20 college football moments that deserve to be made into movies
By John Buhler
2. The Band Was on the Field
No doubt John Elway was one of the best quarterbacks college football has ever seen. You know, he was pretty good at the next level for the Denver Broncos. While he got to so many Super Bowls quarterbacking in Denver, it might honestly shock you that Elway never played in a bowl game in college.
Yes, it was a different era back in the early 1980s. Bowl games were scarce, but football rivalries were still there. In the Pac-10, Elway’s Stanford Cardinal’s biggest rival was the Bay Area foe California Golden Bears. They played in something known as The Game for The Stanford Axe every year. Perhaps the greatest moment in that rivalry came back in 1982.
Stanford was 5-5 and had a realistic shot at getting to a bowl game because of some of the big wins the Cardinal had throughout the year. Cal wasn’t going bowling, as their winning record wasn’t enticing bowl selection committees. In Cal’s eyes, this was their bowl game.
After Stanford took a 20-19 lead with four seconds left, it looked like Elway and the Cardinal were finally going bowling. However, the Golden Bears would return the kickoff for a game-winning touchdown after time expired. They needed five laterals and the Stanford marching band on the field to make that dream a reality.
Cal’s Kevin Moen would take the fifth lateral for 25 more yards after plowing through Stanford trombone player Gary Tyrrell in the end zone for the game-winning score. This was Elway’s last game as a college football player. Had Stanford won the game, maybe he wins the 1982 Heisman Trophy? Or not, as he was a finalist against SMU Mustangs running back Eric Dickerson and Georgia Bulldogs running back Herschel Walker.