Even without the miracle finish, the 85th Big Game would have been considered a classic, with spectacular plays and several lead changes. Cal led 19-17 with 1:27 left, but Elway performed brilliantly on the final drive - including throwing a stunning 29 yard bullet to Emile Harry on 4th down with 17 yards to go. Elway drove Stanfurd to the Cal 18 and called time-out with 8 seconds left. Mark Harmon¹s ensuing 35 yard field goal pierced the heart of every Cal fan as Stanfurd players celebrated their apparent victory by running onto the field (receiving a 15 yard penalty).
The Bears onside kick team was in disarray as safety Kevin Moen fielded the squib kick at the Cal 46. Moen tossed the football to Richard Rodgers, who lateralled to freshman Dwight Garner. In desperation as he was being tackled, Garner managed to pitch the ball back to Rodgers.
At this point several players and the entire Stanfurd Band rushed onto the field thinking that the game was over. Meanwhile, Rodgers reached the Stanfurd 46, where he pitched to wide receiver Mariet Ford. Racing down the field, Ford was trapped by three Stanfurd players near the 25. While throwing his body into the Cardinal defenders, Ford blindly tossed the ball over his shoulder toward Moen.
Ford¹s body-block removed virtually all remaining obstacles from Kevin Moen¹s path. Moen caught Ford¹s toss at the 25, bolted through the band, leaped into the endzone, and celebrated his first collegiate touchdown by landing on musician Gary Tyrrell, flattening him and his trombone.
After huddling for an eternity (thirty seconds), the officials ruled that Cal had scored a touchdown. The cannon sounded several victory blasts and the Rally Committee reclaimed the Axe. Ecstatic Cal fans celebrated at parties that lasted until finals week, what was in the words of KGO radio announcer Joe Starkey, ³the most amazing, sensational, traumatic, heartrending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football!!!!!²
Cal vs Stanfurd, Nov 22, 1986
Cal was given absolutely no chance of winning the Axe. Stanfurd had
a 7-2 record (with impressive victories at Texas and UCLA),
all-American quarterback John Paye and running back Brad Muster,
a suffocating defense, and an invitation to the Gator Bowl.
Cal, on the other hand, was 1-9 with eight straight losses,
had released coach Joe Kapp effective at the end of the season,
and had been outscored in the previous two games 77-3.
The Cardinal was favored by 18 points.
The Bears scored first on a 34 yard field goal by Leland Rix. If that was a mild surpriseCal actually leading an opponentthen the next drive was an absolute shocker. Senior Kevin Brown¹s 61 yard bomb to Michael Ford keyed a 93 yard drive. Wendell Peoples scored to give the Bears their first touchdown in November. Around the nation, the halftime ticker read ³Cal 10, Stanfurd 3.²
The Cal defense shut down the highly-touted Stanfurd offense for most of the game. In the fourth quarter, Kapp called for the double-reverse; great blocks by the Cal line gave Ford a clear path to the endzone. The 47 yard touchdown extended the lead to 17-3 with 7:46 left.
Two minutes later, however, it was 17-11 on Paye¹s 69 yard pass to Jeff James and a two-point conversion. Soon Cal was forced to punt, and the visitors expected good field position. Scott Tabor blasted a 58 yard punt, and Stanfurd took over at their 16 yard line. The inspired Bear defense held near midfield, completing the greatest upset in Big Game history.
Cal vs UCLA, Oct 20, 1990
Cal had not defeated UCLA in 18 years, but the Bears were confident
that they would begin a new streak. In a move that ignited the
Cal fans, the players entered the stadium through the heart of the
student rooting section.
The Bears responded by scoring the first 17 points and led 27-10 at halftime. The key moment of the first half came on a broken play. Mike Pawlawski¹s pitch sailed behind tailback Russell White. The ball bounced dangerously, 20 yards behind the line, until White scooped it up, changed direction, and outraced the charging Bruin defense to the 5 yard line. Clearly, this was an omen, one that Cal fans had been awaiting for years.
Cal built the lead to 38-17 early in the 4th quarter and relaxed for a moment. UCLA quarterback Tommy Maddux led the Bruins to two quick touchdowns and was driving for a third when he fumbled deep in Cal territory with three minutes to go. The 38-31 victory improved the Cal record to 5-2 with a four game winning streak.
Copper Bowl: Cal vs Wyoming, December 31, 1990
With its first winning record since 1982 and its first victory over
UCLA since 1971, Cal had received its first bowl bid since it went
to the short-lived Garden State Bowl in 1979.
There was some controversy, as the state of Arizona¹s voters
had just rejected an initiative to honor Martin Luther King, Jr¹s
birthday as a holiday. The Bears elected to go to the game anyway and
announced that they would wear patches honoring Dr. King on their
uniforms.
