Bootleg Audio: "The Ultimate Upset"
October 6, 2007. A day that will live in infamy for the Trojans and in "famy"
for the Stanford Cardinal! Stanford 24, #1 U$C 23. First-time starter Tavita Pritchard, a sophomore quarterback who had thrown all of three passes in his
college career, connects with senior Mark Bradford, who had suffered a family
tragedy a week earlier, for a game-winning touchdown in the final minute to
provide the long-suffering and oh-so-deserving Stanford Cardinal with the most
amazingly unlikely victory in the 115-year history of the football program.
Somewhere the late Howard Cosell was yelling "Down Go Trojans! Down Go
Trojans!"
In an unprecedented showing, a couple thousand delirious fans gathered in
spontaneous celebration outside Maples Pavilion on the Stanford campus late
Saturday night to welcome their improbable conquering heroes back from what many
are calling the most stunning upset in college football history. The
41-point underdog Cardinal football team had just gone on the road, walked the
walk, and shown that they have the collective bite to match their brash young
coach's bark. Hot damn! The man was right! "At Stanford University, WE
BOW TO NO PROGRAM!"
The "Har Boys" returned home from their shocking, program-salvaging
upset of #1-ranked USC to an outlandish outpouring of love and appreciation from
the Stanford community. Not since the WWI Armistice in 1918 has a spontaneous
block party of this magnitude erupted on the Farm! Part pep rally, part hip hop
dance party, a DJ spinning vinyl, the crowd launching into
"GO/STANFORD!" and Brazilian soccer cheers, students jingling car
keys, buses being mobbed, cell phone cameras snapping away, Los Lopez in the
house! It was freakin' nuts! The curbside of Campus Drive was lined at least
fifty people deep! Athletes from numerous varsity sports turned out in droves to
show their love to the men of the moment ("men of the year" is more
like it!) For sure representin' were Stanford women's hoops and women's
volleyball (there were certainly others, but what did you expect me to be
noticing, dudes' wrestling?) The startlingly large crowd of hard-partying
Cardinal fans disturbed the peace in fairly orderly fashion until well past 2AM
Sunday morning. It made the 1998 Final Four welcoming party look like a picnic
in comparison. A lot of pent-up frustration was released on this memorable night
as Stanford Football brought pigskin pride back to Palo Alto. Note: After a
brief midnight negotiation with my wife, I had to agree to handle my
nine-day-old son Logan's 3:00AM bottle-feeding all on my own this morning in
order to get a hall pass to make it to this historic "pre-homecoming"
homecoming! No way was I missing this!
Might add that it was very encouraging to see University Provost John
Etchemendy showing up and joining in the celebration.
Say what you like about the university administration, but that is what you want
to see from your Provost! Good show! Now let's hope took a look at the student
celebration and realized how important the role of big-time athletics can be to
a world-class academic institution.
The Roar of the Post-Game Rally (nothing but crowd noise) -
Listen to Audio
"Emeritus" attempts to report from the bedlam - Listen to Audio
A fired-up Coach Harbaugh addresses the post-game rally - Listen to Audio
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