From: marshall@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com (Bob Marshall)
Subject: Re: The Play
Reply-To: marshall@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com
Organization: LMSC, Sunnyvale, California
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 92 01:24:32 GMT

In article <1992Sep5.013722.17873@julian.uwo.ca>, duffney@gaul.csd.uwo.ca (Tom Duffney) writes:
>At work today we happened to discuss The Play - you know the one that
>happened at the end of the game with the numerous laterals cumilating with
>the final person with the ball running over the trombone player for the game
>winning touchdown.
>
>Anyways, I said that that was John Elway's last game in college but my
>coworker said no that was impossible as it happened only about 4 or 5 years
>ago.

Yes, it was Elway's final college game. I remember it well; I was sitting
in the stands at the end of the field where it all happened.  I don't
remember the exact year, but I know it was at least seven years ago. I'd
guess about 1983. Elway had just finished a dramatic drive for a go-ahead
field goal, converting something like a fourth-and-38 play into a first
down, and then continuing the drive for a field goal. After the go-ahead
field goal, Stanford was penalized for celebrating, so they had to kick
off from the 20, then they did a squib kick, which was stupid, and Cal
had their oppoutunity.

I have "The Play" on tape. There were several controversial things about
it. The most often discussed one is whether one Cal player was down before he
lateralled the ball (it's impossible to tell). But one that I never hear
discussed, and one on which the rules are unclear (to me), is the
final lateral. What happened is the next-to-last guy to touch the ball
(sorry, as a Stanford alumnus I've erased the names of the Cal players from 
my mind) was running towards the goal line, and at the 28-yard line he
tossed the ball backwards over his shoulder. Since he was moving foward
at a faster rate than he threw the ball backwards, the ball ended up
continuing forward relative to the field. The guy who caught the lateral
caught it on the 25-yard line, but by that time the guy who lateralled it
was on the 20-yard line. Technically speaking, this was a forward lateral,
since it travelled forward relative to the field. Of course, with tuba
players parading around the field at the time it's hard to expect the
officials to catch something like this.

I've always told my wife that this is the second-worst thing that ever
happened to me (the worst was Bill Buckner in the 1986 World Series).
I still remember leaving that game; there was a big cardboard wastebasket
on the walkway, and I gave it a ferocious boot and scattered garbage
everywhere. Needless to say, the crowd cleared a way for me after that.

=============================================================================
Bob Marshall                     \\     "It ain't age
Lockheed Missiles & Space Co.     \\     That makes me look this way
Sunnyvale, CA                      \\    It ain't the years, boys,
marshall@force.ssd.lmsc.lockheed.com\\   It's the miles"
"I tell the truth 'cept when I lie"  \\     - Chris LeDoux
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Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro