1982 Revisited

I've pretty much ignored The Play this year, primarily because I posted extensively about it last year.

But people still - 26 years later - equate Big Game with The Play...in video...in print. Earlier this week: " 'The Play' embodies Big Game". Today's example from ESPN:

Don't you still chuckle when Cal's Kevin Moen crashes over the trombone player in the memorable 1982 Big Game?

In all of the thousands of times you've seen that play over the last quarter-century plus, have you ever changed the channel before it was over? Never. But every time I see "The Play," I always feel bad for my buddy Rod Gilmore. Rod, now one of our analysts as well as a top-flight lawyer, lost his first case that day.

Watch the tape long enough and you'll see Gilmore pleading his case to the officials. Surely, Dwight Garner's knee was down before his lateral. Sorry, Counselor Gilmore. His case was thrown out of court, although he might have found a more sympathetic judge in the court of the Final Verdict. (Shameless "College Football Final" plug). The Play ended the collegiate careers of Rod Gilmore and a QB by the name of Elway.

To fully appreciate once again...here it is:

Wow! I'm Honored!

After the stinging defeat, I went into hibernation mode. The truth is, my job made my life anything not remotely linked to hibernation.

Nevertheless, I just logged into my visitor tracking, checking in on my lowly statistics. The Daily Kos, I am not.

Lo & behold, I get not one, but two visits with an IP that references a very famous stanford band alum, known for playing a trombone. Welcome!!!

For that honor, I will mention a blog where he submits haikus.

http://stanfordfootballhaiku.blogspot.com/

Joe Kapp is always entertaining

Joe Kapp - "still is as entertaining, unpredictable, confounding and all over map as the final scene of the 1982 Big Game that sealed his legend." From today's Oakland Tribune...

After a 15-yard celebration penalty that forced Stanford to kick off from its 25, Kapp resisted the suggestion to fair catch. He did order a 12th man off the field. "I did my great coaching," he said.

Otherwise, Kapp simply let the moment unfold.

"The players knew instantly, instinctively, we're going to play grab-asso and win this football game," he said, "because it ain't over yet."

Afterward, amid pandemonium, officials huddled to determine whether the bizarre kickoff return actually was legal. Kapp said he relied on an old bullfighter's prayer: May God divide the luck.

"You have to trust them," he said of the refs, "otherwise you'd go crazy or jump off a bridge."

When touchdown was signaled, Kapp quickly retreated from the field. Stanford coach Paul Wiggin continued to argue his case.

"I don't blame him. It's a hell of a way to lose ... with a band on the field," Kapp said. "But damn, this was his band, not mine. We have a great band, the Cal marching band, the best band in the land.

"They always know where to be."

The Play Announcers

Two articles from the Oakland Tribune this morning, one about Joe Starkey and the other about the Stanford announcer Ron Barr:

Twenty-five years later, Starkey hasn't used his riches to build a mansion high atop the Berkeley hills. Rather, he's happy if Cal's athletic program has benefited in some small way.

"There are some situations where I have to sell (the tape) to them. It's required by law," he said of people who plan to use the call in an advertisement or on a CD that's sold with a book. "But for the most part, I have never charged anybody anything. "A lot of people try to make (the $1 acquisition) into a big deal. But, really, it isn't."

At one point, the Cal Alumni Association decided to sell a tie with the words from Starkey's call on it. They offered to cut the announcer in on the proceeds.

"I never got a penny," he assured. "I told them, 'Just give the money to the athletic department.'"

----------------

Oh, how many times has Ron Barr heard Joe Starkey scream: "Oh, the band is out on the field!"?

"Enough times that if I was neurotic, I'd be on heavy doses of medicine," Barr joked.

Barr, a longtime Mill Valley resident, was the "other" radio announcer opposite Starkey when The Play, Cal's infamous last-second, five-lateral, game-winning kickoff return unfolded 25 years ago in the 85th Big Game. Barr was calling play-by-play for Stanford on KSFO, but his restrained account of the last play is rarely ever aired.

Instead, television audiences have heard Starkey's interpretation: "And the Bears have won! The Bears have won! The Bears have won! Oh, my God. The most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heart-rending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football! "

Barr rolls his eyes and smiles whenever he hears Starkey's call.

ESPN: what would happen if The Play happened today?

From ESPN, including a cool video...

Imagine if The Play occurred in this Saturday's Cal-Stanford game, rather than 25 years ago.

In this age of relentless sports coverage, ubiquitous bloggers and inexhaustible opinion, The Play would cause so much debate, controversy and outrage that the World Wide Web might actually fill up. ESPN would have to add yet another channel, and even those tree-sitting protestors at Cal would climb down to call into radio talk shows.

"Moonbeam in Berkeley -- you're on with Frank the Tank and the Coach."

"Hey, yeah, I just wanted to say that, apart from its fascist plan to destroy a vital ecological habitat of moderate-growth trees in order to build a $125 million athletic facility for a sport that promotes violence, demeans women and leaves a destructive carbon footprint, Cal football rules! And Stanford should just shut the @#&% up! I had a clear view of The Play from the top of my tree, and Dwight Garner's knee was soooo not down!

