Spartans stun Cats for biggest comeback in I-A history

EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) -- Nearly an hour after the game, Drew Stanton was trying to digest what he'd just been a part of -- the greatest comeback in NCAA Division I-A history.

Trailing 38-3 in the third quarter, Michigan State rallied Saturday for a 41-38 victory over Northwestern as the Spartans ended a four-game losing streak in dramatic fashion and momentarily took the heat off coach John L. Smith.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet," Stanton said.

After a frustrating losing stretch that began when they blew a big lead late against Notre Dame, the Spartans finally got a chance to experience the other side. It felt pretty good.

"Hopefully this can be a turning point in our season. I definitely think it can be and people can build from this," said Stanton, who shook off a late hit in the third quarter, one that sent him sprawling into concrete around the bench and knocked him out of the game for a series.

Michigan State (4-4, 1-3) got back in game when Ashton Henderson returned a blocked punt for a TD early in the fourth, and the Spartans won it when Brett Swenson kicked a 28-yard field goal with 13 seconds left following a key interception by Travis Key.

Smith, who's been under heavy criticism, took no questions in a postgame news conference. He pointed to his staff and especially his players.

"The ones who really deserve the credit are those guys," Smith said. "They played the game, they believed in each other. They continued to fight, they pulled together and deserved everything they got today."

Until this riveting game, the biggest comeback in Division I-A was 31 points -- when Maryland beat Miami 42-40 on Nov. 10, 1984, and when Ohio State defeated Minnesota 41-37 on Oct. 28, 1989.

Northwestern (2-6, 0-4) led 24-3 at the half, and the crushing defeat sent the Wildcats to their fifth straight loss.

"As difficult a loss as I've ever been a part of," said first-year Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, who took the blame for his team losing momentum and eventually the game. "It hurts very bad."

Michigan State trailed 38-3 with 9:54 left in the third quarter after Northwestern's C.J. Bacher threw his third TD pass, a 5-yarder to Shaun Herbert.

Stanton, battling assorted injuries, tossed a TD pass of 18 yards to Jehuu Caulcrick with 7:03 left in the third. A.J. Jimmerson's 4-yard run, after a 19-yard pass from Stanton to Kerry Reed, made it 38-17.

After a 64-yard run by Tyrell Sutton, Northwestern was ready to go ahead 45-17 but Kaleb Thornhill turned away yet another Wildcats scoring drive by intercepting Bacher in the end zone.

Moments later, Stanton later was knocked to the sideline on a late hit by Northwestern's Corey Wootton and replaced by Brian Hoyer for a series.

Michigan State then made it 38-24 early in the final period when Devin Thomas blocked a Northwestern punt and Henderson returned it 33 yards for a TD.

"I think the blocked punt is when people really started believe we had a shot to come back," Stanton said.

Stanton re-entered the game on the next series and immediately drove the Spartans 60 yards, completing three passes for 34 yards and carrying 12 yards for the TD with 7:54 left, making it 38-31.

The Spartans then stopped a third-and-1 by the Wildcats, who had to punt, and Stanton completed six straight passes in a six-play, 58-yard drive, capping it with a 9-yard TD pass to T.J. Williams that tied the game with 3:43 left.

Key then intercepted Bacher at the 30 with 2:59 left and State moved in position for Swenson's field goal.

Bacher completed five of six passes on Northwestern's first possession, a 71-yard drive capped by Bacher's 5-yard TD pass to Ross Lane that made it 7-3.

On their next series, with the aid of two pass interference calls against the Spartans, the Wildcats moved in again, going 74 yards with Bacher hitting Jeff Yarbrough on a 14-yarder to the 2 and then carrying the final couple of yards for the TD early in the second quarter.

Joel Howells kicked a 30-yard field goal to make it 17-3 on the next possession. Eric Peterman took a Bacher swing pass, broke two tackles and raced 47 yards to the Spartans 9 before the drive bogged down.

An 18-yard halfback option pass for a TD from Brandon Roberson to Herbert made it 24-3 late in the half. Bacher's 22-yard pass to Lane gave the Wildcats a 31-3 lead early in the second half.

Stanton completed 27-of-37 for 294 yards. Bacher, who made his first college start, moving ahead of announced starter Andrew Brewer, was 15-of-29 for 245 yards. Sutton finished with 172 yards on 21 carries.

Northwestern linebacker and leading tackler Nick Roach broke his right leg early in the second half and is likely finished for the season. He was carted off the field after being hurt while covering a punt with 12:20 left in the third quarter.

The Tigers hadn't beaten the Sooners since 1998. Of course in that time there are some big losses, namely the 2007 and 2008 Big 12 Championship games. In 2007 the winner would have been in the national championship game. So Pinkel has played big games before but Mizzou had slowly been gaining the reputation as a team that can't win th...e big game.

