BAND LEADS INTERFERENCE

After they kicked a field goal on a classic drive with a few seconds to play it looked liked Stanford had beaten traditional rival University of California at Berkeley 20-19. But the 1982 season wasn’t quite over. Unfortunately for them, Stanford chose not to kick deep, and a Cal player picked up the stubbed pooch kick near midfield. He started upfield, stopped, and threw a cross-field lateral pass that was caught and immediately tossed back to a teammate who was tackled. But before going down he was able to flip the football to another teammate who grabbed it and quickly lateraled again. This player ran it to the Stanford 25-yard line, and just before being tackled managed a toss over his shoulder to the original receiver who wriggled through the Stanford band and bowled over a brass player in the end zone.

Kevin Moen of California picked up the short kickoff, made the first lateral that started the cockamamy school-yard sequence, grabbed the final lateral, and scored the winning touchdown.³³ The Stanford marching band mistakenly thought that one of the Cal players had been downed ending the game, and they dashed onto the field, adding to the whirligig. Not so fast there, Buckos. As Yogi said, “It’s not over till it’s over.”

The five-lateral, most-bizarre kickoff return in college football history through his own band must have broken the heart of Stanford quarterback John Elway who was playing his final college game and led what appeared to have been the winning drive.

Elway was also a baseball player of high promise. To the delight of Denver fans, he brought his bazooka arm to the Broncos and became the only player in National Football League history to pass for more than 3,000 yards and rush for more than 200 yards in the same season seven consecutive times. John Elway also engineered a record 47 fourth-quarter comebacks, won two Super Bowls, became a Hall-of-Famer, and one of pro football’s all-time greats.³⁴

Elway will be best remembered by Broncos fans for two stomach-churning drives: The first, known in football lore as “The Drive,” was a 98-yard, dwindling-minutes adventure that tied the score, followed by a 60-yard overtime drive that won the 1987 AFC Championship game 23-20 over the Cleveland Browns. It’s uncertain whether John Elway is the premier quarterback in NFL history (we’d be secure withalphabeticallyBrady, Elway, Montana, or Unitas in a must-win game), but it’s certain Elway is the best comeback quarterback. He truly had guts in the clutch.

And he proved it again the following year in another AFC Championship thriller against the Browns and their capable quarterback, Bernie Kosar (see “His Fateful Heave” in this chapter). Elway led a long, late drive that put the Broncos ahead. But Cleveland responded smartly with their own beat-the-clock push to the Denver three-yard line. On the next play, star back Earnest Byner was headed toward the end zone for the tie when he was stripped of the ball just short of the goal line by Jeremiah Castille. In 1987 it was “The Drive,” and in 1988 it was the “The Fumble,” and both are bones forever stuck in the throats of Cleveland Browns’ fans.

“Gentlemen, it is better to have died as a small boy than to fumble this football.” –John Heisman, coach and football innovator for whom the Heisman Trophy is named.

SOURCES
33 Courtesy of the National Football Foundation’s College Football
Hall of Fame, http://www.footballfoundation.com/news.php?id=506, available as of 4/10/05
34 Courtesy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=64, available as of 4/9/05

(Marcus and Sweetness was excerpted from Guts in the Clutch: 77 Legendary Triumphs, Heartbreaks and Wild Finishes in 12 Sports, with a Foreword by Drew Olson of ESPN. Amazon print and e-Book, Nook and Google e-Books.)