Robert Stinnett / AP

California's Kevin Moen (26) leaps with the ball after scoring Cal's winning touchdown while the Stanford band scrambles to get out of his way on Nov. 20, 1982.

In 1992, 10 years after The Play, several Associated Press football poll voters were asked for their recollections of The Play.

Kirk Bohls of the Austin American Statesman remembered that a tuba player was involved but couldn’t recall whether Cal had scored, and O.K. Davis of the Ruston (La.) Daily Leader remembered it as "the trumpet game" with the lingering image being of the trumpeter getting spiked by Moen.

Steve Caldwell of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Ron Christ of the Harrisburg Patriot News recalled only that the band was on the field.

They are all no doubt better acquainted with the facts now, 15 years later, but if the band were not on the field and if Tyrrell had not been wiped out, it might have been only the 20th most amazing play in sports history and recollections of each lateral might be a little vague.

Now, it has not only stood the test of time but has been enhanced by time. Intriguing little tidbits about The Play seems to seep out periodically, re-igniting discussion and recollections.

At the time, the drama was intensified by the long pause between the time Moen smashed Tyrrell and the moment referee Charlie Moffett signaled touchdown. There had been flags on the field, although they were all against Stanford for having too many players on the field, because many had come out in midplay when the game seemed to be over. Moffett, it turns out, did not even know Moen had scored when he and the other officials huddled to make the call that would elate one side in this intense rivalry and enrage the other.

"When (official) Gordon (Riese) told me the guy had scored, I was relieved," Moffett said several years later, "because by rule, we could have awarded Cal a touchdown because he was interfered with by the band and other (Stanford) players (coming off the bench). I wouldn’t have wanted to make that call."

More recently came Elway’s defense of stopping the clock with eight seconds remaining to kick what was expected to be the game-winning field goal. For years, it was assumed Elway had made a blunder by not letting the clock run down to three or four seconds and that he regretted that error the rest of his life. Not so. This fall Elway said the decision came from the coaches, and he defended it, claiming Stanford could have had a second chance if a poor snap ruined the first attempt.

That gave rise to the story, which might even be true, that the Stanford coaches were split on the decision on when to stop the clock, with the eight-second supporters winning out over the four-second bloc. When Cal scored, there was such agitation in the Stanford coaching box upstairs that a punch or two was thrown.

And now, of course, there is the debate whether The Play would have stood with today’s use of replay to correct officiating mistakes.

The fact that Cal did not have the proper number of players outside the 10-yard restraining area but within the 15-yard barrier could not have been reviewed, and it’s unlikely a replay could have determined definitively whether Dwight Garner’s knee was down before releasing the third lateral. Maybe a replay official could have concluded that the final lateral was forward, especially since there would have been more camera angles today. But would a replay official have had the nerve to overturn a call at Cal’s home stadium with players and fans on the field in wild celebration?

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"There would have been riots and blood on the streets and death counts — and probably should have been," he said then.

The Play led directly to three rules changes, including one that prohibits a band from being on the field until the game is over. It prevents a replication of The Play.

In October, with The Play’s 25th anniversary approaching, a Division III school pulled off a 15-lateral scoring play, bringing up references to The Play and reminding us again why it was unforgettable: Without a band, it’s just another weird play.

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