‘Anger’ fueled Cal’s Chapman to four TDs in 1993
Two running backs share the Cal record for touchdowns in a Big Game with four.
Chuck Muncie did it first, in the Bears’ 48-15 rout at Stanford Stadium in 1975. The following year, New Orleans selected Muncie with the third overall pick in the NFL draft. He wound up spending nine seasons in the NFL.
The man who tied his Big Game mark, Lindsey Chapman, didn’t play a down in the NFL. But on a 1993 Saturday afternoon at Stanford, Chapman put his name next to Muncie’s in the Cal record book.
Chapman carried 28 times for 141 yards and scored a TD in each quarter as the Bears waltzed to a 46-17 victory.
Cal had gone six seasons (five losses and the final tie in the series, 19-19 in 1988) without holding the Axe. That wasn’t the only thing fueling Chapman against the Cardinal.
When asked this week about that victory a quarter-century ago, Chapman first referenced the Guardsmen’s luncheon, which took place at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel the Wednesday before the game.
The annual charity event brought together the head coach and a few players from each school. Emcee Bob Sarlatte, a Cal alum, typically took good-natured digs at both teams.
Chapman was one of the players representing Cal, and he admits he didn’t realize the luncheon was something of a roast. Still, he thought Sarlatte and Stanford head coach Bill Walsh went too far in maligning the Bears.
(One Walsh line: He said he didn’t understand all the hoopla about the Axe, and that Cal “can always go out and buy one.”)
“I left there pretty heated. I left that luncheon very, very upset. It kind of set the tone,” Chapman said.
Two years earlier, Chapman said he and his teammates felt the same type of disrespect before they met Clemson in the Citrus Bowl. He said the Tigers “didn’t feel that we were a good enough opponent.”
Cal was good enough to beat Clemson 37-13.
“I felt that same irritation when I went to that luncheon,” Chapman said, “and … they were talking about us like that, like we weren’t even in the room. So, that was the fuel that fired it all.”
The night before the Big Game, the Bears were at their Palo Alto hotel. Chapman remembers going to a playersonly meeting and telling some of the Bears’ offensive linemen that they didn’t need to block their men the next day, they simply had to get in front of them.
Chapman recalled saying, “Because all of you guys in here, I’m going to put you on my back, and I’m going to carry us to the promised land. I promise you that.”
Promise kept. Chapman scored his first touchdown on a 17-yard pass from quarterback Dave Barr. Chapman’s final three TDs came on runs.
“After scoring the first touchdown, second touchdown, third touchdown and even the fourth,” Chapman said, “I just had a whole lot of pent-up anger inside of me — thanks to Bill Walsh. I really, really, really wanted to make sure that we brought the Axe back.”
Cal got the Axe, and Chapman got a different type of souvenir that he has kept for 25 years: chunks of the Stanford Stadium field that he put in a plastic bag.
He had grabbed those chunks during the Bears’ postgame celebration. “The locker room was just effervescent,” Chapman recalled. “Everybody was just hugging all over each other.”
Years later, Chapman got to meet Muncie. Their connection went beyond the Cal backfield; Chapman grew up in Louisiana and was a fan of the Saints.
“It was special to me to actually get a chance to meet him, being a part of the Cal family,” Chapman said. Muncie died at the age of 60 in 2013.
Chapman lives in Oakland and works as the Northern California regional safety manager for Helix Electric. He also has coached running backs at Chabot College for the past four seasons.
The victory over Stanford in ’93 gave Cal a 7-4 record. The Bears finished 9-4, as they won 42-18 at Hawaii the Saturday after the Big Game and then humbled Iowa 37-3 in the inaugural Alamo Bowl. Chapman ran for 1,037 yards that season.
And, by the way, he also scored four TDs in that victory in Honolulu.