GREAT GAMES IN PENN HISTORY 1984:

Call it 'The Miracle on 33rd Street'Call it 'The Miracle on 33rd Street'Penn captures Ivy championship on last-second kick Following a sequence of plays that will long be remembered for the emotions involved as much as for what actually happened on Franklin Field, Dave Shulman kicked a 27-yard field goal to give the Quakers a 23-21 win over Harvard and bring Penn its first Ivy League title since 1959. But to do it, the Quakers needed two plays when there was time for only one. With three seconds left, Shulman lined up for a 38-yard attempt which sailed wide to the left as time ran out. Harvard was ahead 21-20, and the Ivy League title appeared destined for Cambridge. Except that a yellow flag changed destiny. "The first time," a drained coach Jerry Berndt recalled of the field goal, "my heart was down in my toes. I said, 'Oh my Lord, we lost this ballgame.' Then all of a sudden I saw the flag out on the field -- it was incredible. It was an incredible feeling to see the flag, to see we still had a chance to win this game." It was incredible. Harvard was called for running into the kicker, penalized 10 yards, waited through Penn's final time out, and then could only watch as Shulman made his second chance count. "I didn't want to stay with the team [during the timeout]," the junior kicker said in a noisy, crowded locker room after the biggest Penn win in over two decades. "You don't want to get involved with the emotion of the team. You've got to stay away, keep your composure. You know, you're in your own world. You can't think about anything else. I mean, you start thinking about the stands, then you just lose your composure." It is not hard to see where composure could have been lost. With 13:19 left in the game, the Quakers opened up a 20-0 lead and were so completely in control of the game that the frenzied crowd of 34,746 had every reason to sense a championship. But Harvard came back to score three touchdowns in seven minutes, and the Quakers were suddenly fighting for their lives, trailing by a point. After giving up a crushing touchdown to Harvard on a fourth-and-goal from the three-yard line, the Quakers went through a sack, an injured quarterback, a deflected pass completion and back-to-back first downs before they could even set up the field goal chance. What happened in the last 1:24 was almost too unbelievable to comprehend while it was happening. "I'm a little disappointed at myself that I wasn't more enthusiastic and encouraging to the offense," junior defensive tackle Bill Lista admitted. "I was on the sidelines and I was pretty depressed that we had let them score [to take the 21-20 lead]. I don't know at that point if I believed that we were actually going to do it again. But I'll tell you, our offense, this is a team that doesn't quit, and I respect every one of those offensive players." The Quakers began their final drive at their own 20-yard line. Gary Vura (18 of 28, 199 yards) had to scramble out of the pocket for one yard. On the next play, he was sacked at the Penn 15. The Quakers had used 32 precious seconds to back up five yards. And then things got worse. Vura connected with wide receiver Rich Syrek for an 18-yard gain and a first down, but finished the play lying near his own end zone. As he was helped off the field, it looked like the Quakers were finally out of miracles. Fred Rafeedie came in to throw the ball out of bounds and stop the clock, with 24 seconds left. But with their backs to the ultimate wall, with the emotion level close to the bottom, the Quakers found a spark. Vura fired the ball over the middle for Warren Buehler at midfield. The ball and cornerback Chris Meyers hit Buehler at the same time, and the ball lost. But instead of falling to the ground, it popped into a trailing Syrek's hands for a 19-yard gain into Harvard territory, and somehow, some kind of chance seemed possible. Vura hit Buehler on the right side with 10 seconds left for 16 yards. And then he hit tailback Steve Flacco for 11 yards to the 21. And then Berndt pointed his finger at Shulman. The emotion surrounding the finish of the game was difficult to capture. After the first field goal, there was the stunned quiet of the crowd and the eruption of the Harvard bench. "They roughed the kicker," Berndt said, "but you don't know if that's going to be called or not. My emotions went from Mount Everest to the depths of the ocean to back to Mount Everest again." That second trip up Everest came when the penalty flag flew, and the crowd erupted while the Harvard bench took its turn being stunned. The Penn players formed a blue mass in the middle of the green field, which was quickly mixed with fans pouring