They proved the doubters wrong on Saturday beating Oklahoma 36-27 in Columbia, MO.

Pinkel understands how important it is to beat Oklahoma. He opened his press conference this week saying to reporters that he knows he hasn't beaten Oklahoma and if you want to be considered one of the best you have to beat Oklahoma.

In his career he was 0-6 against the Sooners before Saturday night. That's a pretty big mountain to climb. Oklahoma had beaten Missouri 19 of their last 20 meetings. The Sooners were 7-0 against Missouri in the Bob Stoops era. That helps describe how huge this was for Missouri.

I didn't even mention that this game was nationally televised. So the world was there to see Pinkel finally beat Oklahoma and it put Mizzou on the 2010 college football map. The significance of this win can't be understated.

Now Mizzou goes from a bubble team in the top 15 to legitimate contenders. The test doesn't stop there though. They'll travel to Lincoln next week to take on Nebraska.

We first met Coach Pinkel when he was QB coach for U of Washington in 1988. He then went to Toledo (my Master's Degree program) and then on to MO. He has a great work ethic and of course, he perseveres.

As QB coach, he wanted his QBs to lift along with the linemen, to "lead them in the weightroom just like on the field." We loved that work ethic!

The "Miracle on Ice" was a medal-round men's ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, on February 22. The United States team, made up of amateur and collegiate players and led by coach Herb Brooks, defeated the Soviet team, which was considered the best hockey team in the world.

Team USA went on to win the gold medal by winning its final match over Finland, who finished 4th. The Soviet Union took the silver medal by beating bronze medal winner Sweden in its final game. As part of its 100th anniversary celebrations in 2008, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) chose the Miracle on Ice as the number-one international hockey story of the century.

The Soviet and American teams

The Soviet Union entered the Olympic tournament as heavy favorites, having won the ice hockey gold medal in 1956 and every year since 1964. In the four Olympics after the Soviet squad was upset by Team USA at Squaw Valley in 1960, Soviet teams had gone 27–1–1 and outscored the opposition 175–44. In head-to-head matchups against the United States, the cumulative score over that period was 28-7. The Soviet players were classed as amateurs, but soft jobs provided by the Brezhnev government (some were active-duty military) allowed them to essentially play professionally in a well-developed league with world class training facilities. They were led by legendary players in world ice hockey, such as Boris Mikhailov (a top line right winger and team captain), Vladislav Tretiak (considered by many to be the best ice hockey goaltender in the world at the time), the speedy and skilled Valeri Kharlamov, as well as talented, young, and dynamic players such as defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov and forwards Vladimir Krutov and Sergei Makarov. From that team, Tretiak, Kharlamov, and Fetisov would eventually be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Herb Brooks conducted tryouts in Colorado Springs in the summer of 1979. Of the 20 players who eventually made the final Olympic roster, Buzz Schneider was the only one from the 1976 Olympic team. Nine players had played under Herb Brooks at the University of Minnesota. Four more were from Boston University. Assistant coach Craig Patrick had played with Brooks on the 1967 U.S. national team.

The Soviet and American teams were natural rivals due to the decades-old Cold War. In addition, President Jimmy Carter was at the time considering a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, to be held in Moscow, in protest of the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. On February 9, the same day that the American and Soviet teams met in an exhibition in New York City, U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance denounced the impending Moscow games at a meeting of the IOC. President Carter eventually decided in favor of the boycott.

Exhibitions

In exhibitions that year, Soviet club teams went 5–3–1 against National Hockey League (NHL) teams, and a year earlier the Soviet national team had routed the NHL All-Stars 6–0 to win the Challenge Cup. In 1979–80, virtually all the top North American players were Canadians, although the number of U.S.-born professional players had been on the rise throughout the 1970s. The 1980 U.S. Olympic team featured several young players who were regarded as highly promising, and some had signed contracts to play in the NHL immediately after the tournament.

In September the American team started exhibition play, playing 61 games in five months against teams from Europe and America. The last exhibition game was against the Soviets in Madison Square Garden on February 9, 1980. The Soviets crushed the Americans 10–3. Viktor Tikhonov later said that this victory "turned out to be a very big problem" by causing the Soviets to underestimate the American team.

Olympic group play

In Olympic group play, the United States surprised many observers with its physical, cohesive play. In its first game against favored Sweden, Team USA earned a dramatic 2–2 draw by scoring with 27 seconds left after pulling goalie Jim Craig for an extra attacker. Then came a stunning 7–3 victory over Czechoslovakia, considered by many to be the second-best team after the Soviet Union and a favorite for the silver medal. With its two toughest games in the group phase out of the way, the U.S. team reeled off three more wins, beating Norway 5–1, Romania 7–2, and West Germany 4–2 to go 4–0–1 and advance to the medal round from its group, along with the Swedes.

