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The Magical Major Bowl Run Of 1984 Boston College Football

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The 1984 Boston College football season was a magical ride, one whose biggest moment lives on as perhaps the most famous sports play of the modern era. It was also the best team the program has produced since their undefeated season under Frank Leahy in 1940.

READ GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS

Doug Flutie was coming into his senior year at quarterback and in 1984 he was outstanding in every way for BC. Flutie completed 58 percent of his passes, an extremely good number in this era, especially considering how often the offense threw the ball. He finished with over 3,600 passing yards and a dazzling 30/13 TD-INT ratio. He was fully deserving of his landslide Heisman Trophy selection.

Gerald Phelan would catch Flutie’s most famous pass and Phelan caught a lot more, leading the team with 71 catches and 1,065 receiving yards. Troy Stradford was a solid threat running the football with 862 yard and 5.2 yards a pop. Stradford was also skilled coming out of the backfield as a receiver with 41 catches for over 400 yards.

The Eagle defense was led by All-American defensive back Tony Thurman. They weren’t an overwhelmingly talented team, but this was a program with momentum under head coach Jack Bicknell. He’d gotten them to bowl games in 1982-83, the first time in over forty years and now was aiming for a return to New Year’s Day. BC was ranked #19 coming into the season.

BC opened with a 44-24 tuneup win over Western Carolina and then traveled to play Alabama in a prime-time battle. The Crimson Tide were now two years removed from the leadership of the legendary Bear Bryant, but expectations were still high and ‘Bama was ranked #9.

Boston College dug themselves a 31-14 hole in the third quarter, including giving up a 99-yard kickoff return. Then Flutie started his Heisman campaign in earnest. He ran for one touchdown and threw for another. He completed 19/38 passes for 254 yards. The Eagles won the turnover battle 6-2 and eventually pulled even 31-31. Stradford won the game with 42-yard touchdown jaunt with 3:26 left.

The 38-31 win vaulted BC to #10. This wouldn’t be a very good Tide team by the time all was said and done, as they finished 5-6. But it was a huge marquee win for the Eagles and with top teams falling left and right in the early part of 1984, Boston College was up to #4 by the time they played another game two weeks later.

BC then started a run of games against teams that would win between five and seven games. The Eagles blew out North Carolina 52-20 and got by Temple 24-10. But a road trip to West Virginia resulted in the first loss, a 21-20 nailbiter that pushed Boston College down to #11 in the rankings.

A 35-23 win over Rutgers followed, but BC gave it right back when they went to Penn State, where Joe Paterno was struggling with one of his worst teams to date, and lost 37-30. Beating Army 45-31 and then knocking off Syracuse 24-16, in a game played in Foxboro, got Boston College back on track and had them ranked #10 with the season finale in Miami.

It was the Friday after Thanksgiving and from the BC standpoint, there wasn’t a lot on the line. Heisman ballots were usually turned in by this time and it’s impossible to suggest that Flutie’s hold on the trophy would be impacted by this game. Boston College had already accepted a bid to the Cotton Bowl. For a game that was meaningless, it proved to be as meaningful as you could imagine.

Flutie and Miami counterpart Bernie Kosar put on a passing display for the ages. Flutie threw for 472 yards, while Kosar threw for 447. Over the last quarter-plus there were six lead changes. The fifth of those changes came on a Hurricane touchdown with 28 seconds left that put them on top 45-41. BC got the ball back on their own 20, pushed to midfield and had time for one play.

What happened next became one of the most popular highlights of all-time. Flutie dropped back, launched the ball towards the end zone. Amidst a sea of bodies in the end zone, Phelan caught the pass. It was “The Magic Flutie” and it resulted in a 47-45 win and a lasting legend for both Flutie and Phelan.

The Cotton Bowl was the “home” bowl to the old Southwest Conference. A strange year in the SWC produced a mediocre representative, in four-loss Houston. Combine that with blustery weather in Dallas on New Year’s Day and attendance was the lowest for the Cotton Bowl since 1948. Flutie did not play well, completing just 13/37 passes for 180 yards.

Flutie’s teammates had his back though, with Stradford and #2 running back Steve Strachan muscling for almost 300 yards between them.

