Dec. 15, 1980: Rashad’s ‘miracle catch’
Posted on September 27th, 2009 – 10:13 PMBy Ben Welter
Where were you when Tommy Kramer led the Vikings to an astonishing comeback over Cleveland at Met Stadium on a chilly December afternoon nearly 30 years ago? A colleague on the copy desk recalls that she and her dad were listening to the game on the car radio, and that he pulled over on Franklin Avenue after Ahmad Rashad’s winning catch so that they could jump up and down in celebration. I, too, was listening on a car radio, running solo errands in the same part of Minneapolis. I let out a whoop but didn’t stop the Pinto wagon or even honk its horn, though I distinctly remember hearing many others honking theirs.
Minutes later, the Tribune’s Joe Soucheray was in the visitors’ locker room at the Met, gathering fodder for this page one account of the “miracle catch.”
Sign of the times (1): It appears that the Tribune sent only one photographer and two reporters – not counting Sid Hartman — to cover a home game that had playoff implications. Nowadays, such a game would draw three times as many staffers, with or without Brett Favre wearing purple.
Sign of the times (2): By advancing to the playoffs with this victory, each Viking pocketed an extra — wait for it – $5,000.
Vikings win title again, but … it was no less than astonishing
By Joe Soucheray
Staff Writer
Maybe we have become too cinematic with this game of football and all its pretentions, but Sunday afternoon at Metropolitan Stadium the ball seemed to travel its arc through onrushing dusk as though in slow motion. There aren’t many moments like it, when the season is on the light end of the scale and the football is sailing through the air to upraised hands in the end zone and thousands of cold and disbelieving fans have stopped in their tracks to the exits.
The Vikings trailed Cleveland by a point, 23-22, and Tommy Kramer had just launched a pass from the Browns’ 46-yard line into the right corner of the end zone, with four seconds showing on the scoreboard clock. Terry LeCount, Ahmad Rashad and Sammy White had been deployed to the right corner, LeCount in the middle as if it had been a wing formation. The clock ticked down to zero with the ball in flight. The Browns had responded by sending out a fleet of six deep backs, most principally Thom Darden, the eight-year safety out of Michigan.
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| Vikings quarterback Tommy Kramer embraced wide receiver Ahmad Rashad after the two hooked up for the winning touchdown against Cleveland at Met Stadium in Bloomington on Dec. 14, 1980. (Star Tribune photo by Duane Braley) |
“I chose to stick with White,” Darden said later in his locker room. “I am sure the ball was intended for White to tip to Rashad. In my mind White was the tip man and I wasn’t going to permit it.”
“Where was Rashad?” somebody said.
“At that point I was between White and Rashad,” Darden said. “Suddenly, White stopped. When he stopped, I stopped. And when he went into the air I went with him. I did get a hand on the ball.”
“Where was Rashad now?” somebody said.
“By now he was in the vicinity,” Darden said.
Rashad caught the ball, on what the Vikings insist was a tip off White’s fingers. Rashad was near the 2-yard line and he backed in, victorious in this astonishing and totally unlikely game of volleyball that had given the Vikings a victory and yet another Central Division championship. It was almost a replay of the ball Drew Pearson of the Cowboys caught in the shadow of Nate Wright at the Met in a 1975 first-round play-off game.
“I wasn’t going to allow Sammy to tip the ball, much less catch it,” Darden was saying. “And I ended up tipping it to Rashad. It did not occur to any of us – me or Rashad or White – what had happened until we heard the crowd reaction.”
In the Cleveland locker room later there was an occasional curse. Dirty laundry was flung this way and that. A television newsman discovered Cleveland coach Sam Rutigliano in the corner of the bathroom.
“Can we get a live interview?” the TV man said.
“How can you?” Rutigliano said. “I’m a dead man.”
Rutigliano was more than gracious, almost bemused by what had just happened. He couldn’t for the life of him remember Darden as his primary defender on the miracle catch.
“It was great concentration by a great player,” Rutigliano said of the catch. “It was a 30-foot putt and he’ll never make it again, but it was memorable. Neither team got much pressure to the quarterback today and the quarterbacks proved resourceful, didn’t they?”
“Are you as cool on the inside as you appear on the outside?” Rutigliano was asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “You’d have to perform an autopsy.”
As interesting as the miracle catch – or more accurately, as astonishing – was a Brian Sipe pass intercepted by Bobby Bryant minutes earlier in the fourth quarter. Cleveland held a 23-15 lead with nearly five minutes left in the game and the Browns were cruising upfield when Sipe chose to pass on a second-and-nine from his own 41 yard line. The pass was intended for Reggie Rucker.
