STANFORD 43, WASHINGTON 31
October 30, 1982, Stanford Stadium
[Published originally by The Bootleg®, Vol. I, No.10,
11/5/94]
The 4-3 Card was coming off
a win the previous week over the Washington State Cougars (31-26)
in which All-Pac-10 free safety and current Card defensive
backfield coach Vaughn Williams made an incredible 20
bone-jarring tackles! It had been a confusing season to that
point with exciting, impressive wins over Ohio State and Purdue,
but with a painful loss to lowly San Jose State (coached by
Elway's father, Jack, who would later coach the Card). The
national media was swarming around Palo Alto prior to the
highly-anticipated contest and ABC TV flew in its crack #1 crew
of Keith Jackson and Frank Broyles for a game that would be
broadcast across the entire country.
Game
Day: The gray skies had poured rain down upon the field all
morning, but somehow you knew something special was going to
happen on this day when smack in the middle of the LSJUMB's
incomparable version of The Star Spangled Banner, the
sun suddenly broke through the clouds to the mighty roar of the
crowd. However, minutes later, it looked like it would indeed be
a long day for the struggling Red & White as senior Vincent
White coughed up a fumble on Stanford's very first play from
scrimmage after an impressive bust up the gut of the Washington
defense. The Dawgs scored shortly thereafter as future All-Pac-10
RB (and local San Jose-product) Jacque Robinson knifed through
for a 13-yd TD. While the Husky band belted out Kool & The
Gang's "Celebration", All-American place-kicker Chuck
Nelson booted his 55th consecutive PAT through the uprights for a
7-0 lead for the bad guys. After a Kenny Williams kick return,
Elway's first pass was picked off. Two plays, two brutal
turnovers. The soggy stadium crowd settled in for a long day
(even in 1982, fans tended to give up at the first sign of
challenge or adversity). In the broadcast booth, ABC officials,
fearing a blow-out, were already scrambling to see to which game
they could switch in the second half! But then a name emerged
that would strike fear in the hearts of opposing quarterbacks for
years to come. Sophomore defensive end Garin Veris, the pride of
Chillicothe, OH, a 6'6", 250-pound package of pure,
unadulterated athletic supremacy! (Actually he was 6'4 3/4",
but he sure looked bigger!) A three-sport high school
legend, #80 could reverse-dunk a basketball (Kentucky offered him
a full-ride basketball scholarship), was a record-setting
champion ski-racer (indoor), and was one on the scariest
volleyball players ever to set a big foot on Cardinal sand! ABC's
colorman Frank Broyles exclaimed in his thick southern drawl that
he had never seen anyone that big with feet as quick as Garin's.
Veris repeatedly ran down Huskie QB Steve Pelluer, who had
excellent 4.7 speed. [Pelluer's younger brother Arnie would later
strap it on for the Cardinal and White in the late '80s].
Capitalizing on a sweet pick-off by outside linebacker Kevin
Bates (now with Sharp Development in Palo Alto) mid-way through
the first quarter, Elway took an eleven-step drop and
launched a 35-yard strike over Husky cornerback Ray Horton,
hitting seldom-used wide-out Steve "Skip Town" Brown.
Brown somehow managed to stay inbounds for a spectacular
touchdown (the highlight of his career) and brought the game to
7-7, as Mark Harmon "banged the extra" (old movie
industry term) for his 56th consecutive PAT and the
Melodic Menace of Mayfield (LSJUMB) rocked the stands with
Santana's "Well All Right"! (For you Shady-Siders, that
was "wild, renegade rock & roll". For you 90's
grunge/modern-rockers, that sportin' little ditty can be found
under what is now known affectionately as "classic
rock"). While we're on the subject of Elway, please forgive
us a short venture into unabashed hero-worship: Take nothing away
from Stenstrom, Plunkett, Paye, Schonert, Dils, Benjamin, Boryla,
or Bunce (we made the editorial decision to include only the
"Passing Era" in our comparables here, so please don't
write in with complaints about our glaring omission of Albert,
Garrett, Kerkorian, Norman, Berg, Brodie, etc.), but if you never
actually saw John Elway play quarterback in a college football
game, you never experienced the adrenaline rush, the
physiological reaction that came from having a scary lethal
weapon at your offensive disposal! When the straw-haired,
pigeon-toed #7 dropped back to pass, you held your breath, your
heart rate soared, your cheeks flushed, and yes people it WAS
better than you-know-what! No one was ever more clutch. No
one ever felt the rush with such clairvoyance. No one
ever threw harder. No one ever inspired such awe from his
own teammates. Starting OG Matt Moran, who's now with William
Wilson & Associates and is a father of three growing boys
(read: potential Card recruits), described to The Bootleg
what it was like to be in a huddle with the living legend:
"His eyes. You just knew you were going to score! He'd say
'You give me the time, we'll march right down the field and
score!' We'd just believe him, and we would just.... score".
The
'82 Dollies, one of the finest editions ever to dance the Donner
Street Party, were looking good in their white gloves, white
boots and big orange "Uncle Crawford Loves ABC"
buttons! No one seems to recall exactly what the deal was with
those buttons! Anyone out there want to fill us in? Whatever they
were, the Dollies owned the cameras that day. In the PC 1990's,
now that fun has been outlawed, the networks would never get away
with such a wealth of "gratuitous Dollie-shots"!
