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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 1981)
The one that got away from UCLA Bruin Diowout became Ducks’ big comeback By DONALD COULTER Ol th* Emerald Imagine this: It's a Saturday night and you're attending a college foot ball game The home team, a heavy favorite going into the contest, just scored a touchdown to put them up by 19 points Less than five minutes remain in the fourth quarter No need to stick around and watch the end of this rout, is there? So you leave the stadium, go have a few beers, and read about the outcome in the Sun day paper the next morning — only to discover that the home team blew the game! No, this isn’t fiction It really happened And it marks what has to be the greatest comeback in Oregon football history Oregon's 1970 matchup with UCLA, this Saturday's opponent at Autzen Stadium, was developing into a blowout The 13th-ranked Bruins had just scored their third straight touchdown to put them ahead 40-21 With 4:38 to go. and the game seemingly wrapped up. fans started heading for the ex its of Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum And that's when the fun start ed Oregon head coach Jerry Frei yanked his starting quarterback — a sophomore named Dan Fouts — in favor of senior Tom Blanchard Frei's move payed quick dividends as Blanchard drove the Ducks 49 yards in 23 seconds for a touchdown Oregon running back Bobby Moore — better known today as Minnesota Viking wide receiver Ahmad Rashad — caught a 20-yard TD pass for the score But the Ducks still trailed by 12 points with 4:05 remaining, Photo courtesy Oregon Athletic Dept Bobby Moore — now Ahmad Rashad for the Minnesota Vikings — scored two touchdowns during Oregon's dramatic comeback. and most people in the stands that night considered the touchdown to be meaningless So did both of the coaches, who were substituting freely Then the Ducks got a break On UCLA's third play from scrimmage, Oregon linebacker Delton Lewis pounced an an errant pitchout The Ducks had the ball on the UCLA 40 Two plays later, lightning stuck again Newland hit Moore with a sideline pass, and Bobby raced past the Bruin secondary and into the endzone All of a sudden, the blowout had become a baligame With 2:05 showing on the scoreboard, and UCLA hanging precariously to a five point lead, Oregon went for the onside kick And it worked — Oregon's Don Frease leaped on the ball after the kickoff crossed mid field The fans who had stuck around to witness the ending were in a mild case of shock by this point Not to mention UCLA head coach Tommy Prothro, who was scrambling to put his first-string defense back in the game On first down, Blanchard handed off to Moore for five yards, and on the next play, Moore was stopped for no gain But the Ducks were faced with a bigger problem than just a third-and-five situation On the play before, Blanchard separat ed his shoulder while blocking for Moore. Despite the injury. Blanchard reared back and threw a pass deep into Bruin territory Oregon split end Leland Glass and UCLA safety Jerry Jaso went up together for the ball. And they both came down with it. In an unusual decision for an unusual game, the officials ruled the play a dual possesion, giving the ball to the offense Oregon had a first down at the 11 yard line Blanchard hobbled off the Men shoot for Northern title The Oregon men's cross country team will be shooting for a sixth straight Northern Divi sion title Saturday. Oct. 31. at the Spring Hill Country Club in Albany The 10,000 meter race begins at 1 p m The Ducks have won the Northern Oivision meet nine times: Washington State, three And while Oregon wilt be favored over Washington and Oregon State, based on results of the Oregon Track Club Invitational Oct 18. Wa shington State remains the mystery team ‘I think we re better than Washgmton and Oregon Track Club Invitational Oct 18. Washington State remains the mystery team linger. "We hope to win the meet and it s possible that Bill McChasney and Greg Irwin could go one-two “ McChesney, the U S leader et 5.000 meters and second-ranked at 10.000 is a lead ing contender for the NCAA title and easily won his first two crow-country tests of the ‘81 season Erwin, who finished second to team mate Jim Hill (who is out tor the season with a stress fracture in his foot) in the Northern Division meet last fall has been running within 30 seconds of McChesney WSU's Rob Evans third in the Northern Division last year, returns as does Dave Barnett of Washington who was fourth Mark Pricker leads an improved Oregon State squad Oregon s other entries in the meet are Greg Hitchcock. Derek Shirley. Chris Hudson Stan Link. John Strickland. Jasen Emmons Rick Cteek and Dave Harding Dellinger is looking for continued im provement from that group of runners as the Ducks try to close the gap between their first and fifth scorers He praised the performance of Chns Hudson, a 1500-meter runner who was Oregon's fifth man in the OTC meet, and noted that Oregon s next three finishers in that race (Link . Strickland and Emmons) should be able to move up m the pack CASH For Textbooks Mon -Fri Smith Family Bookstore 768 E 13th 1 B! From Campus Ph )4S'16S1 The top selling albums are always $5.95 (single L.P s)M PLUS The top 100 albums are always $6.95 (single L P) • STONES•JOURNEY BOS SEAGER (Double-S10,95) • FOREIGNOR • STEVIE NICKS And many more.... 62 W. Broadway 343-8418 field after that play, and Frei sent Fouts back into the ball game Moore rushed for six yards up the middle to the 5, and then on second down, Fouts was sacked for a 10 yard loss Oregon faced third down and 11 with time running out. Every body in the house knew that Fouts was going back to pass But instead of throwing to Moore or Glass (both of whom caught seven passes in the game for over 100 yards), Fouts zipped a pass to Greg Specht. Specht, who had spent most of the season watching action from the bench, surprised the UCLA secondary on a post pat tern for the winning touchdown. The Ducks missed the two point conversion try, but it didn't matter They had taken a 41-40 lead, completing their dramatic comeback. UCLA had one more chance to score, but their drive was aborted by an interception by Oregon’s Bill Brauner as time ran out “This was the greatest comeback I've ever been around,” Frei understated after the game “This was about as much guts as a team could show ” Oregon's 1970 victory over UCLA marked the first time they had defeated the Bruins since 1957, and the first time they had beaten them in Los Angeles since 1948. The comeback win raised the Ducks record on the season to 4-1, and sent visions of a Rose Bowl appearance dancing in the heads of Eugene football fans. Oregon upped its record to 6-1, and grabbed a share of the Pac-8 lead, as they beat Idaho and upset USC over the next two weeks. But bowl hopes dwindled after that for Oregon, as they couldn't win any of their final four games, and finished with a 6-4-1 record. This season, the Ducks aren’t supporting any kind of bowl hopes. They come into the UCLA contest with a 1-6 mark. The Bruins are 4-2-1, coming off a victory over California last weekend And no matter what happens at Autzen this Saturday, it will be hard for the two teams to re plicate that kind of a wild finish. 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