Boston College built up a 31-14 lead, but a Pick-6 thrown by Flutie got momentum moving in the other direction and the lead was cut to 31-28. In recent years, BC fans had already seen their basketball team lose a big game to Houston—a regional final in the 1982 NCAA Tournament. Now it seemed like a major bowl win might be slipping away.

But the Eagles went back to Stradford and Strachan and pounded their way to an insurance touchdown and then tacked on one more for icing on the cake. Boston College had shown their versatility, winning a big game when their star quarterback was struggling. The 45-28 win gave them a Top 5 national finish.

The program has had special moments since—giving a Super Bowl-winning head coach in Tom Coughlin his start, along with a good NFL quarterback with Matt Ryan. But BC has not been on the major bowl stage since Doug Flutie and the magic of 1984.

The Road To The 1985 Cotton Bowl: Boston College & Houston

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Boston College had a magical year in the 1984 college football season, one whose biggest moment lives on as perhaps the most famous sports play of the modern era. It would be a stretch to call Houston’s year magical, but the Cougars had a lot break right for them on the way to a Southwest Conference title. BC and Houston came together on January 1 at the 1985 Cotton Bowl. Here’s a look back on the paths each team took to Dallas…

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 

Doug Flutie was coming into his senior year at quarterback and in 1984 he was outstanding in every way for BC. Flutie completed 58 percent of his passes, an extremely good number in this era, especially considering how often the offense threw the ball. He finished with over 3,600 passing yards and a dazzling 30/13 TD-INT ratio. He was fully deserving of his landslide Heisman Trophy selection.

Gerald Phelan would catch Flutie’s most famous pass and Phelan caught a lot more, leading the team with 71 catches and 1,065 receiving yards. Troy Stradford was a solid threat running the football with 862 yard and 5.2 yards a pop. Stradford was also skilled coming out of the backfield as a receiver with 41 catches for over 400 yards.

The Eagle defense was led by All-American defensive back Tony Thurman. They weren’t an overwhelmingly talented team, but this was a program with momentum under head coach Jack Bicknell. He’d gotten them to bowl games in 1982-83, the first time in over forty years and now was aiming for a return to New Year’s Day. BC was ranked #19 coming into the season.

BC opened with a 44-24 tuneup win over Western Carolina and then traveled to play Alabama in a prime-time battle. The Crimson Tide were now two years removed from the leadership of the legendary Bear Bryant, but expectations were still high and ‘Bama was ranked #9.

Boston College dug themselves a 31-14 hole in the third quarter, including giving up a 99-yard kickoff return. Then Flutie started his Heisman campaign in earnest. He ran for one touchdown and threw for another. He completed 19/38 passes for 254 yards. The Eagles won the turnover battle 6-2 and eventually pulled even 31-31. Stradford won the game with 42-yard touchdown jaunt with 3:26 left.

The 38-31 win vaulted BC to #10. This wouldn’t be a very good Tide team by the time all was said and done, as they finished 5-6. But it was a huge marquee win for the Eagles and with top teams falling left and right in the early part of 1984, Boston College was up to #4 by the time they played another game two weeks later.

BC then started a run of games against teams that would win between five and seven games. The Eagles blew out North Carolina 52-20 and got by Temple 24-10. But a road trip to West Virginia resulted in the first loss, a 21-20 nailbiter that pushed Boston College down to #11 in the rankings.

A 35-23 win over Rutgers followed, but BC gave it right back when they went to Penn State, where Joe Paterno was struggling with one of his worst teams to date, and lost 37-30. Bearing Army 45-31 and then knocking off Syracuse 24-16, in a game played in Foxboro, got Boston College back on track and had them ranked #10 with the season finale in Miami.

It was the Friday after Thanksgiving and from the BC standpoint, there wasn’t a lot on the line. Heisman ballots were usually turned in by this time and it’s impossible to suggest that Flutie’s hold on the trophy would be impacted by this game. Boston College had already accepted a bid to the Cotton Bowl. For a game that was meaningless, it proved to be as meaningful as you could imagine.

Flutie and Miami counterpart Bernie Kosar put on a passing display for the ages. Flutie threw for 472 yards, while Kosar threw for 447. Over the last quarter-plus there were six lead changes. The fifth of those changes came on a Hurricane touchdown with 28 seconds left that put them on top 45-41. BC got the ball back on their own 20, pushed to midfield and had time for one play.

