5
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com
into the air. Law jumped again to try
for the interception, but Westbrook
snatched the ball out of the air and fell
into the end zone for the touchdown.
Jackson
on
the
broadcast:
“Stewart, with time, lets it go …
he’s got three people down there …
the ball is up in the air … CAUGHT!
TOUCHDOWN!
CAUGHT
BY
WESTBROOK
FOR
A
TOUCHDOWN!
INCREDIBLE!”
Westbrook,
in the following
Monday’s
edition
of
the
Daily:
“I
have
never
had
a
feeling like this
in my life. It was
tipped. There was
nobody else around. It was just me
and the football. All I had to do was
catch it.”
Gary Moeller, Michigan head
coach 1990-1994: “I can’t believe
this one. That’s about what was going
through my mind. I can’t believe this.”
Stewart: “I saw the ball go up
in the air, and I saw this big ol’ arm
come out of nowhere, and it was
Michael. … I’m like, ‘This dude went
up to get this!’ And before you know
it, I looked to the sideline, everybody
was running on the field. I saw Rae
Carruth jumping in the air, and
James Kidd. I was like, ‘Oh my God!
We caught that!’”
Winters: “I just figured, ‘OK, I’m
gonna take the closest guy to me,
and he’s not catching the ball.’ So as
I jumped up to swat the ball down, I
can kind of see at the time someone
coming from my right. I didn’t know
who it was at the time, but you watch
him and you see his side. I’m trying
to knock the ball down and Ty was
trying to intercept the ball, and we
just collided shoulder pads. From
my vision and what I always recall,
it appeared that the ball hit right
between our shoulder pads. We
bumped shoulder pads, and the ball
hit directly on our shoulder pads
and bounced up in the air, and Mike
Westbrook dove and caught it in the
end zone.”
Stewart: “This is exactly how
we draw it up.
Literally.
Some
people say that.
No, I mean, that’s
exactly how you
draw it up. One
hundred percent.”
Falk:
“For
Kordell
Stewart
to throw that as
high and as long
as he did, you
gotta
give
the
man credit. It was a heck of a throw.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a guy
throw a 70-yard pass like that. It
was 70 yards in the air.”
Irons: “I don’t think we could
have defended it any better, or them
doing anything out of the ordinary.
We practiced that play — it just was
a fluke play, and it happened. We had
the right defense that we wanted, and
we executed what we were supposed
to do. I just think he made a hell of
a play.”
Morrison: “I was a coach for a long
time. We always looked for a better
way to build the mouse trap. We let
guys behind us. You just can’t do that.
We let a guy with a cannon of an arm
throw a ball that still, to this day,
I’ve not seen a more beautiful ball. I
haven’t. It was pretty spectacular.”
Guynes: “I was probably just sitting
there hoping to get out of here with a
‘W.’ I don’t recall seeing it live. What I
do recall is when it happened and I saw
the ball in the air coming down, I was
waiting for somebody to throw off the
reaction. I’m hearing this roar coming
from the Colorado sideline, and I stood
up, and I’m like, ‘Man, they caught the
ball.’ That’s when everything kind of
kicked in. I stood there for a minute,
in disbelief and shock like everybody
else, and I just kind of sat back down
like, ‘This just happened. These guys
came into Michigan Stadium and stole
one from us.’ ”
Doug
Kanter,
Daily
photographer:
“I
remember
everyone was just following the ball,
and it was going toward the end zone,
and I was just shooting, shooting,
shooting. Photographers have this
thing that if you saw it, then you
missed it. I actually was shooting
when the ball was coming down, but
afterwards, a couple seconds later,
I looked up and I still didn’t know
whether he had caught it or not or
who had caught it.”
Several reporters had already begun
to come down from the press box to the
concourse through the seats.
Michael Rosenberg, then Daily
reporter, now at Sports Illustrated:
“If you go at the wrong time, it’s a
nightmare, right? Well, I was at the
wrong time, because it was the end
of the game, but there was nobody
moving. It was a wide-open aisle.”
Rachel Bachman, then Daily
reporter, now at the Wall Street
Journal: “I remember walking down
a stadium aisle from the press box,
thinking about how I would write
the Michigan victory. I was about
30 rows from the field when Stewart
launched his pass. When it became
clear that Westbrook caught it, the
stadium just froze.”
Falk: “I can’t overemphasize how
disheartening it was.”
***
‘You just felt numb’
The Michigan players on the field
stood still in shock or remained on the
ground. Morrison put his hands on his
head. Other players such as Law and
free safety Stephen L. King fled the end
zone as the Buffaloes stormed from their
sideline to where Westbrook had landed.
