As I was lying in bed last night, I got to thinking about my favorite Stanford football wins, in my lifetime. The first three were easy:
#1 for me was easy; the Plunkett Rose Bowl. OSU had lost 1 game in 3 years; if they had beaten us, it would have gone down as the best Ohio State team of all time; it's still might be one of their best 3 year runs. They were loaded with All Americans. We had lost three games, including our last 2. We were HUGE underdogs. Our last Rose Bowl was in 1951, when we got punked by Illinois, Our last Rose Bowl win was in 1940. And yet we beat them. When it became apparent that the impossible was going to happen, and we did the Ax yell, I think the Bowl was shaken to its foundations. I still get chills thinking about it.
Deciding between #2 and #3 was tough, but I finally went with:
#2 2015, the McCaffery Rose Bowl. I mean scoring on the 1st play from scrimmage, 35 to nothing at the half, McCaffery setting Rose Bowl records, how can you not love it? Topped off my one of our best half time shows in memory, that had the Iowa people frothing at the mouth.
#3 My freshmen year was the start of a 12 year win less streak against SC. I HATE SC, even though I went to law school there. Any win over SC is great, but nothing beats the "what's your deal" game. To set the all time home scoring record against them - delicious. And then to have Harbaugh go for two when we had 48 points, so we could lay 50 on them, in effect saying F**k you, USC - wonderful. And they when we didn't get the 2 points, but broke 50 anyway, the cheery on top.
After the top three, it gets tough, What comes next? Is it "the greatest upset of all time", that kicked off the Harbaugh/Shaw wonder years; the triple overtime SC game; the 1970 Plunkett win over SC that finally ended the 12 year winless streak; the improbable come back "revenge of the Play" win over cal; destroying Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl; Walsh routing Penn State in the Blockbuster Bowl; anyone of several wins over Notre Dame who I hate almost as mush as SC? I don't know, and I'm probably leaving out some. What do you think?
#1 for me was easy; the Plunkett Rose Bowl. OSU had lost 1 game in 3 years; if they had beaten us, it would have gone down as the best Ohio State team of all time; it's still might be one of their best 3 year runs. They were loaded with All Americans. We had lost three games, including our last 2. We were HUGE underdogs. Our last Rose Bowl was in 1951, when we got punked by Illinois, Our last Rose Bowl win was in 1940. And yet we beat them. When it became apparent that the impossible was going to happen, and we did the Ax yell, I think the Bowl was shaken to its foundations. I still get chills thinking about it.
Deciding between #2 and #3 was tough, but I finally went with:
#2 2015, the McCaffery Rose Bowl. I mean scoring on the 1st play from scrimmage, 35 to nothing at the half, McCaffery setting Rose Bowl records, how can you not love it? Topped off my one of our best half time shows in memory, that had the Iowa people frothing at the mouth.
#3 My freshmen year was the start of a 12 year win less streak against SC. I HATE SC, even though I went to law school there. Any win over SC is great, but nothing beats the "what's your deal" game. To set the all time home scoring record against them - delicious. And then to have Harbaugh go for two when we had 48 points, so we could lay 50 on them, in effect saying F**k you, USC - wonderful. And they when we didn't get the 2 points, but broke 50 anyway, the cheery on top.
After the top three, it gets tough, What comes next? Is it "the greatest upset of all time", that kicked off the Harbaugh/Shaw wonder years; the triple overtime SC game; the 1970 Plunkett win over SC that finally ended the 12 year winless streak; the improbable come back "revenge of the Play" win over cal; destroying Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl; Walsh routing Penn State in the Blockbuster Bowl; anyone of several wins over Notre Dame who I hate almost as mush as SC? I don't know, and I'm probably leaving out some. What do you think?
