The top 10 Holiday Bowl games remembered.
McMahon caps BYU comeback over SMU with TD on Hail Mary
It was a few hours after BYU staged the most amazing comeback win over SMU in the 1980 Holiday Bowl.
The Cougars’ 46-45 victory — rallying from a 20point deficit with three touchdowns in the final three minutes, the last coming on Jim McMahon’s 41yard Hail Mary pass to tight end Clay Brown on the final play — came to be regarded as the “Miracle Bowl” and is ranked by ESPN among the top five bowl games ever played. It also tops our list of best Holiday Bowls ever.
After an extended celebration with his teammates in the locker room at San Diego Stadium, BYU safety Tom Holmoe joined some friends he had invited to the game.
Three or four of Holmoe’s best buddies growing up in La Crescenta were students at San Diego State. Holmoe was going to hang out with them for a few days before they all drove back home together for Christmas.
“It was late and I was starving, so we stop by a convenience store to get something to eat before we go over to their apartment,” Holmoe, now BYU’s athletic director, remembered recently. “I go to check out and I notice a guy who’s got this little TV and he’s watching a replay of the game.”
Holmoe started talking with the store clerk.
“Who’s playing?” Holmoe asks.
“SMU is killing BYU,” the store clerk says.
“I’ve seen BYU play this year, and they’re a good comeback team,” Holmoe tells him. “I wouldn’t count them out.”
“No way. This game’s over,” the clerk responds.
“I’ve got $20 that says BYU will come back and win this game,” Holmoe says.
“So I take $20 out of my wallet and put it on the counter.”
“You’re on.”
The clerk’s confidence was understandable.
No. 19 SMU had built a 20-point lead late over No. 14 BYU in a game that to that point was most notable for the Mustangs’ “Pony Express” ground game powered by running backs Eric Dickerson and Craig James.
The pair had combined for five touchdowns at that point. They would rush for 335 yards — a Holiday Bowlrecord 225 yards by James — in the game.
A 42-yard touchdown run by James provided a seemingly insurmountable 45-25 lead with 3:57 remaining. Many in the crowd of 50,200 took that as their cue for an early exit.
But that’s when the fun began, in the game and, hours later, in the convenience store.
They watched McMahon throw a 15-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Matt Braga. A two-point conversion pass attempt failed and it was 45-31 with 2:33 remaining.
“‘Onside kick. Here we go,’ ” Holmoe says. “I proceed to call everything. The guy looks at me. He doesn’t know it’s a replay. He thinks it’s live.”
BYU recovered an onside kick at midfield and after two McMahon passes got the Cougars to the 1-yard line, running back Scott Phillips scored with 1:58 remaining. A two-point conversion made it 45-39.
“This is amazing. This is incredible,” the clerk says.
Another onside kick
failed, but the BYU defense forced SMU to punt.
“You know, if we could get a blocked punt right here,” Holmoe said. “Oh, look at that! Let’s go!”
Bill Schoepflin’s block gave BYU the ball at the SMU 41-yard line with 13 seconds to play.
Two incomplete passes left time for one more play.
“We’ve still got hope,” Holmoe says.
“No way,” the clerk responds.
“Then Jimmy Mac throws the ball to Clay and we win it,” Holmoe said.
As BYU kicker Kurt Gunther supplied the game-winning extra point on the little TV, Holmoe’s buddies were jumping around the convenience store celebrating the moment for the second time.
“The clerk is looking at me like that’s the most amazing thing,” Holmoe said. And it was.
“I’m in a trance,” BYU head coach LaVell Edwards said after the Cougars had won their first bowl game in school history.
“I was last year, too (after missing a last-second field goal in a 38-37 loss to Indiana). It seems to be my normal state in this stadium . ... This really proves all those things we say about not giving up.”
“How did that guy catch that thing?” SMU head coach Ron Meyer said.
The front page of the next morning’s San Diego Union had a picture of McMahon rearing back to throw, with the caption: “BYU’s Jim McMahon delivers a miracle.”
Meyer wouldn’t go so far as to agree it was divine intervention, saying it “wasn’t a miracle, just solid football. I’d like to think miracles are used on things more important that football.”
