This Date in Cardinal Football: 9-25-82
ELWAY DOTS THE 'I'
Rarely has there been a more celebrated congregation of famous football coaches
on hand for a Stanford game. On September 25, 1982, the legendary Sid Gillman joined
Buckeye icons Paul Brown and Woody Hayes in a private box
at Ohio Stadium as Paul Wiggin's Cardinal [1-1] ventured deep into Big Ten
country to take on The Ohio State University [2-0] in Columbus, the
second time in just two weeks that Stanford was playing in the midwest, having
enjoyed a convincing season-opening victory at Purdue (35-14).
The titanic trio of sporting legends looked on as Earle Bruce, Hayes'
successor in 1979, gambled...
and lost.
Up 20-16 with 1:50 to play and with the ball at the
Stanford 27, Bruce called for a pass. Bad idea for the Bucs. Second-year Buckeye
quarterback Mike Tomczak, who had taken over for record-setting 1981 Big Ten MVP
Art Schlichter, rolled to his left, planted and then lofted a pass toward the
end zone. Up went Cardinal cornerback Kevin Baird's paw, batting the ball into the
grateful grasp of junior strong safety Charles
Hutchings. Touchback.
Suddenly, Stanford had new life against a weary Ohio State defense.
(Amazingly, Stanford would run 53 plays in the second half to the Buckeyes' 26)
A major mistake for the Bucs created an awsome opportunity for senior
All-American John Elway. On an afternoon in which he managed to complete a
Stanford-record 35 passes in a Pac-10 single-game record 63 attempts,
Elway made sure the final one counted. Going 80 yards in seven plays in just
over a minute, Elway engineered yet another trademark, dramatic drive. With 34 seconds left,
the incomparable #7 rolled left and threw back across the grain, launching a
physically-impossible 18-yard
touchdown pass to Emile Harry, who was wide open in the right corner
of the end zone. A superstar play proved to be the
difference in a 23-20 upset over 11th-ranked OSU.
"There isn't anybody John can't pass against," an admiring Hutchings said of
Elway after the game. The extraordinary 1982 Heisman runner-up was in fact rather ordinary in the
first two quarters, uncharacteristically throwing two interceptions. A listless Stanford
squad trailed 13-0 at
halftime, going scoreless in the opening 30 minutes for the first time since
hanging a 21-21 tie on #1-ranked USC three
years earlier.
Coach Wiggin's half-time speech must have been a winner! A revitalized Elway was a red-hot 22 of 36 in the second half, totaling 284 of his
407
passing yards, a feat accomplished against an outstanding Buckeye secondary
coached by future NFL head coach Dom Capers. OSU's defense had held each of its
previous 1982 opponents, Baylor and Michigan State, to less than 100 yards
passing). With 1:38 showing and 80 yards standing in between them and the
end zone, Elway, one of eight Pac-10 players who earned All-American honors
that season, calmly went to work in front of a suddenly nervous home crowd of
89,436, the 85th-consecutive sell-out at Ohio Stadium.
Surely Elway must have been thinking about the previous year's contest, when
he had led a stirring comeback against Ohio State in a televised game that
garnered national attention as a matchup of "Elway vs. Schichter". The
two star QBs did not disappoint. Elway had been leading his team on a
game-winning drive, but an untimely Stanford fumble with 44 seconds left had
preserved a 24-19 victory for the Scarlet and Gray.
He had the ball in his hands and a righteous chance at redemption. Shaking off the interception he'd
thrown less than a minute earlier, Elway quickly completed
two passes for 28 yards. A pair of incompletions preceded a huge 31-yard
gain to Harry. The sophomore wide receiver from Los Angeles got behind the defense over the
middle, motoring all the way to the Buckeye 17.
Senior tailback Mike Dotterer, who had taken an 11-yard screen pass in for a
touchdown earlier in the game, lost a yard on
an errant swing pass. However, Dot wisely got out of bounds to stop the clock with 42
ticks. #24 was actually the originally intended receiver on the critical,
contest-clinching play that followed.
"John rolled out the opposite way and I was running the safety toward
the middle," Harry told the Columbus Dispatch. "He just let me get
behind him. He lost track of me and didn't know where I was. Mike Dotterer ran across the field and took everybody that way. I
decided, 'Well, John's going to scramble - he's going to see me'. So I just went to
the corner, and I was wide open."
Touchdown Stanford. Thanks for coming!
Editor's Note: Talk about a hot start - after the win over OSU, Elway led the
nation in total offense at 377.7 yards per game, with Doug Flutie of Boston College second at 307. 3 yards per game. A stingier Card defense and correct
officiating in the '82 Big Game and Elway may well have won the 1982 Heisman
Trophy over Georgia tailback Hershel Walker. Sour grapes? You bet! John
deserved it!
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