Special by ESPN recounts The Play
For four decades, Cal fans — and even a few begrudging Stanford fans — have echoed the words of that great football historian, William Shakespeare, in saying, “The Play’s the thing.”
You don’t need to be a fan or alum of either school to enjoy the one-hour E60 documentary, “The Band is on the Field,” which debuts at 10 a.m. Sunday on ESPN. Jeremy Schaap is the host and reporter on the documentary, which was co-produced by Simon Baumgart and Michael Sciallo.
“The Band” provides plenty of back stories and perspectives on the Bears’ five-lateral, 57-yard kickoff return through the Stanford band that culminated with Cal’s Kevin Moen plowing over Stanford trombonist Gary Tyrrell in the end zone for a 25-20 Big Game victory at Memorial Stadium on Nov. 20, 1982.
“Most of the time when this story is brought up, it’s about Kevin running into Gary,” Sciallo said in a phone interview Fri
day. “But we had the opportunity, the fortunate opportunity, to talk to so many people and get their stories, and there are just so many different perspectives from that day.”
Those different perspectives come from expected sources, including Moen, Tyrrell and Cal radio announcer Joe Starkey, whose signature call in the aftermath of Moen’s TD, “the most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football!” has become inextricably attached to The Play.
“The Band” has numerous interviews with players not directly involved with The Play, including Stanford wide receiver Emile Harry and Cal defensive back Ahmad Anderson. Harry caught a John Elway dart to convert a 4th-and-17 play, keeping alive Stanford’s go-ahead drive in the final minute. During Cal’s bonfire rally the night before the Big Game, Anderson created the “Bear Territory” chant that resonates with Cal fans to this day.
Sciallo and Baumgart take the further step of interviewing a range of people from members of the Stanford band other than Tyrrell to the woman who was the Stanford tree that day to members of the Cal and Stanford Axe committees.
The biggest notable absence from the documentary: Elway, the quarterback who led the Denver Broncos to five Super Bowls but did not play in a college bowl game, declined to be interviewed.
“We obviously knew we wanted to get him,” Sciallo said. “We thought we had him. We thought we had a time frame, but it just did not to come to fruition.”
“The Band” delves into the rivalry between the two schools, the history of the Big Game, the Stanford band’s harrowing experience the night before the 1982 Big Game and how the Bears’ great rugby tradition might have helped them pull off The Play.
“You’ve got to give ’em a little bit of a history lesson as well before you actually get into the moment that everybody’s talking about,” Sciallo said.
There are two video versions of The Play. One is from what was a delayed telecast for the Stanford-Cal highlight show that appeared on KRON (Channel 4) the following day. The other, better version came from videographer Al Lopez, who was shooting the Big Game for that night’s sportscasts on KPIX (Channel 5).
“I want to just publicly say, thank God for Al Lopez,” Sciallo said. “Thank God for him being there that day because it helped us out 40 years later.”
Full disclosure: Baumgart interviewed me for the documentary; I covered the 1982 Big Game as a KPIX sports producer. Having seen a rough-cut version of the doc, I appear twice for a combined total of about 15 seconds. I hope that doesn’t spoil your enjoyment of “The Band.”
The 125th Big Game is set for Memorial Stadium next Saturday. In summing up what makes The Play so special and why he and Baumgart wanted to do a special about it 40 years later, Sciallo uttered what might be considered a Shakespearean understatement.
“I just don’t know if you’re going to see something like this ever again.”