Biggest win in school history

[gentlesatirist]

...but to most of the country, it was just a MAC team beating another MAC team. There had to be a lot of questioning along the lines of "Who's Northern Illinois and why are they #12?" And it's not like Northern's been ranked that high in the intervening years. They didn't go on a Marshall-type run and produce NFL stars, which would make college football fans say they had at least heard of NIU like they knew of Marshall in that school's Moss/Pennington/Leftwich glory years.

Sad as it may be to say, MAC teams always have to beat non-MAC teams to gain attention from anyone other than us diehards.


- FE
Wickliffe OH

[TG1996]

Anyway, I'm not saying where I got this unless the guy wants to be outed, but here you go, a description of the game from The BG News:

Outed?

I don't know if I want to be "outed" (that's never good! ) but I don't mind ya sharing where ya got it from.

[Falcons4Life]

Definitely Northwestern 1. That was the game that made people question what was going on....no one saw that coming.....and the come back was ridiculous!!!

I would also like to say that Purdue in 2003 was the greatest day in my sporting life!!!!!! I will never forget being in that endzone when chuck caught that ball....we were surrounded by Purdue fans who were nearly in tears.....

which brings me to Northern in 2002.....that was a huge game for us...but in a bad way.....thats when our run ended....I was there for that too, man did that hurt!!! I will never forget the feeling.....5 hours of driving home in suck!!!!

My 27 cents!

[San Diego Falcon]

And as for Toledo games...
...I think Rich Dackin led a pretty big last-minute win vs. the Rockettes in '89. May have thrown a winning td to Reggie Thornton or Ron Heard.

BG finished 5-6 that year and UT at 6-5 - and it wasn't all that important historically, with BG still in the throes of the Ankney era - but I recall it being an exciting game to watch as a BG sophomore, especially since the team had been so bad in '88.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I was at that game - thrilling finish!

[CapitalFalcon]

I think you did forget one! 2006 BG vs. Ohio State... Come on, a guy can dream right???

[Class of 61]

Part of the beauty of the 1972 game was the landscape of college football at the time. Big 10 teams did not regularly play MAC teams. The NCAA closely policed how many times a team could be on TV in a season. There was one college football game on a week, etc.

Add to that the dramatic fashion in which we won the game, and I gotta go with 1972.

Schad, I believe you have the score wrong in the poll. It was 17-14 with BG winning on a late FG.

LB,
That was just my point...that BG had NEVER played anyone, much less a Big 10 team, of that stature before...Unmentioned was an unbelievable break that allowed us to retain possession of the ball...we were punting (can't recall who), and the ball went straight up into a stiff wind, came back down into the punter's possession, and he ran it for a first down...not sure if that's even legal anymore.

As to the mentions in another post re: was I there at the Miami game in '59, .... I was at ALL the games in 59...and the biggest impact game, thought the OU game clinched the "National Championship", was still the Delaware game.....the Blue Hens came in rated #1 and BG #2....and we smacked them! (30-7 if I recall correctly)... I had the great experience of living down the hall from Bernie Casey and Chuck Comer, so a lot of us shared the excitement with them.

[UK Peregrine]

I voted other. My UK bias says the BG win over UK in 1985 is among the biggest in BG history. It's our only win over the SEC. Granted we've only played UK three times and Alabama once, but still it's a win over an SEC team and that has to count for something.

[Class of 61]

I voted other. My UK bias says the BG win over UK in 1985 is among the biggest in BG history. It's our only win over the SEC. Granted we've only played UK three times and Alabama once, but still it's a win over an SEC team and that has to count for something.

UK,
I was at the BG-UK games and after the win, I honestly expected to get some flack from the folks in Blue...... instead I had a guy come up to me outside the stadium who said, "Y'all shamed us!" and held out his hand...These are the kind of folks I like to meet on our game trips....Penn.St. folks invited us to tailgate with them both BEFORE and AFTER the first PSU game..... wish all fans could share with other like this.

