The 1982 NCAA football game between California and
Stanford had little meaning apart from the intense rivalr y
between its participants, since neither one was ranked that
season. However, the wild and unorthodox nature of Cali-
fornia’s last-second kickoff return, the heated controversy it
caused, and the appearance of the Stanford band on the
field while the play was still ongoing combined to produce
what is often considered American football’s most memora-
ble play.
The football rivalry between the University of Cali-
fornia Golden Bears and the Stanford University
Cardinal is one of National Collegiate Athletic Asso-
ciation (NCAA) football’s longest and most intense.
The 1982 game between the two schools, the eighty-
fifth in the rivalry, featured two teams that had expe-
rienced disappointing seasons. They were tied for
sixth place in the Pac-10 conference, and each had
suffered several lopsided defeats. The game proved
to be as close as their similar records would have sug-
gested. With little time remaining, Stanford trailed
19 to 17 and faced a fourth down with seventeen
yards to go. The team’s star quarterback, John Elway,
completed a pass for a first down and then drove the
Cardinal to within field-goal range. Kicker Mark
Harmon then kicked a successful field goal, putting
Stanford ahead, 20 to 19, with only four seconds re-
maining.
What happened next left everyone in shock. Har-
mon kicked a short rolling kickoff that was fielded by
California’s Kevin Moen on the Golden Bears’ forty-
three-yard line. As the Stanford players approached,
he lateraled the ball to Richard Rodgers along the
left sideline. Rodgers quickly pitched the ball to
Dwight Garner, who ran straight into a crowd of tack-
lers and was swarmed. As several Cardinal players be-The Eighties in America Play, the 763
At the end of the Play, California Golden Bear Kevin Moen leaps into the air after scoring a touchdown while surrounded by fleeing Stan-
ford band members.(AP/Wide World Photos)