In the other group, the Soviets stormed through their opposition undefeated, often by grossly lopsided scores – knocking off Japan 16–0, the Netherlands 17–4, Poland 8–1, Finland 4–2, and Canada 6–4; easily qualifying for the next round, although both the Finns and the Canadians gave the Soviets tough games for two periods. In the end, the Soviet Union and Finland (who overcame a disastrous start after sensationally losing to Poland in their opening game of the tournament, but then rallied to upset Canada) advanced from their group.

Preparing for the medal round

The U.S. and Soviet teams prepared for the medal round in different ways. Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov rested most of his best players, preferring to let them study plays rather than actually skate. U.S. coach Herb Brooks, however, continued with his tough, confrontational style, skating "hard" practices and berating his players for perceived weaknesses.

The day before the match, columnist Dave Anderson wrote in the New York Times, "Unless the ice melts, or unless the United States team or another team performs a miracle, as did the American squad in 1960, the Russians are expected to easily win the Olympic gold medal for the sixth time in the last seven tournaments."

"Do you believe in miracles?"

The Field House (capacity 8,500) was packed. The home crowd waved American flags and sang patriotic songs such as "God Bless America." The rest of the United States (except those who watched the game live on Canadian television) had to wait to see the game. After the Soviets refused to consent to moving the game from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. for American television (this would have meant a 4 a.m. start in Moscow for Soviet viewers), ABC decided to broadcast the late-afternoon game on tape delay in prime time. Before the game, Brooks read his players a statement he'd written out on a piece of paper, telling them that "You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours."

First period

As in several previous games, the U.S. team fell behind early. Vladimir Krutov deflected a slap shot by Aleksei Kasatonov past U.S. netminder Jim Craig to give the Soviets a 1–0 lead, and after Buzz Schneider scored for the United States to tie the game, the Soviets struck again with a Sergei Makarov goal. Down 2–1, Craig improved his play, turning away many Soviet shots before the U.S. team had another shot on goal (the Soviet team had 39 shots on goal in the game, the Americans 16).

In the waning seconds of the first period, Dave Christian fired a slap shot on Tretiak from 100 feet away. The Soviet goalie saved the shot but misplayed the rebound, which bounced out some 20 feet in front of him. Mark Johnson sliced between the two defensemen, found the loose puck and fired it past a diving Tretiak to tie the score with one second left in the period. The first period ended with the game tied 2–2.

Second period

Tikhonov replaced Tretiak with backup goaltender Vladimir Myshkin immediately after Johnson's tying goal, a move which shocked players on both teams.Tikhonov later identified this as the "turning point of the game." and "the biggest mistake of my career". Myshkin allowed no goals in the second period. The Soviets dominated play in the second period, outshooting the Americans 12–2, but scored only once, on a power play goal by Aleksandr Maltsev. After two periods the Soviet Union led 3–2.

Third period

Vladimir Krutov was sent to the penalty box at the 6:47 mark of the third period for high-sticking. The Americans, who had managed only two shots on Myshkin in 27 minutes, had a power play and a rare offensive opportunity. Myshkin stopped a Ramsey shot, then Eruzione fired a shot wide. Late in the power play, Dave Silk was advancing into the Soviet zone when Vasilev knocked him to the ice. The puck slid to Mark Johnson. Johnson fired off a shot that went under Myshkin and into the net at the 8:39 mark, as the power play was ending, tying the game 3–3. Only a couple shifts later, Mark Pavelich passed to U.S. captain Mike Eruzione, who was left undefended in the high slot. Eruzione, who had just come into the game, fired a shot past Myshkin, who was screened by Pervukhin. This goal gave Team USA a 4–3 lead, its first of the game, with exactly 10 minutes left.

The Soviets attacked furiously. Moments after Eruzione's goal, Maltzev fired off a shot which ricocheted off the right goal post. As the minutes wound down, Brooks kept repeating "Play your game. Play your game." Instead of going into a defensive crouch, the United States continued to play offense, even getting off a few more shots on goal. The Soviets began to shoot wildly, and Starikov admitted that "we were panicking." As the clock ticked down below a minute the Soviets got the puck back into the American zone, and Mikhailov passed to Petrov, who shot wide. The Soviets never pulled Myshkin for an extra attacker, much to the disbelief of the Americans. Starikov later explained that "We never did six-on-five", not even in practice, because "Tikhonov just didn't believe in it."[29] Craig kicked away a Petrov slap shot with 33 seconds left. Kharlamov fired the puck back in as the clock ticked below 20 seconds. A wild scramble for the puck ensued, ending when Johnson found it and passed to Morrow. As the U.S. team tried to clear the zone (move the puck over the blue line, which they did with seven seconds remaining), the crowd began to count down the seconds left. Sportscaster Al Michaels, who was calling the game on ABC along with former Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden, picked up on the countdown in his broadcast, and delivered his famous call:

“Eleven seconds, you've got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles?...YES! ”


The March 3, 1980 cover of Sports Illustrated that ran without accompanying caption or headline. In the locker room afterwards, players spontaneously broke into a chorus of "God Bless America". As his team ran all over the ice in celebration, Herb Brooks sprinted back to the locker room and cried.

