I was recently watching ESPN150, a panel discussing this play and other plays. I think this is the best play ever for a myriad of reasons, both before the play, during the play, and after the play. Here’s some raw footage of the play:
Here's the final minute of the game with Joe Starkey's call, the Cal radio guy (who was hilarious): Here's a good write-up about it in Sports Illustrated.https://www.si.com/vault/1983/09/01/644137/the-anatomy-of-a-miracle
Before the play:
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Great game. Back and forth. Elway overcomes 4th and 17 from his own 13-yardline with 53 seconds left, with a long pass about 30 yards downfield. He drives the ball into position for a FG.
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Stanford 35-yard FG is good with 0:04 left (Mark Harmon, very good kicker). They go up 20-19. They called a timeout with 8 seconds left, and then kicked it. A big mistake by Elway in retrospect is not letting the clock run down so that the FG is a walk-off. By leaving 4 seconds, it gave Cal an opportunity to return a kickoff.
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Stanford celebrates, and gets a penalty, backing their kickoff up to the 25, which put Cal 15 yards closer to the end zone when they were to receive the kick.
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Prior to The Play, the other 59:56 of the game is enough already to be a classic in this heated rivalry. It would go down in local annals as a classic. But not a national classic. It took The Play for that to happen.
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Cal’s Richard Rodgers tells his teammates, “Don’t go down with the ball in your hands. Don’t let the ball die”, as they get read to receive the kickoff from Stanford.
The Play:
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Stanford squibs it so that Cal can’t do a normal return.
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Cal has a hard time getting a full 11 guys on the field. Their #3 runs on at the last minute, and hasn’t even buckled his chin-strap. Their front wall, which is supposed to be 5 guys, is just 4 guys. But the squib bounces straight to Kevin Moen.
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Moen, a former high school QB, throws a lateral overhanded to Richard Rodgers, who is a good 10-15 yards away and slightly behind Moen. #3 is between them, but gets out of the way so that Rodgers can receive the lateral-pass from Moen.
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Rodgers turns upfield but quickly laterals, as #3 throws a block to keep Stanford off of Rodgers. His lateral is to Dwight Garner.
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Garner gets surrounded and tackled, but he barely manages to get the ball away again to Richard Rodgers. It takes a number of Stanford players to bring him down, maybe 4 or so. And it appears his knee is down prior to the lateral. But no whistle is blown, and Rodgers springs out of the pile with the football to his right. A bunch of Stanford guys in tackling Garner have taken themselves away from the action. This will forever be the most controversial aspect of The Play. And if replay had been instituted, it might have been overturned. But in 1982, there was no replay. And even if there had been, I’m not sure the angle is enough to know for sure that his knee was down.
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Mark Harmon thinks that Garner is down and that the play is over. He immediately jumps up and starts to celebrate. But he sees Rodgers squirt out of the pile, and realizes he has to get back into the play.
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Rodgers shoots right and has a more open field, as so many Stanford guys are now not in position. Stanford closes in on him, and he laterials to Mariet Ford at about the 45 yardline of Stanford. Ford gets the lateral, and is now streaking down the field.
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Multiple Stanford players, who thought the play had ended earlier are now on the field. A random Stanford player, who has run out of the field, realizes his mistake and falls down at the 35 yardline, as The Play runs right by him. Other Stanford players see their mistake, and run back to their sideline. It’s been reported that some Cal players also stepped onto the field, although I’ve never seen a camera angle that showed it.
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Ford gets trapped by Stanford players at around the 25, including Harmon, and gives himself up. He dives into the Stanford defenders and simultaneously does a completely blind lateral that actually ricochets off a Stanford helmet. The ball appears to go forward, but that’s only because it bounced off a helmet. This is the second controversy, as Stanford thinks is a forward lateral. It’s likely not, as the ricochet takes care of that.
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Kevin Moen, who has been trailing the play, receives the incredible blind lateral, and is now in open field at the 25, except for one thing. The Stanford Band is all over the field.
