8801010117
DETROIT FREE PRESS
880102
Saturday, January 02, 1988
METRO FINAL
1A
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1988, Detroit Free Press
MSU RISES TO ROSES
THEY HAD THE BALL; THEY HAD IT ALL
PASADENA, Calif. -- They had the ball! They had the ball! Todd Krumm was
cradling it, dancing with it, raising it above his head and leaping into the
arms of teammate Kurt Larson, and only gravity kept them from flying off into
space. All the waiting, all the lean years, all the talk of Rose Bowl jinx --
it was all crushed down and squeezed inside this little brown football, and
now, Michigan State had it. God. At last.
"It was awesome! It was a relief!" Krumm would yell outside the locker
room after Michigan State had stunned the disbelievers with a nail-biting
20-17 victory over USC in the Rose Bowl -- the first time a Big Ten team has
won it in seven years. Awesome? Relief? Tell us about it. Until that point
-- when Krumm recovered a Rodney Peete fumble with 1:37 left -- destiny seemed
sure to slip the Spartans a mickey.
Sure, they had played a powerful first half -- an arresting display of
rushing and defense -- but like a tired runner, the Spartans' energy seemed
to fade. A 14-3 halftime lead slipped to 20-17, and USC was a dragon down the
stretch. Hot? Ho boy. Peete was directing the Trojans to an heroic finish, as
surely as if a California screenwriter had called for it.
And then, the most miraculous thing. With USC on the MSU 30, Peete called
for the snap -- and never got it. The ball bounced, players fell on it,
Larson kicked it, and on two bounces it landed in Krumm's waiting grasp, and
damn if he was ever gonna let it go.
"Kurt was hugging me, but I wanted to hug him," Krumm would say. And in
the stands, MSU faithful were hugging one another. Was this incredible or
what? They had the lead. They had one minute left. And they had the ball!
They had the ball!
I'm still nervous, can you believe that?" coach George Perles said after
it was all over, after his Spartans had survived one final threat by USC, and
had watched the clock turn to 0:00 and ring in the New Year better than it
ever did in Times Square. "This feels great. For us, for the Big Ten, for
everybody."
Raise your hand if you weren't at least a little moved by this fairy tale.
That way we know who the dead people are. How long had all the parties waited
for this? MSU hadn't been to Pasadena in 22 years. The conference hadn't
won out here since 1981.
"What do you think about breaking the Big Ten jinx?" a reporter asked
Perles.
"You've got to ask those other teams about the jinx," he answered. "I
like the Rose Bowl."
I like the Rose Bowl? Too much. But then, this whole adventure was like
that, this whole week of Spartans In Paradise. Here was the most unlikely of
teams -- nobody picked them to get this far -- a group of nice, quiet,
muscular guys coached by a ruddy-faced, basso-voiced man who said, "Hey, I
don't care how Michigan and Ohio State did it. We're going to Disneyland and
we're going to enjoy the hell out of it."
Yeah.
And the game? Oh my. This was a lifetime in one afternoon. Sunlight to
darkness, warmth to cold, a lead to a tie to a glorious victory that was not
assured until the final snap. How much older was everyone when this thing
ended? Ten years?
"It felt like the second half went on forever," admitted quarterback
Bobby McAllister, who provided the most acrobatic play of the afternoon,
scrambling to the sidelines, directing traffic, then leaping as he reached out
of bounds and connecting on a 36-yard miracle to Andre Rison -- a play that
led to the winning field goal. He leaped? He threw it in mid-air?
"What do you call that?" he was asked.
"I call it . . . "
He laughed.
"I call it, 'make something happen.' "
Perfect. Because that's what MSU needed. That pass -- and another
earlier bomb to Rison of 55 yards -- kept the otherwise slow-grinding MSU
offense from running out of steam. It was just one of countless memories for
a Spartan scrapbook:
Here was a brilliant display of labor by Lorenzo White, who carried 24
times in the first half alone for 89 yards and two touchdowns. The quiet
senior tailback, who had been denied the Heisman Trophy, played those first 30
minutes as if they might cast the award in his image next year. He finished
with 113 yards, and more importantly, a victory in his last game. "We won,
I'm done," he said. A pretty and effective final rhyme.
And from the rhyme to the reason: defense. Percy Snow. Sophomore
linebacker. Seventeen tackles, 15 unassisted. If you're looking for a
single reason for victory this day, you can start with his number. Despite
its third-quarter drowsiness, the MSU defense -- its forte all year -- was a
steel drum when it had to be. That's how you win big games.
What else? Lord. Who can remember it all? There were fake field goals
-- two by USC -- and interceptions and a long punt return and a USC touchdown
pass, Peete to Ken Henry, in which only a centimeter of shoe kissed the fair
territory of the end zone. Thrills, chills, spills. A sellout crowd split
down the middle, half green and white, half red and gold. So loyal that when
one side began the wave, the other refused to carry it on. A Rose Bowl worthy
of its tradition, for sure.
And finally, an MSU victory. This is one for the also- rans, the
co-stars, the teams that live in the shadows of more famous programs. Listen
up. Sometimes the underdog gets a shot. And sometimes the underdog wins.
How fitting that the long, lamented Big Ten hex is broken here by Michigan
State.
"I know we usually have the 24-hour rule," a happy Perles said after the
game -- reverting to his 24 hours of celebration or mourning he allows his
team following games, "but I'm waiving that. They can celebrate from now
until next spring for all I care."
Minutes after the game was over and the TV cameras had taken you to a
commercial break, the MSU players began jogging off the field, then suddenly
turned and headed back the other way, to the far corner, where sat thousands
of Michigan State fans, who had waited, what, forever for this? And the
marching band rose, and marched into the Michigan State fight song, and
everybody, players, fans, joined in -- "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" -- their voices
crashing into the cool California darkness.
Beautiful. Here was the final scene of the dream; players and fans
singing in unison, some of them crying, after a game that finally, finally,
put an end to the old and a sparkle to the new. They had the ball. They had
it all.
FOOTBALL;COLLEGE;MSU;ROSE BOWL