Boston College Athletics
Oslin's Take: Opening with Bang in '80
September 05, 2015 | Football
Former Boston College Athletics sports information directory Reid Oslin provides a historical look back at the Eagles with a story in the game program for each football home game. Ahead today's season opener against Maine, Oslin delves further into the 1980 season opener when BC defeated the nationally ranked Stanford Cardinal, led by future College and Pro Hall of Famer John Elway, at Alumni Stadium on Sept. 20, 1980.
By Reid Oslin
Over the years, Boston College’s home football opener has provided some epic Eagle victories – opening day wins in Alumni Stadium over Texas, Texas A&M, Clemson and Penn State are just a few – but not many can match the excitement or overall success of BC’s 30-13 domination over a John Elway-led Stanford squad in Chestnut Hill on Sept. 20, 1980.
What made the victory over the nationally-ranked Cardinal that day so sweet was the play of a revitalized BC defense that intercepted four Elway passes and catapulted the Eagles, who had managed only five wins in the previous two seasons, back onto the college football map.
A near-record crowd of 32,037 packed Alumni Stadium for the Saturday evening BC-Stanford game that started at 6 p.m. The previous week, Boston College had played a stalwart game at Pittsburgh, bowing to Dan Marino’s No. 1-ranked Panthers by a narrow 14-6 score, but picking off the highly-touted sophomore passer four times in the game.
Stanford was ranked No. 11 in the national polls after beating Oregon and Tulane in their first games of the ’80 season.
After taking the opening kickoff, Elway marched his team down the field on his team’s first possession, completing all three of his passes and eating 7:48 off the game clock. But, in the shadow of the BC goal post, the Eagle defense stiffened, holding the Cardinal to a Ken Naber field goal.
Unfazed by the Stanford defense, BC quarterback John Loughery, who had paced the Eagle attack after becoming the starter in the Army game midway through the 1979 season, took over and marched the Eagles right back down the turf, advancing to the Stanford 20 before settling for a John Cooper field goal to knot the score.
The battle was on.
“We may have taken them a little bit by surprise that night,” Loughery added in a classic understatement.
The Eagles held a 9-6 advantage at halftime as Naber missed what could have been a score-tying field goal, but the game was still up for grabs.
When the game resumed, BC’s defense was charged up. In the next 30 minutes of play, the Eagles limited Elway and the Cardinal to just 32 yards rushing, while running back Shelby Gamble, a hard-running 195-pound sophomore whom BC head coach Ed Chlebek had recruited from his hometown of Detroit, led the BC running game that picked up 124 yards in the final two quarters alone.
With pass interceptions by co-captain and defensive back Mike Mayock, Doug Alston, and linebackers Greg Storr and Jim Budness, and tough defensive line play from future NFLers Joe Nash and Mark Roopenian, the Eagles wore down the visitors in the second half.
Holding a 16-7 lead early in the four quarter, Loughery brought his BC team down the field – even using a “Wishbone” formation with freshman linebacker Steve DeOssie in as a lead blocker – taking up valuable clock time and advancing to Stanford’s one-yard line.
From there, Loughery dove behind guard Gerry Raymond to cross the goal line – or did he? The Stanford team piled on the sophomore QB and the PAC-10 officiating crew took their time sorting out the pile. It took more than 30 seconds before officials slowly raised their arms to signal a touchdown.
“They did not want Elway and Stanford to lose to the guys from Chestnut Hill,” laughed Loughery as he recapped that play. “When you do that [QB keeper play], you look to get the ball over the goal line. I knew that when I hit the ground, the ball was over the line.”
Now down by 10 points with only a few minutes to play, Elway fired the ball down field, only to have Budness pick off a pass at the BC 20 and turn the ball back over to the BC offense. From there, Loughery again paced his team down the field on a door-shutting drive, capped by Gamble’s 25-yard scoring burst right up the middle.
The final score was 30-13 in favor of the underdog Eagles.
As the final gun sounded, thousands of BC students rushed onto the field, tearing down the steel goal posts in the south endzone and parading the uprights through the campus.
“I remember the crowd coming out on the field and tearing the goal posts down,” Mayock said. “It was one of my favorite nights at The Heights. It was such a big game for us. I thank that the Stanford game was a springboard to make everybody believe that ‘You know what? We can play with these guys and we can beat them.’ We had been through some rough times the previous two years, but for the younger guys, it made them believe that we can do this and we can get it done.”
