Monday, July 2, 2007 | 7:08 a.m.
The top 10 plays in ESPN.com's "The 100: The Plays, Performances and Moments That Define College Football," plus another of local significance:
1. College Try (1984): Doug Flutie's Hail Mary pass to Gerard Phelan beats Miami.
2. The Play (1982): The band is on the field but Cal scores anyway to beat arch-rival Stanford on a multi-lateral kickoff return.
3. Silent Treatment (1994): Colorado's Kordell Stewart completes a Hail Mary pass to Michael Westbrook and quiets a crowd of more than 100,000 Michigan fans.
4. Jolly Rodgers (1971): Nebraska's Johnny Rodgers scores on a gravity-defying punt return as Oklahoma falls in the first so-called Game of the Century.
5. Race for Glory (2006): Vince Young sprints to the pylon as Texas upsets vaunted USC on the last play of the Rose Bowl.
6. Collision Course (1978): Alabama's goal-line stand edges Penn State in the Sugar Bowl.
7. Rockin' Robin (1973): Notre Dame's Tom Clements finds little-used tight end Robin Weber for a 35-yard gain as the Fighting Irish hang on to edge Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
8. Blast Off (1967): O.J. Simpson reverses field and zigzags through the entire UCLA defense as USC goes on to win the national championship.
9. Main Street (1969): Texas' wishbone quarterback James Street beats Arkansas with a clutch fourth-down pass with President Nixon sitting in the stands.
10. Gut Check (1984): Tom Osborne goes for the win and a national championship against Miami in the Orange Bowl but Turner Gill's pass is tipped away in the end zone.
Also:
97. Girl interrupted (2002): New Mexico's Katie Hnida becomes the first woman to play in an NCAA game when her extra-point attempt is blocked by UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Source: ESPN.COM
It was Sept. 11, 1999, a few moments after Kevin Thomas had returned a fumble the length of the field on the last play of the game to give UNLV one of those you've-got-to-be-kidding, I-can't-believe-what-I-just-saw victories at Baylor. Tony Cordasco, who by that time had climbed onto his chair, turned toward broadcast partner Hunkie Cooper, who by that time had climbed onto his, and had a sobering thought.
"What if the whistle had blown?"
That was followed by another sobering thought.
"What if there was a penalty?"
Cordasco had just called UNLV the winner, and had spared no emotion in doing it. Remember "THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!" after Bobby Thomson's home run and "THE BAND IS OUT ON THE FIELD! after Cal's lateral pursuit victory against arch-rival Stanford?
Well, multiply the exuberance of those famous calls by seven to the third power and they might come close to matching the pitch of Cordasco's voice after Baylor's attempt to run up the score on the Rebels blew up in the Bears' facemasks.
"We would have looked really stupid," Cordasco said, explaining that the hermetically sealed new Baylor press tower, combined with his angle, made it nearly impossible to hear if the play had been blown dead or been nullified by a penalty. "I thought we sounded kind of crazy, anyway."
Seconds later it was official. Although there was a flag, it was a meaningless one on UNLV (or its broadcast team) for excessive celebration. Cordasco knew the play would stand when his rented stat man, a Baylor guy, closed his book and walked out the door of the press box without muttering so much as a single "dadgum it."
"THE REBELS WIN THE " well, the second game of John Robinson's UNLV coaching career. To this day, people still talk about that fantastic finish, which ESPN.com last week rated No. 85 on "The 100: Plays, Performances and Moments" that define college football.
"These are the iconic moments that belong in college football's time capsule," wrote ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel.
And this was the iconic moment for which Kevin Steele, the first-year Baylor coach, belongs in a straightjacket.
Not content with a 24-21 victory, Steele had the Bears go for a rub-it-in-your-face touchdown instead of taking a knee on the last play of the game. As Baylor running back Darrell Bush struggled to get into the end zone, UNLV linebacker Tyler Brickell - not Andre Hilliard, as reported on the ESPN site - stripped the ball .
Thomas scooped it up in the end zone and ran more than 100 yards in the other direction. On his way to the end zone, he sprinted past Robinson, who had already started across the field to congratulate Steele, and didn't stop until he got to Nacogdoches.
Robinson said it was as if Steele and his players had seen a galloping ghost.
"They didn't move. Their whole bench was just standing there like a painting," Robinson said about the "Wonder of Waco," which is how UNLV refers to the play in its football media guide.
ESPN.com called it "Blue Steele" after the former Baylor coach. Whereas Thomas went on to an NFL career, Steele went on to the unemployment line, with that bonehead play providing the impetus.
"It's one of those one-in-a-million things, the most unbelievable thing I've ever seen," Steele would say. "It will go down in history as one of the most unbelievable why-did-he-do-its?
"We played with fire and got burned."
Cordasco believes that had the game been televised, it might have made the top 50 on ESPN's list. Or at least a training film on how not to run up the score.
Still, he remembers receiving a call from ESPN's Kenny Mayne, the former UNLV quarterback, who replayed his call on "SportsCenter." It also was included in "Heart Stoppers and Hail Marys: 100 of the Greatest College Football Finishes" book and CD.
Cordasco, who called the play as if broadcast partner Cooper had set his pants on fire, said at first he wished he had been a little more reserved in calling the winning touchdown. But at the end of the day, that's what made it memorable.
"I didn't even count it down - 45 40 35 - like you are supposed to," said Cordasco, who spent 11 years with the Rebels' broadcast team before becoming culture marketing manager for Red Bull North America.
Mark Wallington, the UNLV sports information director who was standing on the field, said he'll never forget what Jeff McInerny, Robinson's defensive coordinator, said as he turned to face the stunned Baylor crowd.
"That's what happens when you mess with a legend."
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