“That was an option screen play,” Rutigliano said. “It worked well for us earlier in the game. We were thinking first down. We were thinking ball possession. I had warned the team at half time that the Vikings were an extremely patient team.”
“Were you surprised that Sipe passed at that point?” [Vikings coach] Bud Grant was asked.
“Not at all,” Grant said. “They’ve always used the short pass as a form of ball control. Bobby Bryant just cheated a little. He knew that Sipe wouldn’t throw deep and he moved in front of Rucker.”
“Rucker was the intended receiver,” Sipe said over in his quarters. “But in retrospect I wish I would have dumped it off to Cleo Miller, which was my option on the play. But hey, even after that I didn’t think we were in trouble.”
But the Vikings struck quickly with a touchdown to Rashad. Cleveland got the ball back and eventually punted, giving Minnesota its final possession at the Minnesota 20-yeard line with 14 seconds left in the game. The play that moved the team downfield was a pass to Joe Senser and the subsequent lateral to Teddy Brown, a play that moved the ball from the Viking 20 to the Cleveland 46, from where Kramer struck with the miracle throw.
“A flea flicker is what beat us as much as anything,” Calvin Hill said afterwards. “A damn good flea flicker, that Senser-to-Brown play.”
But it was the catch that people will remember, one of those great moments in sports that can be called up in the mind and played over and over again. It did take the chill off a winter day, all that heat and passion boiled down to the final play of a football game.
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| The fans who streamed out of Met Stadium with the Vikings trailing Cleveland by eight points with less than five minutes to go missed this scene: Ahmad Rashad stepping backward into the end zone for the winning touchdown. (Star Tribune photo by William Seaman) |
31 Responses to "Dec. 15, 1980: Rashad’s ‘miracle catch’"
I was a student at UND and my roommate and I were watching it on TV in our Dorm room. When he made the catch we were both jumping up and down, high fiving each other. I still remember that play as if it was yesterday.
I was at the game. One of the few Viking’s games I have ever been too. I was nine or ten at the time, I still remember that play to win the game.
I remember that many of the fans who had left early and were stuck in the traffic jam in Met Stadium parking lot, re-parked and tried to get back into the stadium. Too funny. I’d love to hear Ray Scott’s radio call again. Anyone know where I can find it?
I was 14 and felt like we could make a comeback when down 23-15. We got one touchdown and needed a field goal, but could not get the ball back until there was only 14 seconds left. Remembering that Cowboys game when rookie refs allowed Dallas to steal the Vikings season and best shot at finally winning the Super Bowl (Tarkington was MVP and Foreman had his best year), I figured the purple may have enough time for a long throw and a field goal or two long plays into the end-zone. It turns out, Kramer had three seconds to spare, as the final play began with :04 left on the clock. In the days before YouTube, TiVo and even VCRs, I had to switch between all of the channels to see the play again and again. For those interested, here is a link to the YouTube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22O8IowjQSg
In hindsight, Farve’s drive seems pedestrian by comparison, but both miracle finishes were wonderful to watch.
I was at the game with Judd Zulgad. Both of us were 10 and refused to leave even with the cold weather.
I remember that game and the final drive like it was yesterday. I was a college student and a buddy and I were watching in a downstairs apartment. We yelled for an hour. The Kramer to Sensor to Brown play was executed to perfection! Only Ahmad could make that last catch look so easy.
I was a teeneager in Charlotte,NC. I had been to the Super Bowl in ‘76 as a 12 yr old, and cried all the way home on the plane. I remember watching this game, which I think included some missed kicks by us, and jumping up and kicking in my closet door. Thanks for helping me relive a great memory.
I was 14 years old and a dude from the church brought me to this game. My dad had died earlier that year, so this cat was doing big brother sorta things with me. Nice guy.
Anyway, we were in that end zone, ten or fifteen rows up. I can see the hook and ladder play in my head like it was yesterday. We all moaned when Kramer went to Senser over the middle for short yardage. You know, what the hell, Tommy? But the place exploded when Ted Brown took that lateral and headed up the sideline.
My next memory is watching the ball coming down at the 2 yard line amidst the the purple and white jerseys, and then losing sight of it because everybody stood up. Of course the bedlam a second later told me we’d just won.
