CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Doug Flutie's pass ruined dreams in 1984. A look at how the 'Hail Flutie' legend grew

Miami Herald - 11/23/2019

Nov. 23--It's an image Darrell Fullington probably will never forget.

The Doug Flutie-thrown football, caked with mud and grass, sailing over his head as the then-Miami Hurricane fell to the field of the Miami Orange Bowl.

"I didn't know Phelan was behind us," the freshman safety told ESPN after the game. "I took my eye away from him for just one second to see where Flutie was, and it was too late. I looked back, and the ball was in the air, and Phelan was past me. I jumped as hard as I could, but ..."

That pass, which would forever be remembered as "Hail Flutie," catapulted the Boston College quarterback to the top of the Heisman Trophy rankings and into college football lore.

With Saturday marking the pass' 35-year anniversary, we are diving into the Miami Herald archives to show how the legend grew.

'IT WAS A MATTER OF WHO HAD THE BALL LAST'

Published in the Miami Herald on Nov. 24, 1984

Even with 28 seconds remaining, you had a hunch the University of Miami's victory celebration was a bit premature. With six seconds left, and Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie dropping back at midfield, foreboding mingled with the drizzle. As time ran out, and Gerard Phelan emerged from a crowd of four in the end zone with the football cradled to his chest, the premonition was confirmed.

BC's prayers seemed to have been answered by two miracle workers, one who stands 5-9 3/4.

"It was a matter of who had the ball last, and with 28 seconds I thought if we could get it to the 50-yard line we'd have a 50-50 chance at a touchdown," Flutie said after BC defeated the UM, 47-45, in the Orange Bowl. "It's a real shot in the dark, but stranger things have happened."

Name one, Doug.

"Well, ah, Miami won the national championship on an unbelievable play," he said.

BC Coach Jack Bicknell never had to send in the play that beat the defending national champions. Flutie knew what the call would be and waved to Bicknell from the huddle.

"I was standing there trying to figure out what to say to the guys in the locker room," Bicknell said. "I was planning a speech about not getting discouraged, being proud that they had come so close to beating Miami. Then I watch in amazement as our Hail Mary play actually works. With Doug I should know by now never to lose hope."

BC's sandlot stratagem is called the "flood tip." Three receivers -- Phelan, Kelvin Martin and Ken Bell -- sprint for the end zone and position themselves to either catch the ball or tip it to a teammate. The first time Flutie tried it, in last year's Liberty Bowl loss to Notre Dame, the ball went right through receiver Brian Brennan's hands. In this season's 24-10 victory over Temple, Phelan caught a 51-yarder just before halftime.

"Of course, it wasn't nearly as dramatic as this," Phelan said. "For a little kid, he throws the thing like a monster."

Flutie, who started the game with 11 straight completions, finished with 34 completions in 46 attempts for 472 yards and three touchdowns. He scrambled when necessary, for a total of 45 yards, but often was seen leisurely strolling behind the line of scrimmage, unperturbed by the Hurricane's nonexistent pass rush.

He gave most of the credit to his offensive line, nicknamed the Secret Service for providing the sort of protection presidents are accustomed to. Flutie has only been sacked 12 times this season.

"A few times it seemed like I could sit back there all day," said Flutie, the $8 million man who has revived BC's football program almost single-handedly. "Which is fine with me, because I like to step up in the pocket. The defense didn't get to me, but Miami did a great job of slowing down our receivers and clogging the routes. I was impressed with the speed of their guys, but our guys were just more sure-handed."

On the immaculate reception, Phelan said he thought defensive back Darrell Fullington tried to intercept the ball and misjudged it.

"All day long, the defense didn't allow for the big play," said Phelan, who caught 11 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns. "We had to do a lot of improvised routes -- a few sidelines, a few curls and one bomb."

Flutie's 48-yard bomb puts him at 10,303 career passing yards. No one doubted he would become the first NCAA division I player to go over 10,000, and he appears to be a lock to win the Heisman Trophy. But 80 yards in 28 seconds?

"He's my son and he still finds new ways to surprise me every week," said 5-8 Richard Flutie, flanked by his wife, Joan, and Flutie's girlfriend, Laurie Fortier. "As long as there's at least one second on the clock, he can make something happen."

-- BY LINDA ROBERTSON

'FLUTIE CLOSES IN ON THE HEISMAN'

Published in the Miami Herald on Dec. 1, 1984

Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie is expected to win the Heisman Trophy tonight, but University of Miami fans are more likely to remember him for the 48-yard "Hail Mary" touchdown pass to Gerard Phelan that beat the Hurricanes, 47-45, a week ago.