What happened next became one of the most popular highlights of all-time. Flutie dropped back, launched the ball towards the end zone. Amidst a sea of bodies in the end zone, Phelan caught the pass. It was “The Magic Flutie” and it resulted in a 47-45 win, a lasting legend for both Flutie and Phelan.

Houston had joined the Southwest Conference prior to the 1976 season and under the direction of head coach Bill Yeoman, won the league’s Cotton Bowl bid three times in the next four years and went 2-1 in those games. The previous four years had seen a slippage—the Cougars only reached two bowl games from 1980-83 and coming off a 4-7 season, there was no reason to think 1984 would mark a turnaround.

The team’s best player was All-American tight end Carl Hilton, who caught 38 passes for 517 yards, but otherwise the personnel was fairly pedestrian. Quarterback Gerald Landry completed 48 percent of his passes for 6.4 yards-per-attempt, both numbers around the middle of an SWC that few quarterbacks that could throw the ball effectively.

Wide receiver Larry Sheppard also caught 38 passes, and running back Raymond Tate rushed for 864 yards, third-best in the SWC. Defensive back DeWayne Bowden intercepted six passes. On balance though, it wasn’t a great roster and Houston would never be ranked at any point in the 1984 college football season.

The season began with a 30-17 win over Miami-Ohio, but the Cougars quickly lost to another set of Cougars—those from Washington State, led by future NFL quarterback Mark Rypien, in a 35-7 rout. When Houston dropped a 30-28 decision to woeful Louisville, it looked like another long year was ahead for Yeoman.

Victories over mediocre teams in Baylor (27-17) and Texas A&M (9-7) got the conference schedule off to a good start and then came October 20.

Houston was playing SMU on the road. The Mustangs were ranked #6 in the country, had won the conference in 1982 and finished second in 1983. Houston stunned everyone by blowing the game open, with a 68-yard touchdown pass from Landry to Hilton opening up a 19-point lead. An SMU rally made the score respectable, but the 29-20 win was never in doubt.

The Cougars lost their next two games, falling to Arkansas 17-13 and TCU 21-14, both solid teams that would be in title contention in what was a jam-packed race for Dallas.

As Houston prepared to go to Texas, the Longhorns were leading the way with a 4-0 league mark and a #3 national ranking. TCU was 4-1 in SWC play, while Houston, SMU and Arkansas were all 3-2.

It was fully expected the Cougars would play their way out of the race in Austin on November 10. Instead, the opposite happened. After spotting the Longhorns a 7-0 lead, the Cougars got a field goal back, Landry threw a 79-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Ketchum and Houston built up a 20-17 lead by the fourth quarter.

The Cougars were hawking the ball in the secondary and intercepted five passes on the day. The big one came with the 20-17 lead and Texas driving. Bowden picked one off and took it 62 yards to the house. It was the dagger in a 29-15 win.

Houston had the next week off and watched Texas knock off TCU. It was now the Longhorns still holding the league lead, but a battalion of four two-loss teams (Houston, TCU, Arkansas and SMU) giving chase.

On November 24, Houston didn’t play an impressive game against a subpar Texas Tech team, but they won 24-17. Meanwhile, everything the Cougars could have wished for in the other games broke their way. Texas lost at Baylor. TCU lost at Texas A&M. Even the head-to-head SMU-Arkansas game when Houston’s way—SMU, whom the Cougars held the tiebreaker on, got the win.

It left Houston in a win-and-you’re-in spot for the season finale, and they had the perfect opponent—one of the worst teams in the country in Rice. The Cougars again didn’t dazzle anyone, but they won 38-26. Yeoman had his fourth Cotton Bowl bid and easily his most improbable.

The weather in Dallas on New Year’s Day was blustery and attendance was the lowest for the Cotton Bowl since 1948. Flutie did not play well, completing just 13/37 passes for 180 yards. His teammates had his back though, with Stradford and #2 running back Steve Strachan muscling for almost 300 yards between them.

Boston College built up a 31-14 lead, but a Pick-6 thrown by Flutie got momentum moving in the other direction and the lead was cut to 31-28. In recent years, BC fans had already seen their basketball team lose a big game to Houston—a regional final in the 1982 NCAA Tournament. Now it seemed like a major bowl win might be slipping away.