After an excruciatingly ugly loss to Stanfurd on a game-ending field goal (with Stanfurd scoring 9 points in 16 seconds), the Bears and their fans were hungry for a victory. The night before the game, some Cal fans altered the University of Arizona¹s ³Big A² on a mountain overlooking Tucson to read ³C-A-L².
The Bears scored first after Cornell Collier stopped Wyoming running back Mark Trimmer on a 4th and 1 attempt at the Cowboy 39 yard line. Three plays later, quarterback Mike Pawlawski threw 25 yard pass to wide open wide receiver Brian Treggs for the touchdown. Wyoming later answered with a 26 yard field goal to make the halftime score 7-3 in favor of the Bears.
In the second half, Cal expanded its lead to 17-3 with a 46 yard Robbie Keen field goal and a 4 yard touchdown run by Greg Zomalt with 13:38 left in the 4th quarter. Throughout the season, Cal fans had witnessed the Bear offense fail to hold the ball during 4th quarter leads and the defense bend to allow other teams to scorethis game would be no different.
Wyoming scored a touchdown on an 11 yard run by Jay Daffer and then went for two on the conversion and failed leaving the Cal up 17-9 with 5:53 left. With time running down, Wyoming elected to attempt a pooch kick in hopes that the Bears would fumble, and Brad Raulston complied, but other Bears were able to recover. Wyoming¹s defense stopped Cal and Wyoming then drove to the Cal 24, where the Bear defense tightened and stopped the Cowboys. Wyoming kicker Sean Fleming attempted a field goal and missed with 2:04 left.
The Wyoming defense responded by stopping Cal dead, so the Bears punted. Wyoming¹s Robert Rivers returned the ball 70 yards for a touchdown to bring the score to 17-15. Excessive celebrating resulted in a 5 yard delay of game penalty, so the two point conversion was initiated on the seven yard line. Defensive end Joel Dickson then sacked Wyoming quarterback Tom Corontzos to prevent the tie. Wyoming then attempted a squib kick that went out of bounds after being touched by a Cal player. The ball was awarded to the Bears, allowing them to preserve the victory. Cal fans celebrated both the new year and Cal¹s first bowl victory since the 1938 Rose Bowl.
Cal at Arizona, Sep 21, 1991
The Bears arrived in Tucson with a 2-0 record and surprisingly
ranked 24th in the nation. Under coach Bruce Snyder, Cal had not
lost to Arizona, although the four games had been decided by a
total of nine points.
Greg Zomalt and Russell White each rushed for a touchdown, and Doug Brien added a field goal to give the Bears an early 17-0 lead. The Wildcats came storming back on George Malauulu¹s pass to Chuck Levy and two scoring runs by Billy Johnson. A Brien field goal early in the 4th quarter made the score 21-20.
Malauulu then drove the Wildcats to midfield, but the Cal defense forced a punt with just two minutes left. The punt put the Bears at their own 3 yard line. To make matters worse, a Bear ran into the kicker after the punt. Fortunately a running into the kicker penalty was called instead of a roughing the kicker (which would have given the Wildcats an automatic first down). Given the choice of leaving Cal backed against the wall, or taking a five yard penalty and re-kicking, the Cats opted to let Cal keep the ball.
Starting from the Cal 3, Pawlawski passed the Bears to the Arizona 32. After his sideline pass was nearly picked off, the Cal quarterback gave the ball to White, who reached the 15 yard line.
Pawlawski called time out with three seconds left to go. White finished with 150 yards rushing, and the Bears had outgained the ¹Cats by over 100 yards. Yet the outcome hung on the foot of Doug Brien. The walk-on place-kicker knocked the ball inside the right upright as time expired and was quickly mobbed by the entire Cal team.
The 23-21 triumph was the Bears¹ first come-from-behind victory in the final minute in nine years. Two weeks later, Brien nailed a 47 yard field goal with 30 seconds left to give Cal a 27-24 win at UCLA.
Cal vs Washington, Oct 19, 1991
A berth in the Rose Bowl was on the line as 7th ranked Cal hosted
3rd ranked Washington in a nationally televised showdown of
undefeated teams. 74,500 fansthe largest crowd at Memorial
Stadium for a game other than Stanfurd, U$C, or UCLA in
44 yearswould witness a classic. The Huskies, who had
outscored their opponents 236-31, were 14 point favorites.
Cal scored first when a safety blitz left Sean Dawkins open for a 59 yard touchdown. Washington quickly tied it on Billie Joe Hobert¹s 35 yard strike to Mario Bailey. The Huskies led 17-10 at halftime.