Today, in BC's regular-season finale at Worcester, Mass., Holy Cross fans may get to see if Flutie can make a miracle happen twice.

"You know the ball has got to be in our hands before halftime," Flutie said. "And, just for old times' sake, we've got to run it one more time, just to throw it up.

"Whether it works or not, the whole stadium is going to love it. It's got to be done."

Once the Eagles are finished with their Division I-AA rivals from central Massachusetts, Flutie will hop into a 12- seat plane and fly from Worcester to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. From there, he'll head to the Downtown Athletic Club in New York for the Heisman announcement (7-8 p.m., Chs. 10, 12).

Other Heisman contenders include Ohio State tailback Keith Byars, UM quarterback Bernie Kosar, and Brigham Young quarterback Robbie Bosco. But they're all playing Caveman Lee to Flutie's Marvin Hagler. The 5-9 quarterback's margin of victory is expected to rival the 1,750 points that USC'sO.J. Simpson outdistanced Purdue's Leroy Keyes by in 1968 for the biggest landslide victory in Heisman balloting.

Going into today's game, Flutie has completed 220 of 361 passes for 3,178 yards, 24 touchdowns and nine interceptions for the Cotton Bowl-bound Eagles. He leads the nation in passing efficiency and total offense, and is the all-time major-college leader in passing yards and total offense.

Flutie would become the first quarterback to win the Heisman since Pat Sullivan of Auburn edged out Cornell running back Ed Marinaro in 1971.

"Things are going so well, you begin to wonder why things happen the way they do," Flutie said. "The Heisman is one thing I never really set as a goal; it's more or less a result of my goals -- to play well, be All-America and go to a major bowl."

And beat Holy Cross. Believe it or not, BC Coach Jack Bicknell says The Miracle In The Orange Bowl actually may work against the Eagles.

"I've got to get my guys to come down off that game, which is one of the classics in recent football history, and realize that Holy Cross doesn't give a darn (about) what happened in the Miami game," he said. "They're worried about the Holy Cross game."

Added Flutie: "We don't want to embarrass the Cotton Bowl."

-- BY AL TAYS

'A BLAST FROM THE PASS: UM TRIES TO FORGET'

Published in the Miami Herald on Nov. 17, 1990

Boston College Coach Jack Bicknell insists there was "nothing scientific or magical" about the play that broke Miami's heart in 1984.

He's right, in a way. It definitely wasn't science, but only because miracles don't come in beakers or test tubes.

Not magical? Sorry, coach, but you may be wrong there. Or at least you would have a hard time convincing anyone in the Orange Bowl six seasons ago that Doug Flutie was jubilantly piercing the sky with his right arm and not some star-tipped wand.

Today at 4 p.m., Boston College returns to the Orange Bowl for the first time since Flutie sprinkled his magic all over UM. The Eagles won that game, 47-45, in what remains one of the most dramatic classics in college football history.

Bernie Kosar threw for 447 of Miami's 655 total yards. Flutie threw for 472 of his team's 627. UM running back Melvin Bratton scored four touchdowns, the last one with 28 seconds remaining.

But that's not what people remember.

"I've seen it 1,000 times," UM Coach Dennis Erickson said of Flutie's Hail Mary pass. "I've never seen one thing so much in my life. Won the Emmy Award, didn't it?"

No, but here's why it should have: Six seconds left. B.C. at Miami's 48-yard line. Miami's defensive coaches already in the press elevator. Flutie scrambles back to his own 37 before heaving a pass that, somehow, landed in Gerard Phelan's hands instead of those of the three defenders on him.

"When we got the ball back, we just wanted to get to mid- field," Flutie said Friday night. "The play had worked vs. Temple earlier in the year and there was a real positive feeling in the huddle that it would work again.

"The longest I've thrown a ball is about 68 or 70 yards, but the adrenaline was pumping. I didn't realize I was all the way back on my 37. I was afraid of heaving it out of the endzone, but I held up a hair and turns out I've never had a more exhilarating moment."

Phelan caught the ball and landed on his back as B.C. won with no time left. "Lucky, that's all it was," Bicknell said earlier this week. "I was already trying to think of what I was going to tell our kids after the game. I thought we had lost the game."

My, though, how things have changed since the Miami miracle. Phelan, who will be at the game today, is doing color commentary for a Boston cable station. And Flutie is long gone, playing unglamorously for the British Columbia Lions in Canada.