For its March 3, 1980 issue, Sports Illustrated ran a cover with just a photograph by Heinz Kluetmeier, without any accompanying caption or headline. Kluetmeir said, "It didn't need (any cover language). Everyone in America knew what happened."

Charting Your Course to Success


Winning: Defining It! Achieving It!

by Chris Widener

If you ask most people whether they would like to be considered a winner or a loser in life, they would most assuredly reply that they would like to be a winner. But this begs the question: "What does it mean to win at life?" In some things, it's easy to define a clear winner. In a basketball game, whoever has the most points at the end of the game is the winner. In a game of hearts, my favorite card game, whoever has the least amount of points when one of the players reaches 100 points is the winner.

But it isn't quite as easy to decide what it means to win in the game of life, is it? And that is because people define winning in different ways. For many, winning is through the accumulation of money or material possessions. "He's a success, a real winner," they say. Others think winning means living the longest. Still others say that it is to have their body in tip-top shape. Some say it is to have a happy family. Some say it is to regularly enjoy their hobbies.

All of these are fine, in and of themselves. But I would like to encourage us to think about winning or success in a different way. Generally, people think of winning as overachieving in a particular, chosen area. I like to believe, however, that to truly win at life is not to overachieve in one area, but to succeed in maintaining balanced achievement in numerous areas.

Let me repeat that: To truly win, to be a success, is not to overachieve in one area, but to maintain balanced achievement in all areas of our lives.

For instance, is a person a success if they earn millions of dollars but lose their family? Is a person a success if they garner national fame but have no friends? Of course not. In fact, they may live the most pitiful of all lives.

First, Define

So the first thing we must do is define what we will consider "winning in life." As you ponder this for yourself, I would like to recommend that you focus in on three overarching areas: body, soul and spirit.

The body is that which has an actual connection with the physical world and would encompass physical health, financial health, family, work and relationships.

How is your health? How are your finances? Are your relationships, both with your family and others, all that they could be? Is work fulfilling? How would you define winning in these areas?

The next area, the soul, is that which deals with the emotions, will and intellect. It is our thoughts, ideas and attitudes.

How are you emotionally? Are you able to exercise your will? Are you growing intellectually? Have you done an attitude check lately? How would you define winning in these areas?

And the spirit is the part of us that transcends this life, the part of us that communes with God. Zig Ziglar said, "Money will buy me a house, but not a home, a bed, but not a good night's sleep." So true. Inner peace comes from something much deeper.

Have you thought about going back to your spiritual roots? Are you able to spend time in quiet solitude and prayer from time to time? This is an extremely important area that is all too often neglected. What would you like to achieve in this area? How would you define winning in these areas?

As we experience balance in these areas, we will find ourselves much more at peace with ourselves than if we were to experience tremendous success in one area but loss or failure in the other areas. We were designed to work as congruent, balanced people. This is how we get to the end of our lives and say, "I won."

Second, Prioritize

Once you have defined what it is that you would like to achieve in each of these areas, you have to prioritize them and let other, non-important areas drop off the chart. Commit to developing a plan to succeed in a balance of areas. Exercise your will. Choose. Dwight D. Eisenhower said: "The history of free men is written not by chance, but by choice-their choice."

When we manage our time and schedule, we are simply making choices in regard to our priorities. For most, their priority is to take action on whatever is screaming the loudest at the moment. For those who become winners, they reflect on what they desire to achieve, make a plan and decide to eliminate the rest.

Last, Do It

OK, you have defined winning. You have prioritized your life. Now, the hard part: doing it. This is where we are all alone. We all make this step on our own, but having a written plan is as good a preparation as you can get. Rather than saying that you are going to do this for the rest of your life, take the next week to implement your new balance of winning. If a week sounds too long, just focus on today. Spend some time, be it ever so small, enhancing your life in these areas. Exercise a little. Read for a while to challenge your mind. Deal with your emotions. Spend time in silent contemplation to renew your spirit. Give some time to your spouse and children. Will Rogers said, "Even if you're on the right track, you won't get anywhere if you're standing still." There has got to be action.

As we do this over time, and balance our lives out, we will begin to finally feel like we are winning at life. That will be exciting, as will the process!