At the end of the 3rd quarter, the Bears burned another Washington blitz as Lindsey Chapman galloped 59 yards through the secondary. Cornerback Dana Hall nearly caught the Cal running back, but Chapman dove into the endzone for the tying score, electrifying the crowd.
Washington struck back, reclaiming the lead on Beno Bryant¹s 65 yard run. Cal had one last chance when the Huskies missed a field goal with 55 seconds left. Trailing 24-17, and with no timeouts, the Cal offense drove to the Washington 23 yard line.
On the final play, Pawlawski lofted a pass to Brian Treggs at the goal-line, but cornerback Walter Bailey managed to tip the ball away to end the game. As they ambled off the field, both teams received a standing ovation from the near-capacity crowd.
Cal vs U$C, Nov 2, 1991
The newspaper headlines screamed the news: Big Bad Cal
Mauls Poor USC; Bears Slaughter Trojans 52-30.
Cal dominated the nationally televised contest from start to finish. Russell White¹s second touchdown of the 1st quarter, a 72 yard breakaway, gave Cal a 14-7 lead, and the Bears never looked back. Sean Dawkins scored; White scored again, and the defense became a brick wall. By halftime it was 35-7, and everybody was checking the record books.
By the 4th quarter, they were burning the record books. The Cal offense amassed 601 yards in total offense. White finished with 229 rushing yards (the most ever allowed by U$C) and three scores. Dawkins also scored three times. The defense registered five quarterback sacks and two interceptions. Leading by 38 points, Coach Snyder pulled the first string, allowing U$C to score two late, meaningless touchdowns.
Then Bill Glass, the stadium announcer, proclaimed that Cal¹s 52 points was the highest total ever scored by an opponent in the history of U$C football. It was icing on the cake for the 70,000 fans, most of whom stayed to the end.
With the victory, the Bears climbed to 7-1, positioning themselves for a major bowl invitation. U$C fell to 3-5, and finished the season at 3-8. (One week later Stanfurd defeated UCLA, completing the first Bay Area Pac-10 sweep of UCLA and U$C in over 40 years.)
Florida Citrus Bowl: Cal vs Clemson, Jan 1, 1992
Over 7,000 Cal fans made the cross-country trip to Orlando,
celebrating New Year¹s Eve at Disneyworld, and enjoying
New Year¹s Day at the Florida Citrus Bowl. Cal finished
an almost-perfect season in perfect fashion with a shockingly
easy 37-13 victory over Clemson, to finish at 10-2 and
ranked 8th in the nation.
Cal heroes were all over the field. Russell White trampled the heralded Tiger defense for 104 rushing yards and one touchdown. MVP Mike Pawlawski continually frustrated the Tigers¹ secondary with a barrage of screen passes in the first half. Brian Treggs returned a punt 72 yards for the touchdown that broke the game open. Cal led 27-10 at the half.
The Bear defense kept constant pressure on Clemson quarterback DeChane Cameron, preventing any comeback. Even the coaches had tricks up their sleeves, with a double-reverse-flea-flicker that led to Cal¹s first touchdown and a ³fumblerooski² play that set up a 3rd quarter field goal. Sean Dawkins completed the scoring with a spectacular diving catch in the endzone.
The California Monthly aptly described the significance of the game and the season for longtime Cal fans:
This is all the sweeter, of course, because most of the fans...had seen the Bears lose to teams like Oregon State more than once; watched 21-point leads blown in the fourth quarter; and witnessed countless sacks, blocked punts, fumbles, interceptions, and other humiliations as recently as 1989. Yet there we were in Disneyworld, watching the Bears accept trophies and national rankings, and drinking toasts to Cal with people whose faces were painted with Clemson¹s orange tiger paws.
Cal vs Oregon, Oct 2, 1993
The Bears came in as heavy favorites against the Ducks, who had not
won in Memorial since 1986. Cal fans were stunned as Oregon scored
on their first five possessions (three scores from consecutive Bear
turnovers). Cal fans had seen so few highlights (a 24-0 deficit at
the end of the first quarter) that they didn¹t make any noise
(aside from cursing) until, after Oregon's fourth touchdown, kicker
Tommy Thompson¹s extra-point try slammed into the right goal
post leaving the score at 30-0 in the second quarter.
The Cal offense used the emotion from the missed extra-point to engineer a 54 yard scoring drive that culminated with Lindsey Chapman scoring the touchdown from the 1 yard line. Doug Brien made the extra point, and the Bears ended the half down 30-7. Cal fans were saying ³At least we didn¹t get shutout.²
Cal began the second half with Quarterback Dave Barr lateraling to Chapman, who took the ball 61 yards for a touchdown, bringing Cal to within sixteen points of the Ducks at 30-14. Cal fans were saying ³At least we¹re making this less of a blow-out.² Oregon followed with an 81 yard seven play drive that concluded with a touchdown and two-point conversion to give them a 38-14 lead. The Bears answered back, scoring on 46 yard pass to Damien Semien. The two point conversion failed and the Bears were down 38-20.