It's pretty obvious, too, that he took his magic touch with him. Since going 10-2 and appearing in the Cotton Bowl in 1984, the Eagles have had only one winning season and have a six-year record of 27-42. They are 4-5 this year and a 35-point underdog to third-ranked Miami (6-2).

If it's close at the end, though, and B.C. needs some luck, expect Flood Tip to be called once again. Even though it hasn't worked in six years, Bicknell will line up three receivers on the wide side of the field, send them deep and hope for the best. It's little more than the quarterback's wing and a prayer, but B.C. nonetheless devotes a couple of minutes to it every Thursday. You know, just in case.

Dennis Erickson said he doesn't defend against that play in practice, but will make sure his defensive coaches stay in the press box until the end of the game. You know, just in case.

Should the situation arise, Miami would defend the play with what it calls its Victory Defense, a scheme that employs three safeties and two cornerbacks. But cornerback Robert Bailey says there is a much better way to defend it.

"All we have to do to avoid that magic stuff," Bailey said, "is make sure the game isn't close at the end."

-- BY DAN LE BATARD

'HAIL FLUTIE: A PASS GOES UP...AND COMES DOWN IN HISTORY'

Published in the Miami Herald on Nov. 24, 1994

Gerard Phelan won't ever let go of the football. It was 10 years ago and it belongs to him now, a football coated in shellac to preserve the fingerprints and mud stains identifying it as the miracle ball.

It sits on a shelf in the den of his Milford, Mass., home and, on occasion, is removed when Phelan's 3-year-old son tries to make sense of the letters and numbers that spell Boston College 47, Miami 45 -- an inscription that serves as the silent reminder of the sounds that echoed through the Orange Bowl on the day after Thanksgiving, 1984.

Even now the moment remains vivid.

Six seconds were left in the game between Boston College and Miami. The Hurricanes led, 45-41. The Eagles had the ball on the Miami 48. The sky was dark and it was drizzling.

Boston College Coach Jack Bicknell was on the sideline thinking of the words he would use to console his players after the defeat. Miami quarterback Bernie Kosar was behind the Hurricanes' bench, celebrating with his teammates and ignoring the last remnants of a game whose outcome was certain.

A national television audience watched and many in the Orange Bowl crowd of 30,235 were heading down the exit ramps. Some in the Boston area were listening to Dan Davis of WRKO radio announce the final seconds.

"Well, here we go. Here's your ball game folks as Flutie takes the snap . . . "

"It was just your average desperation play and we ran it every Thursday in practice," Phelan recalled.

The name of the play -- "flood tip" -- had been tried twice before by the Eagles, once in the Liberty Bowl the previous season when quarterback Doug Flutie's pass went through the hands of Brian Brennan in a loss to Notre Dame and again during the 1984 campaign when Phelan caught a 51-yard Flutie fling just before halftime of a victory over Temple.

Now its time had come again.

Miami, under new Coach Jimmy Johnson, was fresh off an embarrassing defeat two weeks earlier to Maryland, one in which the Hurricanes had blown a 31-point lead and lost, 42-40.

Still, Miami and Heisman hopeful Kosar were sitting on a 7-3 record and being courted by the Fiesta Bowl. The resurgent Boston College program featured the Heisman favorite in the 5-9 Flutie. The team was 7-2 with another game remaining against Holy Cross, and was trying to secure an invitation to the Cotton Bowl.

With time running out against the Eagles, Kosar and running back Melvin Bratton -- who was filling in for the injured Alonzo Highsmith -- worked the Hurricanes' offense down the field. Trailing, 41-38, Miami took the lead with 28 seconds left when Bratton scored his fourth touchdown of the game, diving in from the one-yard line.

Victory appeared so certain that Bicknell had the postgame speech formulated in his mind.

"I was standing there trying to figure out what to say to the guys in the locker room," Bicknell said afterward. "I was planning a speech about not getting discouraged, being proud that they had come so close to beating Miami."

Over on the Miami bench, Kosar was high-fiving his teammates. He would never make such a mistake again.

Flutie and his Eagles had somehow managed to move the ball after the kickoff from their own 20 to inside Miami territory in the short time given them -- a 19-yard pass, then another for 13.

After a Flutie incompletion, the Orange Bowl clock stood at 0:06. To prevent against the Hail Mary, Miami positioned three of its defensive backs all the way back on the 15. Two -- Darrell Fullington and Tolbert Bain -- were freshmen. The other, Reggie Sutton, was a sophomore.

Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden, like many elsewhere in the country, watched the final seconds unfold on television, watched as Flutie scrambled out of the pocket and all the way back to his 37.

"When Flutie goes back that far, I just turn away from the TV," Bowden said. "I figure there's no way he can throw the ball that far."

Flutie was being pursued by Willie Broughton, who was signed Wednesday by the Dolphins.

"He threw his arm back in the air and I jumped at him," Broughton said. "I was a good three or four yards away and I was just trying to distract him."

Phelan was sprinting down the field and, to his surprise, ran past the Hurricanes' defenders.

"He drops straight back, now he has some time, scrambles away from one hit, looks, uncorks a deep one to the end zone, Phelan is down there . . . "

"Fullington let me run by him and into the end zone," Phelan said. "I thought that was a little peculiar, especially that late in the game. If you're a defensive back, you just don't let anybody get deeper than you. Perhaps he didn't think Doug could throw the ball that far."

After eluding the diving Broughton, Flutie threw the ball as far as he could, arcing it 63 yards through the rain.

"It looked like the ball was up there forever," said Gary Stevens, UM's offensive coordinator at the time who now serves the same role with the Dolphins. "To be honest, I didn't think it would reach the end zone."

But the ball did.

Phelan figured one of the defensive backs would bat the ball down. Game over. Only that didn't happen.

"Looking back at the films, you can see where Fullington went up with two hands, as if to intercept the ball," Phelan said. "My guess is that we had kind of embarrassed their defense and that their main intention was to intercept the ball, not just bat it away, to make a statement. Fullington went up with two hands, not with one."

The untouched ball landed in Phelan's arms.

"I landed and I saw that there was writing on the ground underneath me," he said. "I knew I was in the end zone."

"Did he get it? Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown Boston College! He did it! He did it! Flutie did it! He found Phelan in the end zone. Touchdoooowwwwn!"

Kosar knew something awful had just happened by the strange reaction of the Orange Bowl crowd and now, finally, he turned his attention to the field. There he saw the jubilant Flutie jumping to the end zone to reach Phelan.

"I was feeling good about ourselves and how quickly that changed," Kosar said. "Our sideline went deathly quiet. You knew what it meant."

Three years later, in the 1987 AFC title game, Kosar's Cleveland Browns would lose a heartbreaker to the Denver Broncos after quarterback John Elway directed a 98-yard march that would tie the contest and send it into overtime.

"But that was a methodical couple of minutes," Kosar said. "The Boston College ending was a dagger in the heart."

Asked to describe the Miami locker room, Stevens -- in a recent interview -- tells the reporter to "be quiet."

"What?"

"Be quiet," Stevens repeats himself. "Quit talking."

There is silence, a long and uncomfortable silence . . .

"That," Stevens said, "was what it was like."

The Aftermath:

UM defensive coordinator Bill Trout handed in his resignation to Johnson on "philosophical differences" minutes after the game.

Flutie won the Heisman. Attending the announcement ceremony at the New York Athletic Club were the two runners-up in the balloting -- Kosar and Ohio State running back Keith Byars, both of whom now play for the Dolphins. Flutie went on to play in the NFL and Canadian Football League. He is now with the Calgary Stampeders.

Phelan held onto the football after the game, planted it inside his duffle bag along with his dirty clothes, and took it away from the Orange Bowl forever.

Later, he would serve as a board member for the Boston College alumni department. Before the "Miracle in Miami" Boston College received approximately 8,000 applicants each year for 2,000 spots in the freshman class.

"After that game, the applications more than quadrupled," Phelan said. "We started getting 40,000 to 50,000 applications a year."

-- BY CLARK SPENCER

'HAIL FLUTIE MORE THAN A MEMORY: 'SOMEBODY ASKS ME ABOUT IT EVERY DAY,' BILLS QB SAYS'

Published in the Miami Herald on Sep. 10, 1998

South of the Canadian border, Doug Flutie's football career is best remembered by one play -- the 48-yard Hail Mary pass to Gerald Phelan in the final seconds against supposedly superior University of Miami in the Orange Bowl in 1984.

That miracle, as some described it, helped Boston College's Flutie win the Heisman Trophy that season and immortalize him in college football lore.

"I would say somebody asks me about it every day," Flutie said Wednesday. "It's just something that people remember me by from my college days. I'd rather be remembered for the skillful things I did rather than the prayer of a pass I threw, like winning the Heisman and 10,000 yards passing. At least there's kind of a big play people remember you by."

