The Play (American football)

"The Play" was a last-second, game-winning kickoff return for a walk-off touchdown that occurred during a college football game between the Stanford Cardinal and California Golden Bears on Saturday, November 20, 1982.

The Golden Bears used five lateral passes on the ensuing kickoff return to score the winning touchdown in the game's final seconds and earn a 25–20 victory.

There remains disagreement over the legality of two of Cal's backward pass attempts,[1][2] adding to the passion surrounding the traditional rivalry of the annual "Big Game."

The Cardinal were in the midst of an exciting season—they were 5–5 but had victories over highly ranked Ohio State and Washington—and needed one more win to be eligible for a bowl game.

Representatives of the Hall of Fame Classic committee were in attendance, apparently to extend an invitation to Stanford to play Vanderbilt if the Cardinal won.

The drive included a controversial catch by Mike Tolliver, who appeared to have been out of bounds, and was capped by back-to-back passes from John Elway to running back Vincent White.

With Cal leading 19–17 late in the fourth quarter, Elway and the Cardinal had one final chance to score the go-ahead points.

Needing just a field goal to win, Elway overcame an early fourth and long deep in Stanford territory and got the Cardinal to the Golden Bears' 23-yard line.

With eight seconds remaining, Stanford kicker Mark Harmon hit a field goal to give the Cardinal a 20–19 lead.

Elway had been instructed by head coach Paul Wiggin to call timeout with eight seconds left to give his team two chances to kick in case the snap was botched on the attempt; if he had waited an additional four seconds to call the timeout, Harmon's kick would have been the final play of the game and Stanford would have won.

Cal rushed onto the field without 11 players on their special teams unit, which defensive back and return man Kevin Moen spotted right away.

Stanford coach Paul Wiggin and his players argued to the officials that Dwight Garner's knee had been down, negating what had happened during the rest of the play.

[7]Moffett signaled the touchdown, rendering the illegal participation penalty on Stanford irrelevant and ending the game, making the final score 25–20 in favor of Cal.

The controversy centers on the legality of two of the five laterals as well as on the chaos that ensued when the Stanford team and band entered the playing field while the ball was still live.

[8] TV replays were inconclusive; due to the distance from the camera and the swarm of tacklers, one cannot see the exact moment Garner's knee may have touched.

[10] The NCAA's instant replay rules were not adopted until 2005, more than two decades later, so the officials could not consult recorded television footage to resolve these issues.

Finally, the intense passion from both Cal and Stanford fans often make objective analysis of The Play a great challenge.

Among the notable attempts at deconstructing The Play are: Four days after the game, students at The Stanford Daily published a bogus version of Cal's student newspaper, The Daily Californian, with the lead story claiming that the NCAA had declared Cal's last play to be dead in a ruling three days after the game.

[15] For many years, John Elway was bitter, on both a personal level and on behalf of his team, about the touchdown being allowed: "This was an insult to college football...

Ron Rivera, a starting linebacker for California, went on to play for the 1985 Chicago Bears who went 15–1 during the regular season and won Super Bowl XX.

Emile Harry, Stanford wide receiver, after graduating '85, was drafted with the 89th pick by the Atlanta Falcons, then went on to play 8 seasons for the Kansas City Chiefs.

[18] Ford, who briefly played wide receiver for the Oakland Invaders of the United States Football League, was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and 3-year-old son in 1997.

[6] He appeared on television's The Tonight Show along with the key Cal players shortly after The Play; his smashed trombone is now displayed in the College Football Hall of Fame.

He died of prostate cancer at the age of 58 on November 18, 2022, one day before the 125th Big Game, during which Cal commemorated the 40th anniversary of The Play.

There will be no extra point!The portion of the call during the officials' deliberation is often edited out when the clip is replayed, making it seem as though Starkey declared Cal the victors immediately after the run.

[30] Similar to The Play, the "Music City Miracle" was a kickoff return with a controversial lateral that resulted in a game-winning touchdown.

Faced with oncoming defenders, Wycheck turned to his left and passed the ball across the field to Kevin Dyson, who was protected by a wall of blockers.

After a lengthy delay, officials determined that video evidence was inconclusive to overturn the ruling on the field, and the play was upheld as a touchdown.

Although there were 3 seconds left on the clock when Dyson scored, nothing came of the Bills' ensuing kickoff return and the Titans went on to win the game 22–16.

On ABC's television broadcast of the game, color commentator Joe Theismann said immediately after the score, in an obvious reference to The Play, "All that's missing is the band.