Episode 33: The Stanford Band Incident.

“Welcome back to GenX Classic Sports, the show where we relive the unforgettable moments, the legends, and the wild stories that shaped our generation’s sports memories.

Today, we’re taking you back to November 20th, 1982 — the 85th Big Game between Stanford and Cal. On the surface, it was just another heated rivalry matchup, but what unfolded in the final seconds turned into one of the most chaotic and iconic plays in college football history.

This was also the final college game for Stanford’s quarterback, John Elway. A future Hall of Famer, a man destined for NFL greatness — yet his college career ended not with a bowl game victory, but with a band, a trombone player, and a play so controversial it’s still debated to this day.

We’ll break down the buildup, the stakes, the legendary chaos of The Play, and the lasting impact it had the sports world.

So grab your Walkman, think back to the early ‘80s, and get ready for one of the wildest finishes you’ll ever hear about — the Stanford Band Incident.”

Band music credit: Music by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/nesrality-22721863/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=95350">Trygve Larsen</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=95350">Pixabay</a>

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more nostalgia-packed content covering GenX retro sports, and the athletes who defined a generation. 

Production Credits:

Intro and outro music: Mason Enis

Narrator: Haylee Wolf

Copyright @ PineStreetProductions 2025. Any illegal reproduction of this content will result in immediate legal action.

Transcript

Welcome sports fans to Gen X Classic

Sports, where we bring the nostalgia of

our sportsfilled youth into the present

day. Grab your favorite retro jersey,

crack open a cold one, and let's stroll

down memory lane together.

All right, everybody. Welcome to the

show. This will be episode number 33.

And today it's story time. Gen Xers, let

me take you back to a year. here. And I

want you to think about where you were

in 1982, the fall of 1982,

because this is a story about a football

game that's that's part of a rivalry

that lasted and still continues for a

really, really long time. If I ask you

to think and guess what might be one of

the oldest rivalries in college

football, most of us, because we're

biased, would say, "Oh, it has to be

something down in the SEC territories."

And you'll start throwing out teams like

Auburn and Alabama, and you'll throw out

things like Texas and Texas A&M, and all

that's fine.

But if you'll really look at the list,

the oldest football rivalries are up in

the northeast, the Harvards, the Yales,

where the game was, I wouldn't say

necessarily invented, but where the game

got started at its earliest up in the

northeast part of the country. So,

this is a story from 1982

about a game that happened out west in

the longest running rivalry and oldest

rivalry in the Western United States.

And some people like me call this game

the Stanford band incident.

And the game is part of the rivalry

between the Cal as in California Golden

Bears and the Stanford Cardinal. These

two teams have been playing since 1892.

And that is still not the longest or the

oldest rivalry in college football, but

they have played each other

127 times.

And this game, this rivalry game got its

start, believe it or not, by future

president of the United States at the

time, President Herbert Hoover was a

student manager for the Stanford

football team. and Herbert Hoover and

the manager, the student manager for the

California team organized the first

meeting between the two teams and they

sold 10,000 tickets for this game and

20,000 people showed up. Now, I don't

know if it's been played uh every single

year due to war and things like that,

but 127 times is a pretty good run. So,

take your mind back to 1982,

and this is November the 20th, and the

place is in California's Memorial

Stadium there in Berkeley. And it was

the 85th edition at the time of what

they call the big game between Stanford

and Cal. And one of the things you need

to realize is back then in college

football, bowl games meant everything to

programs. You get that sixth win in an

11 game schedule and you were guaranteed

a bowl game, which meant

you got longer practice time since the

bowl games were usually over the

holidays. That was usually a month after

the regular season ended, if not longer.

And so you got to work with your team an

entire month or longer and get some

valuable practice time and reps for the

players. And plus, it was a great

recruiting tool to be able to say, "Hey,

we went off to wherever and played in a

bowl game." So on November 20th, 1982

for Stanford,

this was a big game. They were trying to

win what they have as a trophy called

the Stanford Axe. And that's the trophy

for the big game. But more than just

trying to play for a trophy, Stanford

really needed to win because they were

five and five on the season and this win

would give them bowl eligibility and Cal

was already six and four and so they

were already going to make a bowl and so

they could strictly focus on beating

their rival, you know, and the bowl game

was a given for them. The only thing

that would change would be which bowl.

Also going into this game on November

20th, 1982,

for one one particular player, this game

carried a lot more weight, and that was

Stanford quarterback, a guy you've all

heard of named John Elway.