Guynes: “I remember just sitting
on the bench, because I didn’t want
to have to run through the Colorado
side, and they’re going nuts over
there. … I’m taking it all in, and I’m
not taking it all in. I’m experiencing
it, so to speak, but it’s just not really
registering either. … It’s like you know
you’re there, but you’re not cognizant
of where you’re at, so to speak.”
Morrison: “It’s disbelief, it’s shock,
it’s all those things rolled into one.
You can’t believe it. That’s exactly
how I felt, and probably to this day
still feel. You’re stunned by it.”
Winters: “I immediately knew
that he had caught the ball, and then
just by the reaction of the crowd.
I immediately put my head on the
ground. I was in awe.”
Irons: “I was on the field for a
little bit — I was in shock, obviously
— but I got into the locker room, and
it was a very somber locker room. We
all were in shock. It was horrible.”
Falk: “We were like, ‘What just
happened here?’ And the next thing
you know, the whole Colorado team
came running across that field just
running and screaming at us and
really putting it in our face to be very
honest with you. I
was shocked at that
— of course, we
were all in shock.
We just couldn’t
believe
what
happened. We had
them.”
Bruce
Madej,
Michigan
sports
information
director,
1982-
2010:
“I
remember
(equipment
manager) Bob Bland smacking the
desk area, and me just putting my
hand on my head, putting it down on
the desk area. It just was one of those
things that you can’t believe.”
Winters: “Ed Davis and Amani
Toomer came over and kind of picked
me up, like, ‘Hey, man, let’s get off the
field.’ But you could see them running
around excited, and some of their fans
excited, and you could just hear our
fans, they kind of gasped. Almost a
sigh of disdain, just ‘Wow, this really
just occurred.’ It was just quiet.”
Bachman:
“Today
fans
react
immediately:
People
watch
the
replay, curse, file out of the stadium.
In 30 seconds, memes are up on
social media and people at home are
flipping channels. That day, people
just stood there. There was no replay
board. No one had smartphones.
People just stared in shock. It seemed
like even the scoreboard operator
took minutes to put the final points
on the board. It probably wasn’t that
long, but the entire sequence felt
surreal and slow.”
Jackson on the broadcast: “There
is no time remaining. There are no
flags on the field. Only despair for the
maize and blue, joy and exultation for
the Buffaloes of Colorado.”
Rosenberg: “It was not like any
other game I’ve ever been to, except
perhaps the Michigan State game
last season. Just the idea that people
were there and nobody was moving,
and the stadium was just a traffic
jam, especially back then, just people
trying to get out at the time.”
Jackson on the broadcast: “It’ll
be hard, hard, hard to find a play
that will be remembered more than
this one in the 1994 college football
season. … All those who were
involved will never forget it, either
for the joy of it or for the pain of it.”
Slowly, the Wolverines made their
way to the locker room as Stewart and
the rest of the Buffaloes raced to the
end zone to celebrate.
Madej: “All of a sudden, the
sounds of the excitement of the
locker room are not there. All you
hear are helmets being thrown into
the bin. A couple things get tossed on
the floor. Disappointment. Disgust.”
Falk: “It was dead quiet. Nobody
said a word. (Moeller) walked in,
and he didn’t say anything, and he
just looked around and said, ‘Let’s
get the next one. Let’s start over
again
tomorrow.’
Because that’s all
you could say. It’s
just a real numbing
loss. … Everybody
got dressed and got
out of that locker
room about as fast
as I’ve ever seen
everybody out of
the locker room.”
Moeller:
“(There’s)
one
thing
you
don’t
want to do, and that’s start finger-
pointing this guy, that guy. It’s just,
‘Hey, gentlemen, this is a tough
football team. This is a tough football
game, and it played like that. And
you’ve always got to be ready for all
conditions in any game.’ ”
Winters: “Our defensive backs
coach, Billy Harris, came in and it
was kind of quiet. Everybody was
kind of sitting there on their stool
at the locker, and I can recall him
kicking in the door and just going off.
Cursing, blaming people for the loss,
‘It’s your fault! You lost this game!’
That kind of approach for the players,
and he went down the line. He was
going down the line from each player,
and then eventually Lloyd told him,
you know, ‘Go into the coaches’
locker room.’ ”
(Asked what Harris said, Winters
replied, “I don’t think you can put that
in the paper.”)
Irons: “He was going off. He kept
saying, ‘30 Victory,’ asking everybody
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Tshimanga Biakabutuka scored late in the first half and totaled 81 rushing yards in the 1994 “Miracle at Michigan” game against Colorado.
“I can’t believe this
one. That’s about
what was going
through my mind.”
“It’s disbelief,
it’s shock, it’s
all those things
rolled into one.”