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From a macro look it is pretty easy to say that Saturday's victory over Minnesota of the Big Ten Conference is not one of the Top-10 all-time in the history of BG football. Certainly no more impressive than winning at Syracuse or Brigham Young- season opening Ws for Don Nehlen’s 1975 and ’76 clubs. And not more important than the 1959 win at Ohio or the 1991 Cal Bowl win over Fresno State. Maybe more on-par with the 1985 win at Kentucky or the ’95 win at Missouri.

For more on this, my Top 10 BG wins over the last 10 seasons, and your chance to rank this most recent triumph check out my recent blog post: http://blog.bgsusports.com/

nice blog dayon!
but what if we win this weekend?
top 10?

I'm hoping Class of 61 will chime in on this one, since he has the best perspective!

This is a good list, actually a very good list, in fact, but I'll toss two games from 1985 into the mix.

1) The Miami Miracle: As MAC games go, this one just couldn't have been much bigger. BG was a powerhouse - laden with seniors on offense (McClure, White, Stan Hunter, Meehan, Boxley) and stacked on defense, too (Dawson, Villanucci, Marshall). Miami was, well, Miami - extremely stingy on defense and led on offense by George Swarn, who can best be described as a MAC version of Earl Campbell.

It was a beautiful day with a great crowd, but when Brian McClure went down with an injury, the "fans" started streaming out of The Doyt. They missed one of the most dramatic comebacks in BG history. Two plays are burned into my memory - "Dirty Rick" Howard coming up with the onside kick and that incredibly gutsy call by Denny Stolz on the game-winning touchdown.

This was the win that, ultimately, earned us the berth in California Bowl V. Many may wonder why folks left the game; it was simple - everyone figured that BG would't win, but that it wouldn't really matter. Certainly, Miami would lose another MAC game (I believe they already had 1 MAC loss coming into the game) and BG would win the tie-breaker. But Miami never did lose another MAC game that year.

2) The Kentucky game. Noel - you're probably right that this Minnie win is similar. The context here made for a good story. BG made extraordinary efforts to move the Ball State game to the beginning of the schedule, knowing that a win would put Stolz at 99 career wins, thus setting the stage for him to win his 100th game against a big-name school. Kentucky wasn't great, but they were good having enjoyed back-to-back seasons that ended in bowl games.

It all came down to the last drive. With BG trailing 26-23, McClure marched the Falcons downfield. The crowd was raucous and it seemed like BG got called for holding on every other play (I can still see the SID slamming his hand down on the counter after the umpteenth flag, his face as red as a tomato). And once BG crossed midfield, you knew that a game-tying field goal was out of the question. It was going to be all or nothing. I'd love to see the film on that final play, because I'll never understand how Meehan got open in the end zone. But he did and couldn't have lept much higher to get the ball.

Man, what a great year that was. The undefeated regular season included these two dramatic wins and a 21-0 home win against That Team Up North.

The UT game in 1985 was big also...McCLure had established himself as the best QB in the MAC winning the conference in 1982, coming awful darn close in 1983 and 1984. But McClure had failed to lead them to a victory over Toledo. The team had scored a total of 22 points in the three losses against Toledo in 82,83 and 84.

1985 saw them close out the home slate with a 21-0 thumping of the Rockettes...I think that game clinched the MAC title as well. The students executed a tremendous fake by gathering at ( I think) the north end of the stadium drawing all of the security guys to that endzone. When the gun sounded the crowd hitthe field and sprinted south, taking the goalpost before the cops could react. I think a portion of that goal post would up in one of the main street bars...I do recall seeing a few guys carrying it down Wooster.

Good times.....

Flipper wrote:The UT game in 1985 was big also...McCLure had established himself as the best QB in the MAC winning the conference in 1982, coming awful darn close in 1983 and 1984. But McClure had failed to lead them to a victory over Toledo. The team had scored a total of 22 points in the three losses against Toledo in 82,83 and 84.

1985 saw them close out the home slate with a 21-0 thumping of the Rockettes...I think that game clinched the MAC title as well. The students executed a tremendous fake by gathering at ( I think) the north end of the stadium drawing all of the security guys to that endzone. When the gun sounded the crowd hitthe field and sprinted south, taking the goalpost before the cops could react. I think a portion of that goal post would up in one of the main street bars...I do recall seeing a few guys carrying it down Wooster.

