The Play revisited

On Mondays of every Big Game Week, I typically have written about The Play - the incomparable kickoff return from the 85th Big Game held in 1982. It continues to get air time, recently getting #1 on Best Damn's Top 50 Unforgettable Sports Moments. You can find all sorts of videos concerning The Play on YouTube.com. My favorite is the "lo-def" version used for a Sony HD commercial:

Other Play memories:
- The ESPN Classic 7-minute video
- The Joe Starkey transcript

Sure - most Cal students today have only seen the youtube.com version. But I'll still celebrate the "unforgettable sports moment" 24 years later. Why?

The most famous Cal play before The Play was the 1929 Rose Bowl game against Georgia Tech. Roy Riegels '30 (inducted into both the Rose Bowl and Cal Hall of Fame) ran 65 yards the wrong way resulting from a GT fumble. He was finally turned around by his own teammate but was tackled by the opposing team at the 1-yard line. GT eventually scored a safety and won the game 8-7. It was known as the "worst football blunder". I remember growing up watching the rerun of this event every January 1 before the Rose Bowl game. It took nearly 54 years to transform the talk about the "worst football blunder" to the "most unforgettable sports moment".

I figure we have another 30 years to keep talking about The Play.