That play enabled the Colorado Buffaloes to defeat the Missouri Tigers by scoring a touchdown at the end of the game.
The ensuing controversy cast doubt on Colorado's claim to Division I-A's 1990 national championship, which it went on to share with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
[1][2] In American football, a team is allowed four downs, or plays, to move the ball ten yards toward the goal line.
Under normal circumstances (for example, excluding penalties that can involve replaying a down), no team is supposed to be allowed five attempts.
In this game, due to an officiating error, Colorado was given a fifth consecutive down, which they used to score the game-winning touchdown as time expired.
The game pitted Colorado against Big Eight rival Missouri and was played on October 6, 1990, in front of a crowd of 46,856.
With about 40 seconds to go, he completed a pass to Colorado tight end Jon Boman who fell down just yards short of the goal line.
[4][8] This play gave the Buffaloes a first down, but it led to immediate confusion because the Buffs were running a hurry-up offense.
In addition, the chain crew member holding the down marker became distracted during the timeout as his attention drifted to what was happening in the stands, as EMTs were desperately performing CPR on a fan who had suffered a fatal heart attack.
By this time, Louderback and his officiating crew had realized their mistake, and conferred for nearly 20 minutes to decide their course of action.
After a lengthy consultation, the officials announced their decision: the touchdown counted, giving Colorado a 33–31 lead, and the Buffs would have to attempt the extra point.
The rules do not require the extra point try if time has expired and the result will not affect the outcome of the game.
[10] Another controversy overshadowed by the "5th down" was the fact that replays seemed to show Johnson had actually been stopped short of the goal line on his touchdown run.
He complained about Missouri's notorious Omniturf artificial turf surface, which he said had caused repeated slips and falls during the game.
[12] Some closure came in the summer of 1998, four years after McCartney retired as the Buffs' head coach, when he admitted to making mistakes and being saddened by the Fifth Down fiasco.
Because 1990 was a year in which no single college football team was dominant, the Fifth Down controversy played a role in determining the Division I-A national champion for the season.
However, most of the top teams lost in subsequent weeks, while the Buffaloes won their remaining games, including a 27–12 victory in Lincoln over #3 Nebraska to give them the Big Eight title, and a squeaker over #5 Notre Dame.
Observers favoring Colorado for the national championship noted that they had played a more difficult schedule than Georgia Tech.