But the Eagles went back to Stradford and Strachan and pounded their way to an insurance touchdown and then tacked on one more for icing on the cake. Boston College had shown their versatility, winning a big game when their star quarterback was struggling. The 45-28 win gave them to a Top 5 national finish.

Both of these programs have had some special moments since—Houston produced a Heisman Trophy winner in Andre Ware in 1989. Boston College has produced a Super Bowl-winning head coach in Tom Coughlin, several notable national wins and a good NFL quarterback in Matt Ryan. But neither BC, nor Houston, has been on the major bowl stage since their meeting at the 1985 Cotton Bowl.

The Road To The 1983 Liberty Bowl: Notre Dame & Boston College

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The nation’s top two Catholic football-playing universities, Notre Dame and Boston College, meet on a reasonably regular basis. But when they played at the 1983 Liberty Bowl it was only the second time they’d met on the field. Here’s a look back on how the Jesuit schools found their way to Memphis in late December.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 

Notre Dame had never accepted a non-New Year’s Day bowl bid in its history, but this was the third year of the Gerry Faust era and while the Irish had some notable wins in his first two years—they had yet to exceed six wins in a year. The traditional Notre Dame expectations were still there though, and Faust’s team opened the season ranked sixth in the nation.

Allan Pinkett was the focal point of the offense and he ran for nearly 1,400 yards in 1983. The passing game wasn’t as effective. Two players split duty at quarterback, Steve Beurlein and Blair Kiel. Beurlein was a future NFL starter, but just a freshman and shared snaps with the senior Kiel.

They combined for a TD-INT ration of just 11/13. No receiver caught 30 passes or got to 500 yards. Pinkett’s 28 catches actually led the team and Milt Jackson’s 438 yards were a team-high. Another future pro, tight end Mark Bavaro, who started for a Super Bowl winner with the New York Giants three years later, only had 23 catches.

The Irish still opened the season by blasting woeful Purdue 52-6 and moved up to #4 in the polls. But the games that most often bedeviled Faust in his tenure were the ones ND was supposed to win. Like the September 17 game at home with a losing Michigan State team, that the Irish dropped 28-23.

Down to #13 in the polls, Notre Dame tumbled completely out of the rankings when they visited future national champion Miami and lost 20-0. With the season in danger of slipping away, the Irish corrected their problem of losing winnable games and beat five straight teams with losing records.

They rolled Colorado, South Carolina, Army, USC and Navy.  Yes, USC finished 4-6-1. All of the wins were impressive, coming by 16-plus points and the October 29 home game with Navy was a historic moment—because it was this writer’s one and only trip to Notre Dame Stadium.

Faust had his team up to #18 in the polls and while games against Pitt, Penn State and Air Force presented a big challenge—all were bowl-bound—it was also opportunity. A Notre Dame that finished 9-2 was sure to get a major bowl bid and even at 8-3, they were still a likely candidate.

But the ND rush defense, reliable all year, couldn’t stop Pitt’s Joe McCall, who rushed for 116 yards. Pinkett fumbled early in the game, the key play in a 46-second sequence where the Panthers scored two touchdowns. The Irish lost 21-16.

In spite of this, the Fiesta Bowl announced its intention to take Notre Dame if they could go to Penn State and win. The Nittany Lions might have been the defending national champion, but they were fighting simply to be bowl-eligible this year.

Pinkett had a huge game and ran for 217 yards, and Notre Dame led 30-27 in the fourth quarter. When they stopped a Penn State drive by recovering a fumble on their own 12-yard line, that trip to Tempe was in their hands. But three straight runs by Pinkett went nowhere. Penn State got the ball back with a short field and with a stiff wind at their back, drove it for a winning touchdown.

The Irish dropped one more heartbreaker, 23-22 to Air Force. With a record of 6-4-1, the decision was made to accept the Liberty Bowl bid.

Boston College had no such problems with taking a slot in a non-major bowl game. The Eagles had reached their first bowl game since 1942 the previous year, led by sophomore quarterback Doug Flutie. It was the latest sign that the building program of head coach Jack Bicknell, who had taken over in 1981, was on schedule.

