The Play refers to, what is considered by many (fans of academic football in the US) to be one of the greatest plays in all of college football.

The Play came at the end of the 85th annual Big Game between the football teams of Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley (popularly referred to as California or Cal) on November 20, 1982. With 4 seconds left on the game clock, Stanford led Cal 20-19 after Stanford quarterback John Elway, in his last college game, led the Cardinal on a last-minute drive that ended in a long field goal. Fans and the band of Stanford began to enter the field in a premature celebration.

Stanford kicked the ball off to Cal who then lateraled the ball five times up the field and through the Stanford Band, and scored. At the time, the officials allowed the play, and the final score was 25-20, with Cal winning the game.

The play's legitimacy is still controversial today. Several days after the game, Stanford students published a joke version of Cal's student newspaper, The Daily Californian, with a lead story claiming that the NCAA declared Cal's last play to be dead in a ruling three days after the game. The Stanford students went so far as to distribute the joke version on the Cal campus. An image file of the joke edition is available here. According to the bogus paper, the official score stands in the NCAA records as Stanford 20, California 19. Both Cal and the actual NCAA record books list the final score as 25-20, with Cal winning.

External Links

• The Play
• Transcript of Joe Starkey's call of the Play