Sunday, June 10, 2007

Cal and Stanford Statistics

I've loaded up new statistics for the California Gold Bears and the Stanford Cardinal for 2006. For Bear and Cardinal fans who are new to this blog, you can check out stats for the other teams along the right hand side of the website under "Bruin Roar Statistics". I'm hoping to finish loading data for the rest of the PAC-10 teams, Notre Dame, Utah, and BYU before the end of the month.

On a side note, since we are talking about Cal and Stanford, this year is the 25th anniversary of "The Play". It is, hands down, the greatest and most exciting finish to a college football game ever.





I love this video, from an ESPN classic broadcast, because it shows the Stanford field goal before the kickoff and the aftermath on the field after the amazing kick-off return. I had forgotten that John Elway put together an amazing drive, starting deep in Cardinal territory with less than a minute left, to get into field goal position. They kick the field goal, with 4 seconds left on the clock, to take the lead and presumably win the game. That's when all the fun begins.

There are so many cool things about the video. Joe Starkey, the famous broadcaster, is awesome in his description of the events as they unfold. After Stanford scores, he gives a prediction that Cal "pretty much has to run it back to save the game". After a bunch of laterals, including a miraculous over-the-shoulder pass by Mariet Ford, Kevin Moen runs the ball into the touchdown to win the game. The play is immortalized forever with a picture of Moen crashing into a Stanford band member in the end zone after he scored.

I can't describe the play any better than Starkey did in his original broadcast: "Oh my God, the most amazing, sensational, traumatic, heart rending... exciting thrilling finish in the history of college football! California has won... the Big Game...over Stanford."

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