Asked how often the game is brought up four decades later, Holmoe said, “Always. Every single year. It’s not only one of the most iconic plays in BYU football history. When they count the best and greatest plays and endings ever, we’re either 1, 2 or 3, whoever’s voting.”
As for the clerk and that $20 wager?
“I told him,” Holmoe said, “‘My man, I played in that game. I’m from BYU. I can’t take your money.’
“He looks at me and goes ‘What? You played in that game?’ He really couldn’t understand what’s going on.
“I just said, ‘Have a good night. Merry Christmas.’ ”
Rounding out the top 10 most memorable Holiday Bowls:
Anchors aweigh
Navy 23, BYU 16
52,500 Navy’s early struggles were summed up when one of its backs tripped over the game’s poinsettia logo painted at midfield and went to the ground without an opposing tackler anywhere in the vicinity.
BYU took a 16-3 thirdquarter lead against a Navy team that had not rallied to win a game all season.
But then the Midshipmen did stage a comeback for their first bowl victory in 20 years.
A 4-yard run by Kevin Tolbert made it 16-10 and two fourth-quarter field goals by Bob Tata were sandwiched around quarterback Bob Leszczynski’s 65-yard touchdown pass to Phil McConkey, who was selected the game’s offensive MVP.
National championship No. 1 BYU 24, Michigan 17 Dec. 22, 1978 Attendance: Dec. 21, 1984 Attendance:
61,243 Top-ranked BYU completed a 13-0 season to win the national championship — despite the strong objections of Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer — as Cougars quarterback Robbie Bosco overcame ankle and knee injuries to pass for 343 yards and two fourth-quarter TDs. BYU also overcame three fumbles, three interceptions and a blocked field goal.
“I don’t think there’s any question we should be No. 1,” Edwards said after the game. “Any time you give up seven or eight turnovers and still come through with a victory over a team like Michigan, you have something to be proud of.”
Switzer, whose Sooners were ranked No. 2 and playing No. 3 Washington in the Orange Bowl (Oklahoma would lose 28-17), was among those who argued that BYU played too weak a schedule to be considered for the national crown.
And, the Cougars played an unranked Michigan team that came into the Holiday Bowl with a 6-5 record.
No Group of Five school has won the national championship since.
Hometown heartbreak No. 19 Iowa 39, San Diego State 38 Dec. 30, 1986 Attendance:
59,473 This was the year Aztecs fans had been anticipating for years, erasing perceived bowl snubs dating back decades.
Quarterback Todd Santos sparked them to a 21-13 halftime lead with touchdown passes to running
back Chris Hardy and Alfred Jackson. Hardy also had a second-quarter TD run.
It was 35-21 when Iowa quarterback Mark Vlasic rallied the Hawkeyes with a pair of touchdown passes. One of the TDs was followed by a two-point conversion, so the Hawkeyes had a 36-35 lead.
SDSU drove down the field late in the game before getting a 21-yard Kevin Rahill field goal with 47 seconds to play. The Aztecs allowed Iowa kick returner Kevin Harmon to take the ball back 48 yards to the SDSU 37-yard line, however. Three plays later, Iowa’s Rob Houghtlin — who in the first half had missed 43- and 57yard field goal attempts as well as an extra point — made a 41-yard field goal as time expired to hand SDSU a heartbreaking defeat.
“I’ve seen three or four Holiday Bowls on TV and they all end up the same way,” Houghtlin said. “It seems the last team with the ball always wins.”
Heisman heroics No. 12 Oklahoma State 62, No. 15 Wyoming 14 Dec. 30, 1988 Attendance:
60,641 For the first time in six years, the Holiday Bowl was decided by more than five points.
No one complained. Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders saw to that. Sanders, who rushed out of obscurity at Oklahoma State for an NCAA-record 2,628 yards and 39 touchdowns during the regular season, rushed for 222 yards (three yards shy of James’ bowl record) and a Holiday Bowl-record five touchdowns that included a bowlrecord 67-yard TD run.
And Sanders sat out the fourth quarter.
Speaking of heroes No. 18 Penn State 50, No. 19 BYU 39 Dec. 29, 1989 Attendance:
61,113 BYU quarterback Ty Detmer was guiding the Cougars to a potential game-winning touchdown when he had the ball stripped by Penn State’s Gary Brown, who returned it 53 yards for a touchdown with 45 seconds remaining to seal the victory.
