Former Stanford center and current broadcaster Mike McLaughlin spent some time with me talking about Stanford football. Here we talk about the Rose Bowl year:
Q: Take me back to your playing days. I’ll start with a very generic question, as you think back to your 5 years at Stanford, how do you feel about it?
I felt very privileged to go to Stanford and not have to pay for school. It is obviously very expensive. So that is something that I hold very dear to me. To get the opportunity to go to Stanford, get a degree, play great football, live in this area, the tradition not only of Stanford football, but the tradition of Stanford the University. People always say that you are lucky to have been able to do all that, so you hear that enough you really start to realize (how special it was). Now being out in the world and being able to use that Stanford education, that experience, to better myself and get opportunities that some of the other people would not. The football aspect of it was a really interesting time. When I came in, there were holdovers from (coach Bill) Walsh’s second era that were there. Guys like TJ Gaynor, Dave Carter, and even guys I played with that I played with into Coach Willingham’s era like Jon Haskins, who is now with the team, Chris Draft, and Kailee Wong. So I had a good group of guys that had experienced that and then having Coach Willingham as a coach with the guys that I came in with. I think it was a real interesting time because we had a lot of talent and coach Willingham was able to establish his way of coaching and leading our team. Not only did that lead to really good football (obviously we had a couple of years that were horrible but we ultimately ended up going to the Rose Bowl). The things that I learned on the football field from my teammates and coaches are things that I still look fondly upon now, and love to laugh about now and it has helped me through life. The last several years have been rough personally, but there are a lot of lessons I hang on that I learned during college football that have gotten me through it.
Q; You were on the first Rose Bowl team and the only Rose Bowl team of my life. What are your memories of the Rose Bowl experience? Obviously the result is not what we wanted but what are your memories of playing in the game?
Well, the sad thing is I only got one play in. I don’t know if you remember the story or not but I tore my ACL four days before the game.
Q; Oh yes, I had forgotten about that.
That was my 46th straight game and the coaches had enough trust in me and they also know that I had bled and sweated to that point that they were willing to give me the benefit of the doubt and let me play. If you go back and ask the doctors at the time, they were dead set against not letting me play. But they knew me as a guy who did not take NO for an answer, especially when it came to injuries and playing. So I went out there for the first play, got my 46th straight start which I think is still the record at Stanford and that was it. I just remember blocking that first play. It was a real quick 3-step drop. They had a nose tackle, Wendell Bryant on Wisconsin, who was really good. Kind of a leaner nose tackle but very strong. And I blocked him. Running back Brian Allen came and tapped me on the shoulder as I got back to the huddle and he said “Hey Mike, you know you blocked that play on one leg?” I basically just held my bad leg in the air and held on to dear life. So that was it, I left the game and went on the sideline and that was it. That was the end of my football career. Up to that point it was a great experience. We got to do all kinds of fun things. We stayed on the beach in Santa Monica, we went on the Tonight Show, Joe Borchard and I got to have a chat with Mr Lowry of the Lowry Prime Rib House. He came to sit with us at the table. Just little things like that were positives, but obviously there were negatives like not being able to play in the game and we lost. But at least I can say I played in the game, it may have only been one game but at least I can say I played.
Q: That whole season was bizarre. You started out in Texas and got demolished 66-17 or so. Everyone was down on Stanford from week one and then the next thing you know you are in the Rose Bowl. What are your memories about that game and turning it around into the unbelievable season that it was.
I remember that game being hot and humid. I got injured in the second series or something like that. I tore my ankle up pretty bad. Then Jeff Cronshagen our starting tackle got hurt. Todd Husak got pulled from the game. Troy Walters, so all of our senior leadership fell out of that game within like the first quarter. I just remember looking up at the score and how bad it got. But I remember coach Willingham saying in the locker room afterwards – Coaches can sometimes try to say something to placate everyone and make everyone feel like hey you gave it your best effort – Coach Willingham never did that. He looked us in the face and said, “This was a tough game, Texas was the better team than us today, and we just had a string of bad luck. But let me tell you that in this room is a champion. I can see how you guys prepared for this game and what you are taking away from this game.”
So I think the fifth year seniors that were on the team, we were sick of losing the last two years and not playing in a bowl game, and we just kind of took the reigns. Although we lost to SJSU and Washington, I look back at that game at Texas as just a black eye we had on the season. We still laugh about it now because we took such a beating. But it was kind of crucial for us. The best thing about it, we had actually had a lot of freshmen, Kerry Carter got to play in that game. Mike Holman, who ended up transferring to Rice, but a young offensive lineman got to play in that game. We actually got some guys that were very critical for us down the road for us that season some game time against some really good players. Maybe that helped out a little bit. Texas is one of the four college teams I dislike. It sucks having to lose to them. But we still made it to the Rose Bowl, and luckily two of our three losses were non-conference so it still got us to win the championship.
Q: You answered that well by blowing out Washington State and Arizona scoring over 50 points in each and then beat UCLA scoring over 40. That was quite the rebound from the Texas loss?
We definitely had a good offense, I knew that. When we were clicking there was no stopping Todd Husak or Troy Walters or DeRonnie Pitts or Dave Davis. We probably had one of the best receiving trios in the nation that year. When we were clicking, we were clicking.
Q: You said Texas is one of the four teams you dislike, what are the others.
It is a combination, not only the players and their colors and uniforms, but it is their fans. It is Texas, USC, Notre Dame and Cal.
Q: I share those feelings
Those are the ones I loved to go and beat them because their fan base is so pompous and so it is always nice to beat them, especially now that I am not playing anymore.
OTHER ARTICLES IN SERIES
PART TWO: Remembering the Rose Bowl year
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