John Elway was the most gifted right arm

in college football. Then some of you

may not believe me because you probably

know that the draft that John Elway was

in was absolutely full of super talented

quarterbacks. The this was the 82

season. So the 1983 NFL draft as a lot

of you know had John Elway, Dan Marino,

Ken O'Brien, and Tony Een along with

some other Hall of Fame players at other

positions. But

Elway was considered the arm and the

talent of the class, which was proven by

him getting drafted uh at number one.

So, you know, let's not let's not

mistake uh history for what it was at

the time, Elway, even though he was in

good company with some really

outstanding quarterbacks, he was the

guy, okay? He was the one that everybody

was looking to to be drafted number one.

And that's exactly what happened.

and he was playing in his final regular

season game and he was already a legend.

You need to know that John Elway.

His career involved high prospect level

baseball and being drafted to play

baseball, but it also involved football

at Stanford. And he was seen as probably

the number one pick in the NFL draft,

certainly the first quarterback.

But there was one little negative on his

resume at Stanford, okay? And that was

that he had not played in a bowl game

yet. And he desperately wanted to play

in a bowl game. So coming in at five and

five, this win was critical to John

Elway, just like it was to the Stanford

football team. Stanford early on fell

behind, but Elway like he did for his

whole career, he kept them in the game,

ended up he threw for 331 yards and a

touchdown.

And it was the performance that

everybody expected from the guy, right?

And so at the end of the day, at the end

of the game with less than a minute to

go, Stanford is behind 19-7.

And their entire season, and John

Elway's, not just his season, but John

Elway's entire college career was on the

line with less than a minute to go. So

on fourth and 17,

he ended up on his own 13 yardd line.

And Elway did what Elway did at every

level of football. He converted. He

found a receiver open, kept the drive

alive, and he just calmly did what John

Elway did. He did Elway things. He moved

Stanford into the Cal territory, which

set up their kicker, whose name was Mark

Harmon, not to be confused with the

actor who also played college football.

But Elway and the car and the his

Cardinal teammates, they set up kicker

Mark Harmon for a 35yard field goal. And

remember, the drive started with less

than a minute left and Harmon lined up

for his field goal from 35 yards with

just four seconds left. Thank you, Mr.

Elway.

And Harmon drilled it. So now Stanford

seemingly has won the game 20-9

over bitter rival Cow. John Elway is

finally going to get to go to a bowl

game. But as things tend to happen in

college football and in all sports, I

guess that really wasn't the end of it.

So then with 4 seconds left,

what I call the Stanford band incident

happened. All of you are sports fans, so

you know that when your team is kicking

off and it's should be the last play of

the game, you usually squib that thing,

which down the middle, which means you

kick a line drive. You'd hope it hits

somebody and bounces around. You hope it

it just rolls. You hope guys have a hard

time fielding it and fumble. You just do

not give them an open opportunity to

kick a high a high kick. Have them field

it cleanly and run it. That's what

you're trying to avoid.

So, as they should have, all right,

Stanford Squib kicked the ball right out

the middle to Cal. And with four seconds

left, now the Bears, they had one last

desperate shot to win this game. And so,

the return started normally. It was a

run, you know, doing the thing they

could do with it, which was try to gain

some yardage. And they lateral, one

lateral happened, but then another

lateral happened. And then another

lateral happened and five times the ball

was lateral, meaning a legal pitch to

the side or behind, of course, five

times they lateral the ball, by four

different players. and Stanford's team

thinking they had won the game with

those five laterals. You can see on the

film, and I'll try to I'll attach it to

the YouTube version of this, a link to

it. The Stanford defense was doing their

very best to try to stop this.

Obviously, you don't want to get you

don't want to give them any momentum on

the on this one play and and give up an

opportunity here. So, they weren't, you

know, they weren't out there playing

like against the Harlem Globe Trotters.

These guys are clearly trying to bring

someone down with a tackle. So, as the

play moved into midfield with all these

laterals by all these cow players, they

suddenly they break over into Stanford

territory. And you can see it on the

film. You to understand what I'm talking

about. But out of nowhere, the Stanford

ban, which had been obviously up in the

bleachers, had come down. and the

Stanford band from the end zone, the end

zone in which California was trying to

score into the Stanford band had started

spilling out onto the actual playing

field. And you always wonder all these

years later, did they not see that the

play was still alive? Did they assume

the play was going to be uh over before

they could actually get down there and

onto the field, or did they just not

care? What was the deal? So,

as the play crosses midfield, Stanford

band members, and you got to remember a

college band's got like three to 600

people in it, begin spilling out onto a

field. That's a lot of people. As this

band is scattering all across the field

there in the end zone in which Cal is

trying to score,

Cal's Kevin Men, I like to know these

names in these situations because these

guys have definitely faded into history.