That being said, BG's 1985 team SHOULD HAVE beaten Ky. as they were clearly a better team...it was just that the SEC folks didn't know anything about us at the time. So, while I get your point, I wouldn't have put this into the BIGGIE status. Beating Syracuse at Syracuse twice (while they were still an eastern power ranked ahead of KY, IMO.

[Class of 61]

I voted other. My UK bias says the BG win over UK in 1985 is among the biggest in BG history. It's our only win over the SEC. Granted we've only played UK three times and Alabama once, but still it's a win over an SEC team and that has to count for something.

UK,
I was at the BG-UK games and after the win, I honestly expected to get some flack from the folks in Blue...... instead I had a guy come up to me outside the stadium who said, "Y'all shamed us!" and held out his hand...These are the kind of folks I like to meet on our game trips....Penn.St. folks invited us to tailgate with them both BEFORE and AFTER the first PSU game..... wish all fans could share with others like this.

That being said, BG's 1985 team SHOULD HAVE beaten Ky. as they were clearly a better team...it was just that the SEC folks didn't know anything about us at the time. So, while I get your point, I wouldn't have put this into the BIGGIE status. Beating Syracuse at Syracuse twice (while they were still an eastern power ranked ahead of KY, IMO.

[1987alum]

That 1985 win over UK was an incredible game. The UK folks really had no clue who we were coming in. Do you remember the finish? The winning TD drive came very late in the fourth quarter and we were flagged on every other play. At one point, BG's SID - his face beet red - slammed his fist down on the table, making a sound so loud that everyone in the press box stopped and spun around.

But Brian McClure was unfazed and just kept throwing strike after strike after strike, eventually finding a leaping Meehan in the end zone.

Den - we had the same experience with the UK fans. Typical Southern hospitality, even after the game. Very gracious. We celebrated at a restaurant called The Post, where you could order three sizes of Prime Rib - Win, Place & Show! It bankrupted us for months, but it was worth it.

Great trivia about this game - BG shuffled its schedule at the last minute to move up the Ball State game. Why? Because it set this game up to be Denny Stoz's 100th career win.

[fulch]

How many of these games did you guys attend? I only count two for myself. NIU and Northwestern. Pretty weak

[jacojdm]

How many of these games did you guys attend? I only count two for myself. NIU and Northwestern. Pretty weak

I have only the three 2003 games. I was listening to the 2001 Northwestern game on the radio. And doing Music History I homework all the while.

[Falconfliccbone]

I was only at the 2003 games vs. NIU and Northwestern, which is part of the reason I voted for the NIU game. As a freshman, that game was amazing and really set the bar high for what would come of BG.

I only really got interested in BG my junior year when I decided to go here, and I had never really followed college football until the next year, so my knowledge of college football is limited. Hence the vote for the recent game.

One other game that I think is pretty monumental was the 2003 OSU game. OSU is a perennial powerhouse and we took it to the last minutes of the game. A nail-biter with tons of suspense, but not quite the ending we were looking for. I'm hoping for a better ending this Saturday!

[Schadenfreude]

Unmentioned was an unbelievable break that allowed us to retain possession of the ball...we were punting (can't recall who), and the ball went straight up into a stiff wind, came back down into the punter's possession, and he ran it for a first down...not sure if that's even legal anymore.

Wow.

Just: Wow.

That's amazing.

Did anyone ever give that play a name?

It's like The Fake Punt of God.

[h2oville rocket]

Unmentioned was an unbelievable break that allowed us to retain possession of the ball...we were punting (can't recall who), and the ball went straight up into a stiff wind, came back down into the punter's possession, and he ran it for a first down...not sure if that's even legal anymore.

Wow.

Just: Wow.

That's amazing.

Did anyone ever give that play a name?

It's like The Fake Punt of God.

I think the kicker is the only player allowed to advance the ball if it is blocked or comes into the possession of the kicking team behind the line of scrimmage after the punt. So if you can pull it off at will you might have something. Given the comments here on special team play, however...