Yep, it's really been that long.
College football's most famous Hail Mary pass - Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie's final-play, 48-yard touchdown bomb Thurs receiver Gerard Phelan in a windy, rain-soaked Orange Bowl Stadium that stunned the University of Miami - turns 25 this month.
And it's clear enough by now that the play stands as more than just the most memorable in college football history. No one could have foreseen it at the time, but "Hail Flutie helped Usher in a whole new era of growth for the sport, helping to Drive The Marriage of a newfound East Coast audience, drawn to the college game by an unlikely star, to a burgeoning television presence led by upstart ESPN.
The setup will be Friday Nov. 23, 1984, was perfect: Two nationally ranked teams, two star quarterbacks (Flutie and Miami's Bernie Kosar) poised for an offensive shootout is CBS (CBS - news - people) television the day after Thanksgiving. And the biggest difference from today: BC-Miami was the only game on the tube that day. Not only did a national audience get an entertaining game, with both QBS throwing for over 400 yards in a back-and-forth thriller, it got knocked off of its collective sofa by the sight of Phelan cradling the ball in his gut as they fell backward into the end zone with the game clock at zero. BC 47, Miami 45.
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