So
anyway, back to our story: The Card could manage but two first
downs in the first quarter as Elway tried to find his rhythm (at
one point he was a mere 4 for 12 with 84 yards). Still, after one
unbelievable scramble for a first down, the student body
commenced with what had long before become a tradition of
somewhat blasphemous (yet well-intentioned) expression of
admiration, a symbolic gesture of deification: The students
literally "bowed" en masse to the seemingly
"other-worldly" Elway. The Canines struck back quickly
to take a 14-7 lead on an 8-yard TD run early in the second
quarter and extended their lead to 17-7 on Chuck Nelson's 26th
consecutive successful field goal (which made him an
absolutely incredible 21-21 on the year!). Many fair-weather
Shady-Siders and faithless students began making plans for an
early exodus, but then suddenly the irrepressible RB Mike
Dotterer, who the week prior had shredded WSU for 155 yards,
caught the Huskies red-handed on a safety blitz. "Dot"
took advantage of a terrific block by FB Kaulana Park (filling in
for injured Rob Moore and banged-up Greg Hooper) and bolted
straight up the middle for a 46-yard TD to close the gap to
17-14. On the next possession, Elway threw to TE Chris "Left
Hook" Dressel [Chris would go on to be a long-time NFL
veteran with the Oilers, Jets, etc. and would eventually become a
well-known slumlord], who busted a move or two and broke several
tackles on a 15-yard gain. After another 15 yards on a slant to
Dressel, who according to Broyles had "glue for hands",
Mike Dotterer barrelled over from 1 yard out and the Cardinal
took the lead 21-17 as the LSJUMB cranked out a spirited
rendition of the now rarely-heard William Tell Overture. The
Huskies went "three & out" as the aggressive
Cardinal "D" began taking control. With back-up QB
Steve Cottrell holding, Harmon drilled a 45-yarder with four
seconds left in the first half to put us up 24-17. In the first
30 minutes, we outgained UW 279-150!
After a riveting performance by the
always popular frisbee-dogs during the half-time show and an
enthusiastic version of old-time Shady-Sider favorite "The
Cardinal is Waving" by the LSJUMB, the unstoppable Veris
opened the second half by burying his helmet into Pelluer's back,
causing a fumble recovered by defensive end Don Stubblefield.
Elway was just warming up. He began taking the shell-shocked
Washington zone defense to school, finding Dressel on a 40-yard
pass and run, followed by an 18-yard touchdown bullet to flanker
Emile "Dirty" Harry to make it 31-17, Elway's ninth
completion in a row. The offensive line was holding a
pass-blocking clinic, with great performances by Moran, T Jeff
Deaton (now a father of two and working in Palo Alto with
Alhouse-King Realty), C Mike Teeuws (Intrinsic Ventures), G Chris
Rose Siebel Systems, and T Dennis Engel. No sooner had stadium
announcing legend Ed McCauley recapped the scoring play when DB
Kevin Baird came through with a key INT on the Huskies' next
drive. The cruising Cardinal "O" made Washington pay as
"VW" followed a phenomenal trap-block from Moran and
popped for 15 yards to the Husky 3. White scored on the next play
to stretch the lead to 37-17 and "Whoa Nellie!",
somebody's #1 ranking was in really big trouble! Through Q3,
Elway & Co. had rolled up 417 yards vs. the nation's
7th-ranked defense. But the Huskies came barking back! Facing 4th
and 17 after game MVP and "Mountain of a Man" Veris'
third sack of the day, and a pass breakup by Vaughn Williams, the
gritty Washington slinger Pelluer connected with his TE Lutu on a
17-yard TD, cutting the lead to 37-24. UW immediately mounted
another threat, but LB Gary Wimmer) snared an interception to
quiet the Husky fans with their ridiculous Dawg-head hats. Each
team stalled on the next series, but following a towering 56-yard
punt by Jeff Partridge to the Stanford 24, 5'6" Vinnie
"The Love Bug" White, affectionately known to teammates
as "VW" [Vee-Dub] and one of our all-time favorite
personalities, gave us a special gift to share with our
grandchildren..... a punt return for the ages! Catching the ball
on the western hashmark, #22 headed "northbound"; an
initial wicked head fake made Aaron Williams miss, and VW headed
right; a second juke took another Huskie out of his jock as
Vinnie swept around the Eastern sideline; stutter-stepping
Partridge into the seats at mid-field, he cut back, making three
defenders miss; angling back across the grass he left two more
would-be tacklers in the dirt and outran a desperate, but futile
pursuit from one last Dawg for the 76-yard human highlight film,
Stanford's first punt return for a TD in seven years. Vintage
Vinnie! Never broke a tackle, he simply made EIGHT guys miss! An
all-time, heart-stoppin', joy-ridden thriller that put the nail
in the Washington coffin. Watching it 12 years later, you still
jump out of your seat. Broyles: "Ah don't believe ah've seen
one bettah!" After a garbage TD by UW, SS Charles Hutchings
picked off Pelluer and the victorious home team stormed off the
field with stirring, unbridled enthusiasm while a delirious,
raging crowd went totally nuts! A young, scruffy-lookin' Fred Von
Appen (D-line coach at the time) gave Wiggin a monster bear hug!
What a game, what a party! The pass-happy student section was
still buzzing big-time and the Incomparables were still blaring
out "All Right Now" when all of a sudden, in a very
rare, emotional showing, the entire football team came roaring
back out of the jubilant locker room and partied down with the
red-vested Bandies and the wildly-celebrating fans! The Goose was
hoppin' that night!