BERKELEY -- It took eight years, but Stanford finally avenged "The Play."
Forever more, the 93rd Big Game will be remembered for "The Penalties."
In 1982, Cal used five laterals to return a kickoff for a touchdown on the game's final play, knocking the Cardinal from a postseason bowl.
Saturday in jammed Memorial Stadium, Stanford took advantage of two Cal penalties in the last 12 seconds to stun the Bears, 27-25. Senior kicker John Hopkins boomed a 39-yard field goal as time expired to cap the improbable comeback.
-From Mark Soltau's recap of the game in the San Francisco Examiner
The Stanford Cardinal scored nine points in the final 17 seconds to stun the Copper Bowl-bound California Golden Bears in a game that echoed the chaos of the 1982 Big Game.
Like in the 1982 Big Game, a premature celebration played a crucial role, but this time it was those wearing blue and gold who cost their team.
With 17 seconds to go, Stanford quarterback Jason Palumbis dropped back to pass ad found Ed McCaffrey, who was hobbled by a hamstring strain, in the end zone for a touchdown, drawing Stanford within a point at 25-24.
Stanford head coach Denny Green chose try for the two-point conversion attempt and the win, but Palumbis was intercepted by Cal defensive back John Hardy, keeping the Golden Bears on top.
Cal students and players poured onto the field in celebration of an apparent Golden Bear victory, oblivious of the 0:12 seconds remaining on the clock. The Golden Bears were assessed a 15-yard penalty for the celebration, moving the kickoff to the 50 yard line.
"We can't penalize the crowd," the Examiner quoted referee Pat Flood after the game. "Cal had quite a few players on the field. The coaches were trying to hold them back. Some of them were all the way near the Stanford sideline. They thought the game was over for some reason."
It wasn't. Stanford kicker John Hopkins popped the ball off the artificial playing surface, and it bounced off multiple Golden Bears before Dan Byers recovered the ball for the Cardinal. Stanford took possession at the Cal 37 yard line with 9 seconds left.
A field goal from that spot would have required Hopkins to connect from 54 yards out into the wind, so the Cardinal decided to take a shot down the field. Finding nobody open, Palumbis threw the ball out of bounds, then was hit by Cal nose guard John Belli, who was flagged for roughing the passer.
"(Belli) didn't try to hold up," said Flood. "It wasn't a violent hit, but it was late."
The penalty moved the ball to the California 22 yard line with 5 seconds left, and Hopkins, who made a touchdown-saving tackle on a kickoff return in the third quarter, kicked his fifth field goal of the night (which established a Stanford record that would be tied in 2010 by Nate Whitaker) to put Stanford on top 27-25 as time expired.
"I was a little worried I might hook it into the wind," said Hopkins. "I knew it was good right away."
Seven years later, The Palo Alto weekly wrote about Hopkins' 1990 Big Game performance, with Hopkins saying he warmed up for his game-winning field goal by kicking balls into the Stanford rooting section.
"(Punter) Paul Stonehouse grabbed a bag of new balls and said, 'Here, kick these into the stands,'" remembered Hopkins. "So I kicked three into the (Stanford) stands. When I went out onto the field, Cal called time. So I went back and kicked three more. Funny thing was, they were all bad. Guys standing behind me were shaking their heads."
Notes:
It was the fourth straight year Stanford had concluded the season in possession of The Axe, having beaten Cal 31-7 in 1987 and 24-14 in 1989 and tied the Golden Bears 19-19 in 1988.
The dramatic ending overshadowed the impressive performances by three running backs. Cal's Russell White and Anthony Wallace respectively rushed for 177 and 99 yards and finished the season with 1,000 and 1,002 yards, the first time in school history two backs had separately rushed for more than 1,000 yards. For Stanford, Glyn Milburn rushed for 196 yards, and his 379 all-purpose yards established a Pac-10 record.
Quotes on the onside kick recovery:
"I think my feet were out of bounds," said Dan Byers, who was mistakenly listed as Kevin Scott by the Examiner. "My knees were in. I dove on it and jumped up before (the official) could call it."
On the roughing-the-passer penalty:
"When I was rushing I was pretty juiced up," said John Belli. "I wanted something to happen ... I didn't really hit him, I sort of ran through him."
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