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The "Hail Mary" team, 20 years later
The 1984 team at the BC-Rutgers game on November 6. Photo by John Quackenbos
Some 65 players and coaches from Boston College's 1984 football team returned to campus over the weekend of November 5–7 to mark the 20th anniversary of the storied season that produced both the "Miracle in Miami" and a victory in the Cotton Bowl. The most successful team since BC won the Sugar Bowl in 1941, the team sent 14 players into the game's professional ranks.
Coach Jack Bicknell had inherited a struggling team when he came to Boston College in 1981. Momentum turned in October when, with the Eagles down 38–0 late in a game against Penn State, he sent in the team's fourth-string quarterback, Doug Flutie '85. "It was like somebody hit a switch and the tempo went up," Bicknell later recalled. Though the game was never in doubt, Flutie passed for 135 yards in less than a quarter.
Three seasons later, the team defeated the University of Houston in the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day 1985 by a score of 45–28. But it was the November 23, 1984, game against the University of Miami, in which Flutie's last-second, 48-yard "Hail Mary" touchdown pass to Gerard Phelan delivered a 47–45 victory, that secured the team its place in college football lore.
"That play has lived with me almost every day since it happened," said Phelan '85, now a sales executive for a custom printing firm in Boston. "It's remarkable. Rarely a day goes by when someone does not bring it up."
Teammates and coaches traveled from 14 states to attend the Friday evening reunion dinner hosted by the Boston College Athletic Association in Conte Forum. (Flutie, who won the Heisman Trophy as college football's best player in 1984, was one of the few absences. At age 42, he still works weekends, playing football with the San Diego Chargers.) The evening's program included remarks by head football coach Tom O'Brien; athletic director Gene DeFilippo; Chancellor J. Donald Monan, SJ, president of Boston College from 1972 to 1996; former coach Bicknell; and 1984 tri-captain Scott Harrington '85. Harrington reminded his teammates: "We practiced on Shea Field around tire marks in the mud. Fans walked right up behind the bench during games to talk to the players. Good luck getting another pair of socks if you lost your first ones. Sometimes you had to wait for the girls' track team to finish with the weight room before you could lift."
The following day, the teammates attended the BC-Rutgers football game and assembled on the 50-yard line at halftime to commemorate their anniversary. The current Eagle players wore 1984 throwback uniforms in their honor, and posted a 21–10 victory. The seniors were two years old when Flutie threw the famous pass to Phelan, but they've been able to see the play in countless rebroadcasts on the ESPN Classic network.
Troy Stradford '86, the running back on the 1984 team, doesn't need classic TV to refresh his memory. A sports talk show host on WQAM radio in Miami, his home city since he played with the Dolphins from 1987 to 1990, he said, "Down there they talk about it all the time."
The two teams combined for nearly 1,300 yards of offense in the contest, which drew the highest college football television rating of the year. The host Hurricanes figured they had won the game when Miami running back Melvin Bratton scored a go-ahead touchdown with 28 seconds remaining. "I bump into Melvin in Miami all the time," said Stradford. "We sit around and reminisce."
Jack Bicknell now coaches the Scottish Claymores in NFL Europe. At the reunion he summarized the 1984 season: "We were tough, we were physical, but boy did we have a lot of fun." Then he added a somber thought as he spoke of the Miami game. "Not long ago, I saw that game replayed on one of the cable networks," he said, "and right at the end of the game, something hit me as I watched Flutie throw the pass and then get carried down the field by Steve Trapilo."
Trapilo '86, who went on to a 10-year career in professional football, died of a heart attack last May at age 39. "I don't know if I will ever be able to watch that game the same way ever again," Bicknell said.
Reid Oslin
Reid Oslin is the senior media relations officer in BC's Office of Public Affairs.
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