That came moments after Penn State intercepted a two-point conversion attempt and returned it 102 yards for a score.
Detmer’s 576 passing yards was an NCAA bowl record.
Ouch! Ouch!
Texas A&M 65, No. 13
BYU 14 Dec. 29, 1990 Attendance:
61,441 Texas A&M added injury to insult, forcing Detmer, the Heisman Trophy winner, from the game with separations of both shoulders.
Texas A&M quarterback Bucky Richardson matched BYU’s Steve Young (1983 vs. Missouri) by running, catching and passing for a touchdown in the game.
When Richardson took a seat with A&M leading by 30 points heading into the final period, the Aggies didn’t let up. Backup QB Lance Pavlas threw two more TD passes in a 21-point fourth quarter.
Edwards and Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum did not shake hands after the game, when running up the score was among the topics of conversation.
Nebraska paints town red No. 5 Arizona 23, No. 14 Nebraska 20 Dec. 30, 1998 Attendance:
65,354 Qualcomm Stadium was a sea of red, and it had nothing to do with the holiday.
It was the Husker Nation in all of its glory. Nebraska impressed San Diegans for having the most faithful fans — and plenty of them.
They came out in droves to make this the then-largest crowd in Holiday Bowl history. The game didn’t end as Nebraska fans envisioned, however.
They watched Arizona quarterback Keith Smith lead 66- and 68-yard TD drives in the fourth quarter.
Duck season Dec. 29, 2000 No. 8 Oregon 35, No. 12 Texas 30 Attendance:
63,278 After falling behind 14-0, Texas rallied for three TDs in the second quarter — one on an interception return — for a 21-14 halftime lead.
Oregon’s Joey Harrington (19-for-30, 273 yards, 2 TDs, rush TD, receiving TD) threw a 55-yard touchdown pass three minutes into the third quarter and rushed for a 9-yard touchdown six minutes into the fourth quarter as Oregon went ahead 28-21.
That made Harrington the third player in Holiday Bowl history with passing, rushing and receiving TDs in the same game, joining BYU’s Young (1983) and Texas A&M’s Richardson (1990).
Texas tied the game again 28-28 on Victor Ike’s Holiday Bowl-record 93yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
Oregon got the winning score on Jason Willis’ 6-yard
TD run with 5:46 remaining.
“It was a great game to watch,” Texas head coach Mack Brown said. “It probably is what college football is all about. I’m sure one of these days I will look back on it and enjoy it.”
Texas shootout No. 9 Texas 47, No. 21 Washington 43 Dec. 28, 2001 Attendance:
60,548 Brown probably looked back with more fondness on the following year’s Holiday Bowl.
It was 0-0 after the first quarter. Then the game began.
Did it ever, becoming the second-highest scoring game in Holiday Bowl history. The teams combined for a record 37 points in the second quarter and 34 in the fourth (27 by Texas).
Texas quarterback Major Applewhite tied a record with four TD passes, the last one giving the Longhorns a 40-36 lead with six minutes to play. After Washington took the lead, Applewhite led a drive that culminated with Ivan Williams scoring the game-winner on a 3-yard run with 38 seconds to play.
Wrote Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa after the game: “I can’t say — I won’t dare say — that last night’s Holiday Bowl was the greatest of them all. There’s always that wild 1980 BYUSMU thing to fall back on, which made about as much sense as Sanskrit. But this one was right there, sports fans, let me tell you.”
Fight on! No. 24 USC 45, No. 25 Nebraska 42 Dec. 27, 2014 Attendance:
55,789 Holiday Bowl officials had been eager to get USC to come to down for more than three decades and were over the moon to match the Trojans against another national brand in Nebraska.
USC built an 18-point lead in the third quarter, then let most of it get away.
Nebraska had the ball in the waning seconds, looking to pull out a win before USC’s Nelson Agholor knocked away a Tommy Armstrong Jr. heave near the goal line to preserve the Trojans victory.
The game had its share of big plays, two of them involving USC’s Adoree’ Jackson. He had a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the first quarter and caught a 71yard touchdown pass from Cody Kessler (23-for-39, 321 yards, 3 TDs) in the third quarter.