Cal's Kevin Mowen. He caught the final

lateral. He cut through all the traffic,

including defenders and band members,

and he barreled into the end zone. Now,

when he did that, and all of us my age

remember this image as he's scoring, he

plowed right into a Stanford trombone

player. Let me hear it from all you

trombone players. I used to play

trombone. Thank you very much.

He plowed into trombone player Gary

Tyrell from the Stanford band and he

nailed this poor trombone player. He

flattened him and we've all seen the

video of it and like I said I'm going to

include it in the YouTube version and

you can refresh your own memory. So they

scored.

They shouldn't have but they did. Final

score, Cal 25, Stanford 20. And when I

tell you it was pandemonium after that,

it was pandemonium after that. As a

matter of fact, this was in 1982, of

course. So, I'm not even sure I had

ESPN. I doubt I did. If I had cable at

all, I doubt ESPN was on my radar. So, I

don't know

where I could have seen the highlights

other than to say they played them

repeatedly on the five, six, and 10:00

news cycle across ABC, NBC, and CBS

because I saw the results of this play

over and over and over in the week that

followed.

Now, you got to realize

any kickoff with that many laterals is

not going to be clean and pristine in

the eyes of the team that gives up a

touchdown. So, Stanford, they really

argued hard that at least one cow

player's knee had been down and that

some of the pitches had been illegal

forward pitches because you can't pitch

it forward and that the play at

different points even should have been

called dead. But the officials on the

scene, they upheld, okay, they upheld

the result. Capital letters, the play

stood. And so for Cal, it was the

ultimate victory in the big game

rivalry. Um, and one that they still

have, you know, celebrations about to

this day. and especially knowing that

image of Kevin Mowen drilling the poor

trombone player from Stanford in the

process.

But for John Elway, it was complete and

utter heartbreak.

And you know, it's not just the fact

that you lose the last game of the

season to your bitter rival. It's not

just that, but this is John Elway. guy.

It basically meant he ended his career

without a single bowl appearance, which

is it's a smudge. It is. It's a smudge

on the resume and that was tough for

him. And Elway has said many times that

it was the most bitter football

experience of his entire life. So the

game itself, this game stood for

something. What it stands for is it

really it sort of represents the I guess

unpredictability

of not just college football. It

represents the unpredictability of

sports at any level, any sport. And I

think that's what made all of us fans,

right? Yeah, we have our favorite teams

and we have our favorite players. But I

believe it was episode 26 or so when our

nostalgia expert Clay Rutled asked me if

one of the appeals

of being a sports fan was the fact that

you do not know the outcome. There's

such a live aspect to it. Not

necessarily meaning in person, but the

fact that you can watch the games on TV

or in person live. And I I do think that

he's on to something. I think that is a

big part of why we love sports. These

kinds of things can happen with 4

seconds left on the clock.

You're not supposed to give up a squib

kicked kickoff return for a touchdown.

You're not supposed to give up four

laterals that are all legal. And you're

not supposed or five laterals. And

you're not supposed to have four

different guys keep doing that to you.

It doesn't happen this way normally. But

as they said in the old classic Little

Giants movie, I think it was, you know,

any given day, anybody can beat anybody.

And that's what we love about this.

This is one of the most enduring and and

most loved, I guess, and most watched

highlights in all of sports history. It

really is. It still shows up on pregame

shows. It's it's obviously on YouTube

and on the internet. People talk about

it, of course, at bars. And there's a

lot of controversy that it wasn't legal

in the first place. Some people thinks

think the refs blew it. Uh there's been

newspaper art or Sports Illustrated did

a deep dive article about it back in

1983 and reanalyzed the footage and said

all the laterals were legal. None of the

knees were down. It was a play that

should have been allowed like it was and

that it was not botched by the refs. And

then there's been other articles that

say just the opposite. So you know how

this goes. Would it happen with today's

Instant Replay? Well, if all those

things were legal, then sure. And it

reminds us that even a guy like John

Elway, who went on, as you all know, Gen

Xer sports fans, he went on to win two

Super Bowls and was a pretty much a

no-brainer Hall of Fame NFL quarterback.

Sometimes these guys have their careers

defined by moments of, you know, just

utter heartbreak

and sometimes those things have to

preede their actual big moments of glory

and that's just the way sports work

sometimes. But for Gen Xers, it's one of

the most unforgettable

snapshots in sports history for us. And

that happened in November 20th, 1982

when the Stanford band rushed the field

prematurely and Kais ruled supreme on a

kick return that really should have

never ever scored. But as the great

thing about sports tells us all, there's

always a chance. And on that day, it

did. It did score. So there you go.

That's the Stanford ban incident. my

name that everybody else seems to call

just the play. And there you have it.

That's a story from Gen X Classic Sports

History, November 20th, 1982.

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