[snip]

So, 25 years later, does it really matter whether Garner's knee was down or whether Ford's lateral was indeed backward? No. What matters is that a group of trained, dedicated referees followed The Play that day as best they could, and they ruled on it as fairly and honestly as possible. And, aside from a few bitter Stanford fans, we're all the better for it not being reversed -- so that we have the memory of that incredible play, the greatest play in college football history. (And frankly, those Stanford fans probably shouldn't care either, because most of them made a killing during the tech boom and currently are retired and dining on Komodo dragon filets on their private islands in the South Pacific). (emphasis mine)

25 years later - my keen fashion sense

Two shirts that I still hold on to after 25 years.

25 years later - the hoax

Still one of the funniest pranks. I went to LA for Thanksgiving the day this paper was placed in the Daily Cal newstands (if I recall correctly, the "real" Daily Cal was not published that week, adding to the confusion). People told me that women were crying after reading the headline. Thanks to my roommate at the time, I received an original.


If you hurry, there is a copy up for bid on eBay right now.

UPDATE: The Fake Daily Cal sold on eBay for $510.00. I need to increase my insurance.

The Play revisited again

Yeah, you all know it:

25 years...

Ruined Elway's last college game...

Starky's excited voice can be found anywhere in cyberspace - YouTube, mp3, transcript (I'm surprised I couldn't find it in a ringtone)...

So let's do something different...selected photos and newspaper shots from that historic day.

1982 Program

Front page - Oakland Tribune

Back page - Oakland Tribune

Sports Page - Oakland Tribune

Photo of the Axe and the exuberant crowd

Front page of the Berkeley Gazette

Go Bears!

Versus to televise "The Play 25"

And so the commemorations begin...from the channel that brings you "World Extreme Cagefighting".

John Elway, Stanford Quarterback in 1982, and Others from “The Play” Reunite to Discuss the Game Together for the First Time in 25 Years

VERSUS to also air this year’s game between Stanford and Cal on December 1

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of “The Play,” VERSUS has assembled some of the principals from the 1982 game between Stanford and the University of California to relive their memories for a one-hour special called The Play 25, which will air on November 24 at 6 p.m. ET. This one-hour special looks back at the most famous play in college football history – when Cal scored the winning touchdown to defeat Stanford, 25-20, while Stanford’s band was already on the field celebrating. The special will also re-air all week leading up to this year’s match-up between Stanford and Cal on December 1 at 7 p.m. ET, which can be seen only on VERSUS.

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.

Trombone Guy Pale Ale

Caption for Picture - Gary Tyrrell shows off his home brew called Trombone Guy Ale, which features a Stanford King sitting on top of a Cal Bear on the label. (Alex Gallardo / LAT)

There was an article about Gary Tyrell in today's Los Angeles Times (requires registration). He is the stanfurd bandsperson made (in)famous in having a key part of The Play in the 1982 Big Game. Wow...24 years ago. I am uncertain about the "Stanford King" reference in the photo caption, but I wouldn't mind getting a label from his bottle.

As seen in countless television replays over the last 24 years, Tyrrell is the tumbling trombonist who was bowled over in the end zone at the end of the magical, mythical, multi-lateral, last-second kickoff return that gave California an unforgettable 25-20 victory over Stanford on Nov. 20, 1982.

Or, as the return has come to be known, "the Play."

These days, the 45-year-old Stanford grad lives in Half Moon Bay, Calif., and works in nearby Redwood Shores, where he is the chief financial officer at the Woodside Fund, an early-stage venture capital company.

He rarely plays the trombone and never plays the instrument he toted that day. That one is in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind.

No longer a pariah on campus, where the bitterness of the '82 loss lingered for years and intensified criticism of the anything-goes Stanford band, Tyrrell is a longtime Stanford football season-ticket holder who at pregame tailgate parties serves his signature microbrew, Trombone Guy Pale Ale.

Even now, though, nearly a quarter-century since his brush with fame, rarely do more than a few weeks pass without somebody asking him to once again recount his sidesplitting role in "the Play," and he happily obliges each time.

As for the man who so cavalierly plowed into him, Cal footballer Kevin Moen, Tyrrell calls him "a great guy and a gentleman, a total class act."

The unmarried Tyrrell and Moen, a husband and father of two who lives in Rancho Palos Verdes and manages a real estate office, have developed a kinship through years of sharing banquet podiums and reliving their awkward first meeting.

"He's one of the few guys I know from the Stanford side who's kind of kept a proper perspective on everything," Moen says. "He kind of looks back on it as a unique moment, a little bit of an oddity. It wasn't do-or-die…. Where a lot of the Stanford folks are still a little bitter, he's kind of like, 'Hey, it was a historical moment. Let's look at it for what it was.' "

The Play

Happy Monday of Big Game Week.

My annual Monday of Big Game Week has traditionally been a reposting of Joe Starkey's famous call in 1982 of "the most amazing, sensational, traumatic, heart rending... exciting thrilling finish in the history of college football! California has won...the Big Game...over Stanford." I still get goose bumps when I hear it.

I won't repost this year, but it's absolutely amazing that 23 years later, it still has a huge following. Perhaps it's because it was ranked #18 in ESPN's 100 most memorable moments.

The full text of The Play can be found here and here.

A Wikipedia entry of The Play can be found here, which also links to attributed quotes from that day. Well worth visiting.

RealOne Player videos of The Play can be found here, with audio at Joe Kapp's site.

If you want eyewitness accounts, I can refer you to at least 10-12 people out of the 150,000 who claim to have been there.

Go Bears!