Good times.....

Good times, indeed!

I was at that game in 1985 vs the school up north...over 28K were there that day.

1987alum wrote:I'm hoping Class of 61 will chime in on this one, since he has the best perspective!

This is a good list, actually a very good list, in fact, but I'll toss two games from 1985 into the mix.

1) The Miami Miracle: As MAC games go, this one just couldn't have been much bigger. BG was a powerhouse - laden with seniors on offense (McClure, White, Stan Hunter, Meehan, Boxley) and stacked on defense, too (Dawson, Villanucci, Marshall). Miami was, well, Miami - extremely stingy on defense and led on offense by George Swarn, who can best be described as a MAC version of Earl Campbell.

It was a beautiful day with a great crowd, but when Brian McClure went down with an injury, the "fans" started streaming out of The Doyt. They missed one of the most dramatic comebacks in BG history. Two plays are burned into my memory - "Dirty Rick" Howard coming up with the onside kick and that incredibly gutsy call by Denny Stolz on the game-winning touchdown.

This was the win that, ultimately, earned us the berth in California Bowl V. Many may wonder why folks left the game; it was simple - everyone figured that BG would't win, but that it wouldn't really matter. Certainly, Miami would lose another MAC game (I believe they already had 1 MAC loss coming into the game) and BG would win the tie-breaker. But Miami never did lose another MAC game that year.

2) The Kentucky game. Noel - you're probably right that this Minnie win is similar. The context here made for a good story. BG made extraordinary efforts to move the Ball State game to the beginning of the schedule, knowing that a win would put Stolz at 99 career wins, thus setting the stage for him to win his 100th game against a big-name school. Kentucky wasn't great, but they were good having enjoyed back-to-back seasons that ended in bowl games.

It all came down to the last drive. With BG trailing 26-23, McClure marched the Falcons downfield. The crowd was raucous and it seemed like BG got called for holding on every other play (I can still see the SID slamming his hand down on the counter after the umpteenth flag, his face as red as a tomato). And once BG crossed midfield, you knew that a game-tying field goal was out of the question. It was going to be all or nothing. I'd love to see the film on that final play, because I'll never understand how Meehan got open in the end zone. But he did and couldn't have lept much higher to get the ball.

Man, what a great year that was. The undefeated regular season included these two dramatic wins and a 21-0 home win against That Team Up North.

Karl, Thanks for the compliment above.... since I've seen most (but not all) of the games mentioned....I'd also like to chip in with some "ancient" history wins that would have to be ranked.....
#1- The win against Delaware at home in 1959.... UD and BG were ranked 1 and 2 in the "small college" division at the time (don't you get tired of the nomenclature changes?) BG whipped the Hens 30-7 to in essence win the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP for that division.
#2- The FIRST Purdue game in 1972.... Purdue was considered to be at least a co-favorite to win the B-10 that year...and the Falcons had NEVER played a B-10 school before... There were a couple of lucky breaks for us, including a punt that came back into our punter's hands which he turned into a 1st down.... but it was my and my friends First BIG trip, soon to be followed by two trips to Syracuse, Kentucky,WVU,Mich.St. etc.etc. We were absolutely exhausted after going to the "victory party" sponsored by BG alumni Assoc. after the game and I didn't get home until 24 hrs. after leaving home early Sat. morning the day of the game.(Mike, remember what I said when we went to the SECOND Purdue game?)
#3 The Mizzou game, which was also Gary Pinkel's 1st season at PU....The papers talked about how he warned his team to be cautious of the Falcons...but it didn't make a difference... We beat them anyway...I remember that Andrew Hart was injured that day, I think on an extra point attempt that was blocked...it resulted in a redshirt season for one of AZZ's favorites.
#4 The win over Kentucky....afterward, one of the Ky. fans approached me, commenting "Y'all shamed us!" I had to point out to him that his alma mater had lost to what was to be a "pretty good" BG team!

Just some random thoughts...from a "different perspective".

Nice win....good luck against MSU.

Class of 61 wrote:#1- The win against Delaware at home in 1959.... UD and BG were ranked 1 and 2 in the "small college" division at the time (don't you get tired of the nomenclature changes?) BG whipped the Hens 30-7 to in essence win the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP for that division.

Hey Den, how did the campus react to that game?