 |  Bob Murphy |
His vast knowledge and insight of Stanford University and its athletic history will provide a unique perspective to Cardinal fans.
BIG GAME MEMORIES………HOW MANY ARE THERE?
November 30, 2006
Nothing brings back "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" more than this "Big Game" time of the year. It takes me back to those days when his Dad took the little kid to a Stanford football game long ago in the season of 1940.
I can remember forever those bright red jerseys and white helmets and pants. No team had ever worn bright and colorful uniforms like that ever before. And, how about the guys in those uniforms…..Frank Albert, Pete Kmetovic, Norm Standlee, and Hugh Gallarneau? This was the birth of the "T" formation, and along with "The Four Horsemen" of Notre Dame, one of the most famous backfields in the whole history of college football.
How was I to know then that those four immortal players would all become great friends of mine? They are all gone now, but I have great memories of all of them.
World War II took Stanford football away from us for three years, but old Stanford Stadium was roaring again in 1946 when the "Indians" of that era came back with a wonderful 6-3-1 season and a 25-6 win over the Bears in the Big Game. In today's world that would have been a big-time Bowl Game bid, but in those days it was the Rose Bowl or nothing. My old pal Bobby Anderson, a record setting swimmer as well as a great football player, scored two of the touchdowns in that win over Cal.
That next season I somehow got a job as a "ticket-taker" at the Stanford football games. I was a junior at San Mateo High School and thought it was a pretty big deal to be part of the "Stanford Family", if only in a very minor way.
Stanford had lost 'em all that season up to the Big Game. It was really important to me late in the 4th quarter that a Stanford team which had not won a game all season was leading the Bears 18-14 with about 3:00 on the clock. This Stanford team had gone through the same kind of season our guys have struggled with this year. With a record of 0-8 they were home at Stanford Stadium and had a win over the Bears to save the whole season. In those closing moments, Cal's great Jackie Jensen somehow found an injured Paul Keckley, who had not even played in this game, with a wobbly pass to go 80 yards for the winning TD and shatter the Stanford dream. The memory of that one has never faded!
How many other great memories are there I am often asked? The answer is way too many to recall here, but some will never be erased.
When John Ralston left Stanford for the Denver Broncos, two of the best friends I have ever had, Mike White and Jack Christiansen, ended up as the coaches of Cal and Stanford respectively. The first time the two of them met up in The Big Game it was in a sea of mud at Memorial Stadium, and it was that miraculous Ferragamo to Sweeney pass which won it for Cal right in the closing moments.
Two years later Stanford returned the favor with one of the all-time field goal kicks in Stanford football history. With no time on the clock, Stanford's Mike Langford booted a 50-yard field goal into the wind and watched it sneak over the bar for a 22-20 Stanford win. My memory tells me that this was the last "straight ahead" big time field goal kick in the Stanford record book. All the kickers since then have been "side-winders".
John Ralston went to Cal and played for Pappy Waldorf. The very same John Ralston, coaching at Stanford, went 8-1 against Cal in the period from 1961 to 1969. It was a remarkable 14-4 from 1961 to 1978 with coaches Ralston, Christiansen, and Bill Walsh.
There is not enough time or space to talk about "The Play" in 1982. However, there is one very personal feeling I have always had about that and the disappointment that followed. Without "The Play", Paul Wiggin, one of the best people I have ever known in this life, would have had a winning 6-5 season and he and John Elway would have had a much different chapter in their book of Stanford experiences.
Then there is the John Hopkins field goal with no time on the clock at Berkeley in 1990 for a 27-25 Stanford win. That changed the "Locker Room" segment of our broadcast that day from a funeral dirge to hot rock!
The rivalry between Stanford and Cal goes back to 1892 and for many years was generously enjoyed by both schools, great rivalry with many joint gatherings and a wonderful feeling of sharing a great tradition.
In more recent years I have been disappointed in the overused reference to "hatred" and language much more harshly descriptive than that. It used to be a wonderful experience to visit the opposing team's campus and see the colors of Blue & Gold, and Cardinal & White displayed together everywhere you looked. These are two great institutions of higher learning that share all kinds of wonderful things together in education, medicine, literature, and all kinds of learning. I hope in the future they will both learn to share a positive joy once again with all the elements of the highest level of intercollegiate athletic competition. Good sportsmanship should be at the center of it.
"Sportsmanship"…..you don't hear that word used that much any more, do you?