[Genuine Realist]

I was still going to Berkeley for Big Games in those days, and by coincidence had the best seats I ever had for any game. These were about the 40 yard line, on the side on which Stanford kicked off. The Cal player - I forget his name and I'm not going to look it up - apparently was stopped with knees down. The ref came up and CLEARLY - UNAMBIGUOUSLY - waved his arms to signal end of the game. Then he got interested in what was happening on the other side of the field, after the lateral, ran off, and forgot about it. I guess he didn't have the guts to assert his authority after the fantasy that developed.

But the Play is only half the story. I think people forget what a genius Wiggin had for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. After Harmon kicked the apparent winner, the Stanford players ran onto the field and rejoiced, drawing a 15 yard penalty ang giving Cal a ghost of a chance. That would be pretty poor in any circumstance, but they'd done the same damn thing only six weeks earlier, gave Arizona State new life, and were beaten on a last second drive. You'd think a head coach would have the common sense to warn his players not to repeat the offense, have his assistants roam the sideline, but that was not Wiggin. He just stood there and got burned a second time.

As I sat there, my big worry for Stanford was that - if they squibbed it - a Cal player might fall on the ball, call time, and they'd be within distant field goal range. That would have been how the game should have ended, Wiggin would have been fired unceremoniously the next day, and that would be that. A few weeks later, I spotted Mark Harmon at a basketball game, went up to him, introduced myself, congratulated him on a fine season, and commiserated that he'd been cheated out of the hero role. I mentioned what I thought was the real danger with the squib. He told me he'd been worried about exactly the same thing, and had wanted to kick it deep. But Fred Von Appen insisted on the squib, and the rest you know. (Fred von Appen was a great guy, very bright, with a multitude of talents, who could have succeeded at any profession except the one he actually chose, which was football coach.)

For me, 1982 was by far Stanford's most dismal embittering year. With Elway as the front runnerHeisman candidate, which he lost to the Senatorial candidate in Georgia, and the last of the great Walsh/Dowhower recruiting classes as seniors, they should have had a top 20 team, maybe top 10. Instead, they lost four games they should have won, to San Jose State, Arizona State, Arizona, and Cal. The week before, they were up by 14 at home against Arizona (unranked) and gave up 28 unanswered in the fourth quarter to lose. The bowl bid should never have come down to the final game of the season. They were ragged and sloppy, even in games they won. What Tyrone Willingham or Jim Harbaugh could have done with that team, I can only imagine. But Paul Wiggin, a wonderful human being, shared with von Appen the fate of not being good at the thing he loved doing most. 

I can't say Wiggin deserved the Play, because no one deserves that. But in a way it was typical. Step by step, from being in the position that a last second drive was necessary to win - Elway had to find Emile Harry with a miracle fourth down play to keep the game going - to the stupid penalty to the absurd squib kick, Wiggin brought Cal back to life, transforming an infinitesimal chance into a longshot. So in that sense, it was  fitting.

Very unpleasant memories.

[Genuine Realist]

I was still going to Berkeley for Big Games in those days, and by coincidence had the best seats I ever had for any game. These were about the 40 yard line, on the side on which Stanford kicked off. The Cal player - I forget his name and I'm not going to look it up - apparently was stopped with knees down. The ref came up and CLEARLY - UNAMBIGUOUSLY - waved his arms to signal end of the game. Then he got interested in what was happening on the other side of the field, after the lateral, ran off, and forgot about it. I guess he didn't have the guts to assert his authority after the fantasy that developed.

But the Play is only half the story. I think people forget what a genius Wiggin had for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. After Harmon kicked the apparent winner, the Stanford players ran onto the field and rejoiced, drawing a 15 yard penalty ang giving Cal a ghost of a chance. That would be pretty poor in any circumstance, but they'd done the same damn thing only six weeks earlier, gave Arizona State new life, and were beaten on a last second drive. You'd think a head coach would have the common sense to warn his players not to repeat the offense, have his assistants roam the sideline, but that was not Wiggin. He just stood there and got burned a second time.

As I sat there, my big worry for Stanford was that - if they squibbed it - a Cal player might fall on the ball, call time, and they'd be within distant field goal range. That would have been how the game should have ended, Wiggin would have been fired unceremoniously the next day, and that would be that. A few weeks later, I spotted Mark Harmon at a basketball game, went up to him, introduced myself, congratulated him on a fine season, and commiserated that he'd been cheated out of the hero role. I mentioned what I thought was the real danger with the squib. He told me he'd been worried about exactly the same thing, and had wanted to kick it deep. But Fred Von Appen insisted on the squib, and the rest you know. (Fred von Appen was a great guy, very bright, with a multitude of talents, who could have succeeded at any profession except the one he actually chose, which was football coach.)

For me, 1982 was by far Stanford's most dismal embittering year. With Elway as the front runnerHeisman candidate, which he lost to the Senatorial candidate in Georgia, and the last of the great Walsh/Dowhower recruiting classes as seniors, they should have had a top 20 team, maybe top 10. Instead, they lost four games they should have won, to San Jose State, Arizona State, Arizona, and Cal. The week before, they were up by 14 at home against Arizona (unranked) and gave up 28 unanswered in the fourth quarter to lose. The bowl bid should never have come down to the final game of the season. They were ragged and sloppy, even in games they won. What Tyrone Willingham or Jim Harbaugh could have done with that team, I can only imagine. But Paul Wiggin, a wonderful human being, shared with von Appen the fate of not being good at the thing he loved doing most. 

I can't say Wiggin deserved the Play, because no one deserves that. But in a way it was typical. Step by step, from being in the position that a last second drive was necessary to win - Elway had to find Emile Harry with a miracle fourth down play to keep the game going - to the stupid penalty to the absurd squib kick, Wiggin brought Cal back to life, transforming an infinitesimal chance into a longshot. So in that sense, it was  fitting.

Very unpleasant memories.