This Sunday, Flutie, now with the Buffalo Bills, returns to South Florida for the first time since starting for the Patriots against the Dolphins in 1988.

Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson, whose Canes finished 8-5 in 1984 -- his first year at UM -- stood on the losers' sideline in the Orange Bowl in as much shock as every observer who witnessed the Hail Flutie pass, the final dart in Flutie's shredding of Miami's defense for 472 passing yards in the 47-45 upset.

"I'm not going to be going to dinner with him," Johnson said earlier this week.

This is Flutie's first season in the NFL since 1989. But the 35-year-old proved last Sunday in the Bills' season-opener at San Diego that he still has some magic left.

The diminutive run-and-shooter replaced Rob Johnson in the third quarter after Johnson suffered a concussion at the outset of the second half. Down 10-0 upon entry, Flutie, in six possessions, drove the Bills into scoring position four times and delivered two touchdown passes to Andre Reed to put Buffalo up, 14-13.

Bills kicker Steve Christie ruined the comeback, though, missing two short field goals, including a 39-yarder in the waning seconds. The Chargers won, 16-14.

"He was ready to play," Buffalo coach Wade Phillips said of Flutie. "That's what he is supposed to do. He was more than ready. He's a winner. On third and one he missed a handoff and he dove for the first down. We score two touchdowns and we're in position to get two field goals -- all in one half."

Even with a strong showing in his favor (12 for 20, 158 yards), Flutie quickly squashed any notion of a quarterback controversy by proclaiming after the game that, "Rob's the man. If I can contribute I'll step in and try to help."

Johnson is listed as the starter for Sunday's game.

With this possibly being his final shot in the NFL, Flutie said he will always be ready but not for the reason many may think.

"Everybody else is looking at it like I have something to prove," Flutie said. "That has nothing to do with it. I want to try and win a Super Bowl. I'll be satisfied if every opportunity I get to step on the field, I help and contribute."

-- BY STEVE WYCHE

'HAIL FLUTIE REMAINS HIS SPECIAL MEMORY'

Published in the Miami Herald on Nov. 24, 2006

A small group of Boston College fans gave Doug Flutie a warm welcome to the Orange Bowl on Thursday night.

"Twenty-two years!" they yelled when the former Eagles quarterback arrived to call the University of Miami-Boston College game on ESPN.

The TV gig brought Flutie back to the Orange Bowl for the first time since his infamous Hail Mary pass to beat Miami in 1984 and likely clinched the quarterback the Heisman Trophy. That was 22 years to the day Thursday.

But if there was anyone who did not need a reminder, it was Flutie. The retired NFL quarterback said people approach him about the play at least once a day. And ESPN aired replays of it, along with interviews with Flutie, during game promos throughout Thanksgiving.

Even Flutie's nephew, Eagles reserve quarterback Billy Flutie, brought it up Thursday. He told Flutie he and his teammates saw the play while watching TV in the team hotel.

"I talk about it so much, especially recently, building up to this game," Flutie said. "Every time November comes around, I get a ton of [media] requests. I know more about the play today than I did then."

So do most college football fans, who have watched the "Hail Flutie" unfold over and over again on TV. With six seconds left in the game and Boston College down by four, Flutie threw a 48-yard, high-arching pass to Gerard Phelan.

Somehow, the pass sailed through a pack of Miami defenders and into Phelan's hands in the end zone.

Boston College won the game 47-45. And Flutie became a part of college football lore, which he still cannot quite understand.

"It's fascinating to me," Flutie said. "It was a Hail Mary, and they happen all the time. It just happened to be Thanksgiving weekend, a national TV audience and a highly rated game, so a lot of people saw it."

Flutie said being back at the Orange Bowl was still special, though. Not only did he think about the play but also the celebration that followed.

"I think walking in made me think more about after the game, standing in the parking lot, talking about the game and all that with my family," he said. "That's a little bit unique, because normally you think about the play itself and the game."

Once inside the stadium, memories of the game came back to him. Flutie said the Orange Bowl looked exactly the same as it did in 1984, so it was easy to reflect.

"I could picture everything that happened," he said. "It's pretty cool to be here."

Before the game, Flutie listened to the beginning of yet another question, then walked away.

"That's it," he said. "I just want to hang out."

-- BY BRIAN COSTA

___

(c)2019 Miami Herald

Visit Miami Herald at www.miamiherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.