This Week in Stanford Football History: @ San Jose State Week

“Throwback Thursday”

September 23, 1995

330 years ago this week, in the unfriendly confines of Autzen Stadium up in Eugene, the Stanford Cardinal football team was gaining confidence under first-year head Coach Tyrone Willingham, Suddenly the 1995 Cardinal was looking like West Coast Road Warriors^TM. Safety Alistair “All-Star” White had made a game-saving pick at the end of the Utah game a couple of weeks before. The good guys’ running game was on the rise behind senior all-Conference tackle Jeff Buckey, guard Geoff “The Mauler of Mobile” Wilson, and road-paving junior guard Brad “Bad Boy” Badger. After averaging an unacceptable 64 yards per game in 1993, the ground attack had improved to 139 yards per game in 1994 and was moving up to a more than respectable 178 yards per game during the 1995 season. The traveling Card show was about to get severely tested with its first conference road contest, against a ranked opponent in the high-flying #12 Oregon Ducks!

The previous season, in 1994, then head coach Rich Brooks had instructed lefty QB Tony Graziani to run it up at the old Stanford Stadium, throwing deep with a huge lead late in the fourth quarter. Not cool. My own late father, Dr. Richard R. Rutter, was memorably upset after the gun sounded that day, yelling “Go Beavers! Go Beavers!” at exiting Oregon fans after what he correctly perceived as exceptionally poor sportsmanship by Brooks and the Ducks. Yeah, well, ain’t Cardinal karma a “B? 

The Wicked Webfoots of the Westä scored on their opening possession and Stanford responded by going “3 & Out.”  Graziani and his “Gang Green” were driving again and feeling pretty good about themselves when the tables were suddenly turned by one of the many huge defense plays that would become characteristic of the ’95 campaign. Savvy Stanford safety Josh Madsen read the Duck QB like a book, stepping up and picking off a disgruntled Tony Graziani and changing the game’s momentum on a dime.

A short fourth-down run by fullback Greg Comella tied the score and tailback Anthony Bookman (#4) raced to the flag for another touchdown giving Stanford a 14-7 lead, which it still held at the half.

Big drama arose in the second half as WR/KR Marlon Evans (#83) was flagged for losing his cool after being provoked during coverage on a third-quarter Duck punt return. Evans was deep in discipline-stressing Coach Willingham’s doghouse after the Ducks got 15 yards and a first down and went on to tie the score at 14-14 after the penalty. In one of the most memorable sequences in the entire Willingham Era, Evans responded to his coach’s icy stare like a gridiron gladiator seeking righteous redemption. He took the ensuing kick-off straight up the middle like a ballistic missile for a momentum-recapturing 96-yard touchdown that gave the Cardinal the lead back at 21-14. Even the famously stoic “Sheriff” gave an ever-so-slightly satisfied clench of his fist after that one!

The game was essentially put away after Butterfield, from 28 yards out, went deep to WR Andre Kirwan who made a diving, full-lay-out career catch for a sensational score that extended the Cardinal lead to 28-14. The Ducks….were roasted!

Stanford’s rapidly developing young defense did an outstanding job that day against an explosive Duck offense featuring lots of track speed and some future NFL talent. DE Carl “The Truth” Hansen was an absolute beast, rising star linebacker Chris Draft was all over the field as a tackling machine, Kailee Wong recorded his most outstanding game to date!

This 28-21 loss prevented Oregon from potentially sharing the 1995 Pac-10 Conference championship and represented the first of three consecutive losses to Stanford under new Ducks head coach Mike Bellotti!

We ‘liberated’ and took home a significant wooden section of our row from Autzen Stadium and had it fashioned into several plaques commemorating the very first Pac-10 Conference win for first-year head coach Tyrone “The Sheriff of Willingham”! He still has it!

Stanford finished 7–4–1 with a mark of 5–3 in conference play, placing fourth in the Pac-10. Stanford was invited to the Liberty Bowl, where the Cardinal came up just short against East Carolina.

Such a shame, Oregon and Stanford had been tearing each other’s football hearts out for decades and the rivalry was one of the finest on the West Coast. We can all hope that one day, the stars align again and we’re back playing in the same conference, battling for supremacy!