The next event suddenly had all Cal fans believing a comeback was possible. After the Bear defense stopped the Ducks on three straight plays, Dante DePaola blocked the Ducks¹ punt attempt and Eric Zomalt picked up the ball and took it 19 yards for the touchdown. Brien¹s extra point made the score 38-27 with 6:55 left in the third quarter.
Neither team scored on its next three possessions, though Oregon came close. With the ball on Cal¹s 2 yard line with fourth down and 1 yard to go, the Ducks tried to ice the game only to see Ike Booth knock down what would have been a TD pass to Juan Shendrick. On its next possession, Oregon made a field goal to go up 41-27 with 5:11 left in the game.
On Cal¹s next possession, Barr answered by throwing a 72 yard bomb to Semien, who had beaten the Duck secondary. With 4:53 left, the Bears were still down 41-34. A touchdown would bring the Bears to within 1 point, with a choice of going for the tie or the winsomething that was unthinkable to Cal fans two hours earlier.
Oregon answered with a 30 yard run, but the Bear defense stiffened and Cal got the ball back on their own 15 yard line with 2:22 remaining. The Bears soon faced 3rd and 10, but Barr rolled right and threw an 18 yard pass to Iheanyi Uwaezuoke. Four completions and a 1 yard run later, the Bears were at Oregon¹s 26 yard line. Barr then threw a perfect strike to Uwaezuoke who streaked down the left sideline into the end-zone. After some consultation, head coach Keith Gilberston went for the win. On an audible play, Dave Barr threw a fade pattern Mike Caldwell on the left-rear corner of the end-zone. All Cal students saw was a flag fly up from the mass of players, but Cal alumni watched Caldwell grab the pass despite defensive pass interference and come down with one foot in bounds. Cal fans erupted in joy now that Cal had the lead 42-41 with 1:17 left.
The Bear defense stopped the Ducks on the next possession, and the worn-out fans and players celebrated the greatest comeback ever in Cal and Pac 10 history. As incredible as Cal¹s comeback from being down 30-0 was, two teams have had greater comebacks in NCAA historyMaryland beat Miami in 1984 and Ohio State beat Minnesota in 1989; Both teams had come back from 31-0 deficits.
Cal at Stanfurd, Nov 20, 1993
Cal entered the 95th Big Game with several chips on its shoulders.
The Bears had broken a four game losing streak the week before,
coming back from a 20-0 halftime deficit to beat Arizona 24-20,
leaving the Bears one game behind Arizona State for 4th place in
the Pac 10, and a shot at a Bowl game. However, the biggest chip
was that Stanfurd had kept the Axe since 1987far too long for
Cal players and fans alike. Stanfurd fans meanwhile were reminding
Cal fans that Cardinal coach Bill Walsh had never lost a Big Game
while a coach at Stanfurd (having won 3 times as an assistant
and 3 times as head coach).
Doug Brien¹s 26 yard field goal gave Cal the early lead. Tailback Lindsey Chapman tore through the Cardinal¹s papier-machier defense and scored twice, and Brien added three more field goals to give the Bears a commanding 25-7 lead.
Most of Stanfurd¹s offensive series consisted of three plays and a punt as defensive coordinator Artie Gilgantino had the Bears pressure Steve Stenstrom every time he went back to pass. The Cardinal managed to drive into Bear territory in the final minute of the first half and lined up for a field goal attempt. The Bears promptly blocked the kick and ran it back forty yards to end the half. As the teams left the field, the 30,000 Cal fans in attendancevocal during the entire gamegave the Golden Bears a prolonged standing ovation.
The second half provided more highlights. Chapman rushed for two more touchdowns. The running back finished with 141 yards rushing and four touchdowns. The defense continually harassed Stenstrom, and intercepted two passes. Stanfurd finished the game with negative five yards rushing. The Bears returned to Berkeley with a very satisfying 46-17 triumph and the Axe.
The following week Cal clobbered Hawaii and attained the fourth place tie as Arizona State lost to Arizona. Impressed with Cal¹s three game winning streak and the 8-4 record versus ASU¹s 6-5, the Alamo Bowl chose Cal to face Iowa in San Antonio on New Year¹s Eve. The Bears did not disappoint, destroying the Hawkeyes 37-3, to finish the season at 9-4, with their third straight bowl victory over a four year span.
Copyright 1995 Sean Patrick Rouse and Andrew Gross
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Send comments to Sean Patrick Rouse <yoda@csua.berkeley.edu>.