday) for the kind words. Cheers to you as well.

No. 2

okaydo said:

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In the end, a lot of life is about integrity. These days, everyone wants to cry "fake news." Most are bogus charges of "fake news," but there is also the serious problem of "fake news." The serious problem of politicians and media outlets who are more than happy to ignore the truth for falsehoods that will help satisfy the ends they seek. Too many people want to rewrite history these days.

Cal lost to UCLA in 1970 24-21 on a TD scored by Dennis Dummit with 4 seconds left in the game, with UCLA having no timeouts left. This in spite of the fact that Dennis Dummit's knee was down in bounds with the ball at the 2 yard line. Yes, this is a fact. Stanford played UCLA the following week, and in its preview of the game, the Stanford Daily article acknowledged of Dummit that "he touched his knee on the two yard line." Time should have expired, Cal should have won. But Cal didn't win. Cal lost the game. Integrity requires that Cal as an institution, in every form available, refrain from claiming victory in that game.

We can claim being ripped off in that 1970 game, far more than Stanford can claim being ripped off in 1982. Cal was "ripped off" by various calls in the 1982 Big Game, including the flag for illegal touch being picked up on the last drive, but if The Play hadn't happened, Cal would have lost the game, and if that happened, I would hate it if Cal in any way supported an argument that Cal won the game.

It is unfortunate, Stanford doesn't have the integrity to keep a body sanctioned by the university from rewriting history. The fake stories of the fake Daily Cal were hilarious, the best response Stanford ever had to The Play. Changing the score on the axe? A complete lack of integrity.

Sometimes, things work out down the road so that the victor isn't the one writing the history. In many ways, the U.S. Civil War was like that. I don't have a problem per se when the victor isn't the one writing history, because too often, the victor lies. But when the losers get to write history, they almost never tell the truth. The biggest loser in our current political climate has been truth, that is the saddest thing of all, and the axe is a reminder of how Stanford is complicit in making the truth a loser.

I'd rather have 100 consecutive Big Game losses than be a graduate of a school that is so lacking in integrity that it allows a sanctioned body of the school to change history.

GO BEARS!!