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The Band stretches from the back of the end zone out to about the 30. They’re now unwitting blockers for Cal players, as The Play has progressed into this area of the field.
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Not only is the Band on the field. But Stanford’s Axe Committee is running around at about the 20, displaying the Axe that they think they’ve won. Photographers are also on the field, including a guy in the end zone who is about to get some of the most iconic photographs in the history of college football. The Play has devolved into complete chaos as Moen is now streaking into the crowd of band folks.
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A Cal player blocks a Stanford player out of the way, clearing a path for Moen. The Band people start to flee, as they see Moen coming at them. A Stanford player is right behind Moen, and has a chance to tackle him at about the 10. But he seems to give up on the play. He slows down, and let’s Moen go. Will this guy ever get over that decision? He probably thinks the play was over, and figured Moen was going on beyond the whistle.
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Moen goes into the End Zone, jumps up into the air with exuberance, and comes crashing down on Gary Tyrrell, a Stanford Trombonist, who isn’t even aware of what’s happening. Tyrrell has his clock cleaned, and is lying supine on the astroturf in the end zone. The Play is over. Moen has scored a TD, and there is now no time left on the clock. But many people in the stadium, particularly Stanford people, don’t realize it or don’t think it will stand.
After the Play:
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Moen peels off toward the goal post and starts to celebrate with his teammates, who pile into the end zone to celebrate with him.
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A random guy in brown appears to steal the blue & gold padding off the goal post. As he runs away with it, he’s tackled, and appears to be fighting another guy for the padding. Yards away, Cal players mob each other in celebration.
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Stanford players stand on their sideline with their coaches. No one knows what the officials have decided.
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The officials huddle at midfield. Cal and Stanford players crowd around them, and also random fans. Flags were thrown during the play. But none were on Cal. No whistles were blown. Garner was not called down. No illegal laterals were seen by the officials. They confer, and decide that The Play stands. Cal wins 25-20. There’s absolute pandemonium that erupts from the players and random people who are standing by the Huddle.
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A random guy in brown jumps up and down with his hands in the air, as the officials rule in Cal’s favor. He turns toward the Stanford sideline and gets in the players’ faces. One Stanford player confronts him and starts to push him, and other players intervene.
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The Cal crowd pours out onto the field to celebrate. Stanford players and coaches are in shock on their sidelines and don’t immediately leave. Some of them start to complain to the refs.
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The Cal Axe committee tracks down the Axe, and takes it from the Stanford Axe Committee. They start to parade the Axe around the field.
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Elway starts to leave, and has a run-in with a random Cal fan, who does a face-palm in front of him. Elway appears to either flip a bird at him, or point at him. His head coach, Paul Wiggin, reaches out to intervene. He is also walking off the field. See link:
The Play, 32 years later: Final John Elway college football moment? Giving a Cal fan the finger - California Golden Blogs -
Pure Pandemonium ensues after the most shocking and chaotic ending in college football history.
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4 days after The Play, Stanford plays a prank on Cal, hijacking their student newspaper with a fake version that claims that the NCAA has overturned The Play and awarded the game to Stanford. Some Cal folks fall for it.
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Gary Tyrrell and Kevin Moen are now locked together in history, and will be interviewed about this over and over for the rest of their lives. They are now friends and have given talks/interviews together.
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John Elway goes on to a great professional career, as one of the greatest QB’s ever in the history of the game, including 2 Super Bowl Championships. But his college career is wrecked by Cal, not just in 1982, but in some previous years as well.
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Joe Kapp, the Cal coach, stays around through 1986. In 1982, he was a first-year coach and Cal alum. Paul Wiggin, a Stanford alum, is fired in 1983 during a 1-10 Stanford season. It takes him many years to get over The Play. To this day, he still has a flat-top haircut, circa 1959.
The Play: The Greatest ending in college football history.