The other thing I remember is an eternal celebration that culminated with an obligatory half-assed extra point conversion that apparently was required to end the game officially. I think a bunch of players came running out of the locker room later as a curtain call, because nobody was leaving. We just kept celebrating.
I’ve often wondered how old Tommy would stack up in today’s NFL. He was no Tarkington, but he was a pretty gutsy QB.
I was in my apartment in Munich, Germany, watching the game on Armed Forces TV. An Army Major from Cleveland who lived in the apartment above me saw me the next day and said, “I heard you.”
Hey TDH in NV, there was no such thing as a high-five in 1980!
I was age 16, in the unfinished basement with a friend, watching on a small black and white TV, the whole game (we watched the whole game - it was for the playoffs!). We screamed and jumped for hours afterward.
Better video link is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK9EVrpzSzk&NR=1
includes the earlier pass to Senser - lateral to Brown (Teddy looks fast!) play from the 20 to set it all up.
-vikel
I was in college looking up “pretentions” in my Funk & Wagnall’s and not finding it.
By the way, speaking of Rashad - his memoir is one of the best sports books ever written.
I was nine years old, living in Cottage Grove and my uncle Pat was over for the game. I remember the play vividly, and the security guard in the yellow coat jumping up with his hands in the air sticks in my mind as much as anything. I will never forget the screams my uncle let out or the excitement in the house. I mark that day as my first Viking memory and the day I became a fan.
The morning of the niner game I pulled that play up on youtube, being astonished it was there and I showed my 5 1/2 year old son the day I became a fan.
Moments before that Favre pass I called to my son and said “Just in case! But this is like the thing I showed you this morning, last play of the game, come see.”
He stood next to me as that pass sailed and when it landed my son experienced the same bedlam that I did 29 years ago, complete with furniture jumping and screaming.
Perhaps it will stick in his head and one day, 29 years from now he will pull it up in a much clearer view and show his own son the moment he marks as the moment he became a Vikings fan.
These rare moments are what being a football fan is all about. Father and sons, sudden moments of complete jubilation and joy and memories that last lifetimes.
Thank you Vikings for giving me one of those such moments with my own son on a Sunday afternoon.
I was at that game with my mom. We had to leave early because I was freezing (I was 15 and way too “cool” to dress appropriately).. I got to listen to the finish as we traveled South on Cedar…bummer!
I was 11 years old, in my grandparents’ living room in Northeast Nebraska. I hadn’t known the Vikes game was on tv, so I didn’t start watching until the 4th quarter.
I remember the Senser to Brown play was the first time I’d ever seen the Hook and Ladder. I thought that was so cool. Then when Rashad caught the ball and backed into the end zone, I was so excited I ran over to my little brother and picked him up and hugged him, even though I had cracked ribs at the time. It hurt like hell but I didn’t care.
Little did I know at the time I’d spend the next 29 years being mostly on the other end of plays like that.
The exact origin of the high five remains unknown, although some baseball fans have credited the introduction of the high five to Glenn Burke and Dusty Baker. Burke was known to initiate the gesture during his relatively brief career with the late 1970s Los Angeles Dodgers. However, the high five was clearly in wide use before Glenn Burke brought it to Major League Baseball.
Dean Martin is seen to initiate a high five with Louis Armstrong (after their rendition of “When The Saints Go Marching In”) in an episode of the Dean Martin Show that aired on September 26, 1966.
In the 1941 Abbott & Costello film In The Navy, in which the Andrews Sisters perform the song “Gimme Some Skin, My Friend”. During this musical number, high fives and high tens (see below) are frequently exchanged by the performers in the revue. In the 1927 film The Jazz Singer, actor Al Jolson executes the low five in celebration of the news of a Broadway audition, illustrating that these gestures were used in music circles, at least as early as 1927, and probably earlier, since moving pictures borrowed from gestures that were already in common use. The gesture has since spread to sports and into broader popular culture.
I was 19 years old and not very big. I was so excited I jumped out of the stands on to the field. A security guard grabbed me and tossed me back into the stands. I will never forget that catch.
I was at the game with my Girl friend (now my wife of 25 years). Was given seats by my father-in-law that were right up against the railing - left field up deck. If you remember the Met layout. It was a windy cold day that day and the Vikings were stumbling in the fourth quarter. My GF (now wife) was freezing so we left prior to the last two scores. As we walked back to my car, we heard the crowd roar! That was the Viking touchdown to get to 23-22. We were all the way back close to my apartment in South Mpls and listening to CC0 when Ray Scott called the hail mary pass and Rashad catch. I remember he must of jumped up, cause you heard the microphone get knocked down and he and the rest of the announcing crew were going crazy. I tell people nowadays that I was at the game, but most times, leave out the mention of leaving early. A lesson learned, now I never leave a game early, be it Viking or Twins or whatever. Strange things happen in Sports. Too bad VCR were not really available at this time or I would of had it on tape and now on DVR. I’m sure all the folks that left the Vikings game last Sunday are kicking themselves. At least I had the excuse to blame it on my GF (now wife) being cold. Folks last week had no excuses!
