Doug Flutie's Impossible Dream of a Play

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I will always remember this day in 1984, the day that Doug Flutie threw a desperation prayer into the sky, and it was caught for a game–winning touchdown.

I was working on the Arkansas Gazette sports copy desk. It was the day after Thanksgiving. We didn't have a TV in the newsroom in those days, but one of the staffers brought in a portable TV so we could follow the football games that are always televised during that four–day holiday. One of the games being shown 30 years ago today was between Boston College and Miami (Florida) in the Orange Bowl stadium.

I didn't get to see the dramatic finish. I was busy working on the next morning's paper, but I could hear what the announcers were saying, and I could hear what my colleagues in the newsroom were saying as the teams lined up to run the play. And, when the final play happened, and the unimaginable had occurred, I could tell that something remarkable had happened simply from the sounds I heard from the TV and the folks who had gathered around the TV to watch.

That doesn't mean, of course, that I wouldn't have liked to see it. Fact is, I have seen it — several times. I just didn't see it when it happened.

Now, the game would have been exciting enough even without the last–second heroics. Miami was the defending national champion, having beaten Nebraska in the Orange Bowl the previous January. Miami's quarterback, Bernie Kosar, set a school record for passing yardage. His teammate, Mel Bratton, ran for four touchdowns.

For his part, Flutie finished the day with 472 yards passing and four touchdown passes, making him the first quarterback to pass for 10,000 yards in his collegiate career. Ever.

But all that had gone before was forgotten after the final play of the game.

Boston College trailed, 45–41, with six seconds remaining, and BC had possession of the ball at Miami's 48. It seemed like an impossible task, and it became even more impossible as the final play unfolded. Flutie, who, at 5'9" was short by NFL standards, needed a touchdown. He scrambled to his right, managing to avoid a sack, but he had been driven back about 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

Now, this undersized quarterback who had already thrown 45 passes that day had to fling one more pass at least 63 yards into 30 mph winds and hope that someone would catch it.

I suppose, if Flutie had had the luxury of time to stop and contemplate the enormity of the task before him, he would have been sorely tempted to just give up. It was a thoroughly improbable, impossible dream of a play.

The Miami defenders obviously didn't think he could do it because they virtually ignored wide receiver Gerard Phelan, who raced toward the end zone. Flutie's pass to Phelan threaded the needle between two Miami defenders and was complete for the game–winning strike. There was no margin for error. Everything had to go just right.

Shortly thereafter, Flutie won the Heisman Trophy. I don't remember hearing his name mentioned in connection with the Heisman before "The Pass," as Flutie's "Hail Mary" came to be known.

But I heard it a lot after that.

His professional career never really lived up to his collegiate achievement 30 years ago today. He started out in the short–lived USFL, then bounced around from NFL team to NFL team, gravitating to the Canadian Football League for several years before ending his career in the NFL.

He never played in a Super Bowl, but he did win a couple of the CFL's Grey Cups.

In America, I suppose, he will always be remembered for "The Pass."

The Cheshire Cat Strikes Olympic Gold

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The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles were noteworthy before they began. Most of the world's communist–bloc nations declined to participate because the United States had led a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

So the Games were noteworthy for who was not there.

But it was also noteworthy for who was there.

President Ronald Reagan, who served as governor of California for eight years, was there to open the Games. Track and field star Carl Lewis was there, and he won four gold medals, matching the 1936 performance of Jesse Owens. Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin were there, and they participated on the U.S. basketball team that won the gold medal.

And Mary Lou Retton was there. Thirty years ago today, she became the first gymnast outside Eastern Europe to win the all–around competition.

Even with all those big names at the Games, Retton often seemed to be the only attraction. She had one of those smiles that was so big it seemed to exist all by itself — kind of like Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat.

Jordan, Ewing and Mullin had not yet begun their professional careers; Jordan, in particular, was not as famous as he would become. Eight years later, all three would be members of the so–called "Dream Team."

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Mary Lou was America's sweetheart that summer. I don't think I have seen another U.S. female Olympian who was as adored as Mary Lou — with the possible exception of Dorothy Hamill.

In fact, it was during the '76 Summer Games — a few months after Hamill won her gold medal in figure skating — that Nadia Comaneci became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10.0 in Olympic competition. It was an achievement that most Americans probably dreamed — but dared not believe — one of their countrymen would match someday.

But Retton outdid Comaneci in 1984, scoring two perfect 10s, on the floor exercise and vault. The latter was particularly dramatic, given that Retton had knee surgery five weeks before the Games began.

Reagan, who was seeking a second term as president in 1984, enjoyed an approval rating of 52–54% during the Olympics — he accepted the Republican nomination in Dallas later that month — but my guess would be that Retton's approval far exceeded the president's that summer.

I don't know of any polls that were conducted at that time, but I'm reasonably sure Retton was the most popular person in America that year — at least in July and August.

Reagan went on to win 49 states in November, but, that summer, Retton might have been the only person in America who could have beaten him.

And she was only 16 years old.

Retton, now living in Houston with her husband and four daughters, recently attended a reunion of Team USA '84. A wistful time appears to have been had by all. Retton recalled that one of the highlights of her Olympic experience was riding on the bus to the Opening Ceremony with members of the U.S. basketball team.

Those '84 Olympic Games were, in the words of the Murfreesboro (Tenn.) Post, "one for the ages" — although I'm not sure where writer David Hunter heard that the Olympics in 1984 saved the Games.

(I know the Americans boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow, and the Russians boycotted the '84 Games, but the Post's reasoning was too simplistic. Technically, Mr. Hunter was correct when he said that was "because of the Cold War," but that is really too general. The Americans and dozens of other countries boycotted because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.)

Black Sunday

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You'd think that a city the size of Los Angeles would have won several Super Bowls over the years.

But L.A., which has had as many as two NFL franchises at one time but now has none, has only won a single Super Bowl — 30 years ago tonight, when the Raiders, who had only made Los Angeles their home for a couple of seasons, defeated the defending Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins, 38–9.

It was the first time the Super Bowl had been played in Tampa. Nine future Hall of Famers participated in it. Bronko Nagurski, a charter member of the Hall of Fame, tossed the coin before the start of the game. It drew the fourth–highest Super Bowl TV viewership to that time.

But it is remembered for Marcus Allen's record–setting 74–yard touchdown run.

Frankly, it is odd that the game should be remembered for that. Granted, it was an electrifying play, but a good case can be made that the Redskins were already a beaten bunch by that time. When it happened, I thought the Redskins looked like they were shell–shocked and going through the motions.

It was in the closing seconds of the third quarter. The black–clad Raiders held a 28–9 lead. Allen had already scored once that quarter. His second score took whatever wind was left completely out of the Redskins' sails.

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It really seemed, at first, as if the play would be nothing spectacular. Allen started to run to the left, ran into a wall of Redskins defenders, reversed field and ran back to the right, found a hole and slipped neatly through the Washington defense, and he was off.

The Raiders' triumph is their last — so far — in Super Bowl competition. They returned to the Super Bowl nearly 20 years later and lost.

Few who witnessed the Raiders' success in the 1970s and '80s would have guessed 30 years ago tonight that they would not be back as Super Bowl champions.