Football Gazette's Small College Football Blog

Don Hansen's Football Gazette Blog of information, comments, notes, and tidebits on Small College Football. NCAA 1-AA & Mid Major, Division II & Mid Major, Division III, NAIA, and NCCAA

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL HISTORY: NOV. 7 - NOV. 13

The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, Inc.

MORRISTOWN, N.J., November 5, 2005 – As part of an ongoing series throughout the fall, This Week in College Football History takes a look back at some of college football’s landmark moments over the last 137 years.
Throughout the season, many of these items are depicted in a changing exhibit at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind.

*If you choose to use this content in whole or in part, as a courtesy, please credit The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame.


Featured Moment:

Scott’s Improbable Touchdown Keeps Bulldogs Title Hopes Alive

Nov. 8, 1980: Undefeated and #2 Georgia entered the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in 1980 with high hopes for capturing the school’s first consensus national championship since 1942. But the vastly underrated Florida Gators came into Jacksonville with other plans, having lost only once and clinging to an outside shot at the SEC title. Georgia struck early and often, building leads of 14-3 and then 20-10 behind the running of freshman sensation Herschel Walker. But the Gators would not back down, and with a 40-yard field goal from Brian Clark late in the fourth, they looked poised for an upset leading 21-20.

After the teams traded possessions, Georgia took over at their own eight-yard-line with 1:35 left on the clock. Two plays gained nothing, and faced with a third-and-ten situation, Bulldogs quarterback Buck Belue dumped the ball over the middle to WR Lindsay Scott. Scott had enough for the first down, but shook two tackles, sprinted down the sideline, and shocked the sold-out crowd with a 93-yard catch-and-run to give Georgia a 26-21 victory. The Bulldogs rode the improbable comeback to the Sugar Bowl and beat Notre Dame, capping a 12-0 season and completing their national championship quest.

Nov. 8, 2003: St. John’s (Minn.) defeats Bethel, 29-26, as Coach John Gagliardi’s surpasses Eddie Robinson as the game’s all-time winningest coach with his 409th career victory.

Nov. 8, 1997: Top-ranked Nebraska improbably ties a game at Missouri at the end of regulation as WR Matt Davison catches a touchdown pass from Eric Crouch with no time remaining that ricochets off the foot of another Cornhusker. The Huskers win in overtime 45-38, finish the season 13-0 and capture a split national championship with Michigan.

Nov. 9, 2002: Visiting LSU shocks Kentucky, 33-30, as quarterback Marcus Randall connects on a tipped 75-yard touchdown pass with Devery Henderson as time expires. While the play unfolds, Kentucky players douse Coach Guy Morriss with a celebratory Gatorade bath while Wildcat fans storm the field in one end zone and begin taking down the goal posts to celebrate the upset that never occurs.

Nov. 10, 1984: Maryland, trailing Miami (Fla.) 31-0 at halftime in Miami, rally behind back-up quarterback Frank Reich and defeat the Hurricanes, 42-40, setting the record for largest comeback in Division I-A history.

Nov. 11, 1939: Texas Tech and Centenary (La.) combine for 77 punts during a scoreless tie played in a heavy downpour in Shreveport, La. Sixty-seven punts occur on first down, including 22 consecutive punts in the third and fourth quarters.


With 119 chapters and over 12,000 members nationwide, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, a non-profit educational organization, runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in America’s young people.
NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., Play It Smart, The NFF Center for Youth Development Through Sport at Springfield College (Mass.), the NFL-NFF Coaching Academy, and annual scholarships of nearly $1 million for college and high school scholar-athletes.


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NFF Contact
Chris Caputo.......Communications Assistant
22 Maple Ave.
Morristown, NJ 07960
973.829.1933
973.829.1737 (fax)
www.footballfoundation.org