It seems in my youth the Vikings had numerous plays that left the impression of being fantastic. The Lewis catch last weekend revived some of those old feelings. That type of excitement seemed to be a more recurring theme back then. I even remember when Rashad was Bobby Moore.
If I recall, part of the excitement of that game was that Kramer was the second-stringer that was just put in the game for the last two drives, and the team just came alive. Goes to show what a good leader can do. I don’t even remember who the starting qb was at the time, but that was the start of the two-minute Tommy nickname.
I remember in an interview later that week, Rashad said he had set up his VCR to record the game, and that the tape filled up just before his miraculous catch.
me and my brother tim were watching the game…we were 14 and 12 at the time…upstairs watching the game on a 13 inch black and white tv…when the catch was made we both started jumping up and down so loudly, that our dad, who was napping on the couch downstairs yelled “what the hell is going on up there”…we didnt care…all we knew is that the vikings were going to the playoffs!!
I was 12 years old and the last few minutes of this game was the first football that I had ever watched. I remember that day like it was yesterday and have been a fan ever since! On sunday I kept telling my boyfriend, the game isn’t over until it’s over. Anything can happen in the last few minutes and reminded him of this game. I know it doesn’t usually play out like this, but it’s nice to know that it can happen (and does sometimes.)
My husband and I, who are season ticket holders, were at the game and stayed through the end. It was cold and we were bundled in our snow mobile suits. Under my cold weather gear, I was wearing a Viking shirt that my husband had specially made for me and had given it to me for my Birthday that year with the Number 28 on the shirt as Ahmad Rashad was my favorite player. After we won, my husband unzipped my snow mobile suite and pulled down the top so that my Viking shirt with the number 28 could be seen. I had many fans offering sizeable sums of money for the shirt that afternoon as we celebrated and left the MET because up until that day number 28 was not a Viking shirt that you could commonly find in the stands and stores. I know because I had combed the city looking for one. This story brings back lots of wonderful memories of many wonderful games and tailgating at the Met. We still have our season tickets; even though we have moved to KC, our Viking flag continues to fly outside of our house on every game day, and we come to games as often as possible.
I was at the game and was seated in that corner of the field around the 10 yard line. What stood out to me at the time was that it took TWO miracle plays to win the game and in fact Teddy Brown had a chance to go all the way at midfield as he only had one player to beat but instead elected to go out of bounds and set up the hail mary!!!
I also remember that it seemed like only about half of the stadium remained to see the end of the game heroics.
I also remember playing football and drinking a few beers in the parking lot after the game as we were so pumped up and didnt want to leave.
This game is probably the single most memorable to me. I was 13 and had been a Viking fan for a couple years. Living in West Virginia, we did not see the Vikings too often. Luckily, playing the Browns and Steelers that year guaranteed me at least two games to see. I proudly wore my #28 jersey for a week aftwards. Over the years, I was able to relive catch in the “Fantastic Finishes” spots sponsored by Alcoa that popped up at the end of most NFL games in the 80’s.
Iwas there, with two buddies and my Dad.He wasn’t much of a fan till I started taking with me. We’d tailgate for every home game.It was COLD.When the Vikings got the ball back witth twenty odd seconds on the clock, we were forlorn but we NEVER left a game before the gun. The Senser/Teddy Brown play was Amazing! When TK heaved the ball towards the end zone, all of us stood up - it was a sight to see - Rashad reaching out and scooping the ball to his chest and backing into the end zone. It was mayhem.We were hugging, laughing and I couldn’t stop screaming “We won the f***ing division”.I miss those joyous days at the Met. I miss my dad more.
I was closer than anyone; thats me with his mouth wide open;a second later i was in on the hog pile!
When Greg Lewis caught that pass from Favre last week, my mind immediately flashed back to the Rashad play mentioned above. I watched that whole game on TV. Those NFL players back in those days were real guys.
I was 14 watching the game with my dad & grandpa. They thought I was nuts jumping up and down almost crying knowing we were going to the playoffs!