out of the stands. The first casualty was the west goalpost, which was attacked, brought down, dragged to the Schuylkill River and drowned. The way the game started out, it looked like the Quakers were going to treat the Crimson the way the fans treated the post. After kicking off with the wind that was gusting over 20 mph, the Quaker defense did what it has done so many times this year. It took the ball away from the opponent. On Harvard's fourth play from scrimmage, halfback Steve Ernst ran up the middle and fumbled into the air. Ross Armstrong grabbed it at midfield and set the offense up at the Harvard 38. The Quakers got to a first-and-goal at the 10, but had to settle for Shulman's 27-yard field goal. The Quakers got a break on their next series when Harvard was offsides on a fourth-and-five punt. With Flacco picking his spots to make his cuts and then just carrying people downfield on his back, the Quakers got to the nine-yard line. On third down, Vura faked a hand-off going left, reversed to the right, and found John Vasturia all alone in the right corner of the end zone for a touchdown. It was the first catch of the year for the junior split end, and it came at a very opportunistic time. The Quakers took a 10-0 lead after the first quarter. Again the defense shut down Harvard, and again the offense moved the ball well the next time it got on the field. Vura directed a 15-play, 62-yard drive that took over six minutes. The only problem was that the drive started 63 yards from the end zone, so the Quakers turned the ball over on downs at the one-yard line. The half ended 10-0. "We were kind of down about that one touchdown," captain Chris DiMaria said about the goal-line failure, when asked about the mood at halftime. "We knew we should have had 17 points." Berndt calculated that the Quakers would be able to bury the Crimson with a quick start in the second half so he took a risk. He elected to kick off the second half, and take the wind in the third quarter. The first time the Quakers got the ball, they drove to the Harvard 8, but had to settle for another field goal to make it 13-0. You began to get the feeling that the offense should really be putting more points on the board, but the defense was still handcuffing Don Allard and the Harvard offense. The Crimson kept giving the Quakers chances, and Penn didn't score. At the Penn 36, Allard made a bad pitch to fullback Mike Granger, and the ball was batted 29 yards towards the Penn end zone. By the time Mike Okun recovered it and the refs tacked on 15 yards for Harvard's clipping, the Quakers got a first down on the Harvard 20. On second-and-goal from the five, Vura threw off-balance in the end zone and was intercepted by Joe Azelby. Harvard ran exactly one play before the defense took over again. Jerry McFadden recovered a fumble at the Harvard 28, and Flacco ran it in from the one, eight plays later. The Quakers finally scored to go up 20-0, and the game seemed out of reach. But Berndt likes to joke about the Quakers getting a percentage of the concessions because they have been known to keep the fans in their seats for 60 minutes. It was no joke on Saturday. The Crimson came back with three touchdowns in less times than it takes to say multiflex. Allard hit tight end Peter Quartararo from the three for the first score, and then the Quaker offense suddenly lapsed. When the first Penn punt of the day was partially blocked and went only 11 yards, the Crimson struck back again with a four-yard pass to Ernst. Trailing 20-14 and well into nailbiting time, Harvard got the ball back with 5:04 left. On second down from midfield, Allard threw along the right sideline for John O'Brien, who made a spectacular one-handed grab. The Crimson drove to the two-yard line with 2:12 left, and Penn stiffened. Kevin Bradley stopped Granger for a loss of two. Allard rolled right and was forced out of bounds at the three. Then Okun broke up a pass to O'Brien in the end zone, which set up a fourth-down situation. With Penn's defense getting its biggest chance to test its "we-bend-but-don't-break" philosophy, Allard rolled right, drew three defenders and pitched to Granger who went in untouched to give Harvard the lead. If there was any guarding of emotion in a locker room that was noticeably less crazy than could have been expected, it was possibly because the Quakers realize that the season is not over yet. Next week's game at Cornell was brought up by several players, who realize that the difference between an outright title and a tie is in their own hands. Either that, or the players were just drained. After all, making time stand still is no easy task.

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