…well, you know what happened. Even if the NCAA record books say it didn’t.
True confessions of an Irish Trojan: whenever I watch that video, as glad as I am that USC won, I always really feel for #90 at the end, Brian Beidatsch. Such heartbreak.
Anyway…
I sometimes worry that perhaps I’m getting clichéd and over-the-top when I write about this, like maybe I’m blowing it out of proportion in my memory. But I just watched the video again, and no: it really was that amazing. Just watching the video (which, of course, pales in comparison to the real-life experience) literally gives me goosebumps, and noticeably speeds up my heart rate.
There are three comments by yours truly in the video that always amuse me. #1, at 0:53 of the video, right before Notre Dame scored the go-ahead touchdown: “At least there’s still time left.” So true! #2, at 2:54, right before the Irish prematurely rushed the field, thinking they’d won: “Why is the clock still running?” Why, indeed! And #3, at 4:35, immediately after the Trojans’ game-winning TD: “You do realize, we just witnessed one of the most amazing moments in college football history, right?” Heh. I’m such a nerd.
Anyway, to slightly tweak what I wrote three years ago:
You can bet that fifteen years from today, our teenage daughters, 16 and 17, will roll their eyes as their 43-year-old dad starts waxing nostalgic again about the Greatest Game He Ever Saw, 20 years ago that very day: the hype and build-up; the pep rally with Joe Montana and Rudy (but not, alas, Bon Jovi); the green jerseys; the nail-biting first three quarters; the full moon rising over Notre Dame Stadium in the fourth quarter (Dad, why do you always mention the stupid Moon?); the surreal, larger-than-life, echoes-awakened atmosphere of those final minutes, like something out of a movie and yet so much better than any movie; the flash bulbs popping from one end of the stadium to the other; the impossibly loud, ear-shattering screams of eighty thousand Irish fans when Brady Quinn scored the go-ahead TD; the insanity of 4th and 9; the delirious, premature field-rushing; our jubilation and the crushing heartbreak all around us moments later; how we stayed put and let the stadium clear out before we left, and then steered clear of Turtle Creek on our walk home, lest our USC sweatshirts provoke drunken Domers like a matador’s cape provokes an angry bull; and so on, and so forth. I know, Dad, I know. You’ve told me all about it a million times. Can I borrow the car?
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It really was an amazing game and I know I’ll always be telling people that I was there! I remember thinking at the time, through all the wild swings of emotion, big plays and atmosphere at ND, that this was truly something to relish, regardless of the outcome.
I just can’t believe that was half a decade ago already. I still remember a student climbing on top of a hot dog vendor’s trailer outside the stadium and leading cheers or having my friends hoist me above their heads when Zbikowski ran back that punt to take a 21-14 lead. Incredible – still.
I remember thinking at the time, through all the wild swings of emotion, big plays and atmosphere at ND, that this was truly something to relish, regardless of the outcome.
I felt precisely the same way, even at the very moment that Brady Quinn was scoring the go-ahead TD, or when the Trojans were lining up for 4th and 9 and I was 100% sure the game was over and the Irish would win.
P.S. I just can’t believe that was half a decade ago already.
No kidding! Now try having a toddler who’s more than half as old as the time that’s elapsed since the game. I’ve spent MORE time since 10/15/05 being a parent than I have NOT being a parent. As I might say on Twitter, #holycrap #PANIC