After the Capital victory, our next game was on the road against the Caldwell Cougars. I remember one big play in the game, and that play has a funny twist. The Canyon County team gave us a bigger battle than Capital. Since there was no clock on the field the officials had to inform both sidelines when there were two minutes left in the game. Unfortunately, we were behind 13-12. With bout thirty seconds to go, I called a pass play in which Bob Griffin was to be the main receiver. I'm not sure how far we were from the goal line, but I think it was at least 50 yards. I dropped back to pass, spotted Bob going deep, and then threw it as far as I could. I went down to the ground, tackled by a Caldwell defender. When I got up our guys were jumping up and down and I saw that Bob had crossed the goal line. We won the game 18-14.
It was the first and only time in my life that I remember being involved in the scoring in a game where I successfully helped "snatch victory from the jaws of defeat." If the pass had been unsuccessful, we would have lost. But...I didn't realize it at the time. Let me explain.
A few weeks later we were into basketball season. Coach Hill was preparing us for Caldwell, the team that we had barely beaten in the game I just described. At some point as he was speaking to us for the upcoming game, he mentioned how we would have lost our football game to them if we hadn't scored a touchdown in the last minute. My eyes got wide and I blurted out, "What? You mean we were behind?" It's true. I told you earlier that we trailed 13-12 with less than a minute to go. But I didn't actually know that at the time. I thought we were tied. Later when I had time to think about it I realized that I may not have responded the same if I had known we were losing and that if the pass failed we would lose the game. There's a definite difference from attempting a pass that would lead to a loss if it failed and making a pass that, even if failed, we would at least have a tie and not a loss. That is what I thought the situation was at the time. I will never know. But it was still a "W".
We now had two games to go. The second time around we beat Capital a little more easily, 26-13. I tossed my third touchdown pass of the season, a play in which the Statesman stated that I "rifled" the pass to Ron Harris. Actually, Ron was so wide open that I threw him about as soft of a pass as I could so that I wouldn't mess it up.
The final game of the season was played at Boise against the Braves. They had beaten Capital once during the year so, if we lost to them we would end up tied for first. We played hard and got the victory, completing the undefeated season. As I recall it was 7-7 at halftime and we went on to win, 19-7. After the game, as was his custom, Coach Hill told us to, "Remain humble." I remember thinking, 'hey, we're the undefeated champs so we don't have to be humble anymore.' Apparently I actually said it out loud because after the game Coach Conley mentioned it to my parents.
After the game we grabbed Coach Hill, Coach Conley, and Coach Tom Olsen and threw them fully-clothed into shower. Celebration. It was a sweet ending to a competitive season.
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