Flutie would throw for over 2,700 yards in 1983 and be effective in making big plays, with 7.9 yards-per-pass and 17 touchdowns. He had a few rough edges—the completion percentage was only 51.3, though that was still respectable in the football world of 1983. And he threw 15 interceptions. But Boston College could move it through the air.

Brian Brennan was the top receiver with 66 catches for 1,149 yards. Scott Gieselman played both receiver and tight end and caught 45 passes for 525 yards. Another target was Gerald Phelan, who joined Flutie in college football lore one year later when he caught a desperation pass at the end of the Miami game, what is surely the most oft-replayed moment in the history of the sport.

Troy Stratford provided some balance to the offense, running for 810 yards, and defensive back Tony Thurman intercepted six passes, setting the stage for his All-American season in 1984.

BC was unranked to start the year and tuned up with a 45-21 win over Morgan State. Then came a message-sending win over Clemson. The Tigers would finish the year 9-1-1, win the ACC and were just two years removed from winning a national championship. Boston College thumped Clemson 31-16.

When they followed it up with a 42-22 win in East Rutherford over lowly Rutgers, the Eagles moved into the national rankings at #19. But they quickly gave it back, losing 27-17 to 12th-ranked West Virginia, with future NFL quarterback Jeff Hostetler at the helm.

An unimpressive 18-15 win over lowly Temple followed and BC then blew out Yale on October 8. The Eagles now had three weeks to get ready to face Penn State in Foxboro.

It was earlier noted that this was not a vintage Nittany Lion team, which made it all the more imperative for BC to get their first-ever win in this rivalry. There was a national TV audience, with ABC’s legendary play-by-play man Keith Jackson in the booth.

Flutie led an 80-yard touchdown drive to begin the game and capped it with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Brennan and Boston College stormed out to a 21-0 lead. Penn State crawled back to within 24-17 in the fourth quarter before Brennan made a diving catch that set up a clinching field goal.

With the 27-17 win, the Eagles were ranked #16. The victory was also the biggest reason BC eventually won the Lambert Trophy, given to the top team in the East.

Boston College went on the road and buried a two-win Army team and climbed to #13. But they stumbled at an average Syracuse team 21-10, though the Eagles held on to their national ranking at #18. A 47-7 blowout of Holy Cross in Foxboro set up one more nationally televised appearance.

Alabama was coming to the northeast in the first year of the post-Bear Bryant era. Ray Perkins was at the helm and his team was welcomed with rain and sleet. There was also a power outage in the third quarter, although the networks still struggled less with the weather than the Tide offense did.

Boston College forced five turnovers and even though they trailed 13-6 after three quarters, backup running back Bob Biestek scored two touchdowns in the final quarter to win 20-13. The Eagles concluded the regular season ranked #13 and came to Memphis hoping they could beat their Catholic rival and finish in the Top 10, all in one fell swoop.

The turf at the Liberty Bowl was frozen and it dramatically affected the kicking game. Flutie threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Brennan in the first quarter, but the extra point was missed. Notre Dame answered with an 87-yard drive capped off by Pinkett’s 1-yard run. The converted extra point would prove to be the biggest play of the game.

Notre Dame’s Mike Golic, the modern-day ESPN radio personality, blocked a punt and set up a quick Irish score. Kiel was at quarterback and he hit Bavaro on a 20-yard touchdown pass. Flutie answered with a 28-yard TD pass to Phelan before the second quarter was out.

Of the three touchdowns just noted, there was either a missed PAT or missed two-point play (since kicking was a nightmare) on every one. The score was 19-12 Notre Dame at the half.

The Irish couldn’t score in the second half, but Pinkett did run for 111 yards. Flutie was able to lead an 85-yard touchdown drive, but another missed two-point play kept the score at 19-18. The little quarterback pushed his team down the field for one last drive, reaching the Notre Dame 35-yard line with 1:08 left.

It was 4th-and-4 and it was time for the frozen turf to play a role one more time. Flutie dropped back to pass, but slipped while passing and his throw fell incomplete. Notre Dame had the win.

The Irish win was their one bowl victory during the Faust Years, though they had several significant regular season wins. As for Flutie and the Eagles, they were just getting started, with a major bowl win and Heisman Trophy just around the corner.