Big Game Poem, 2007

Ode to The Play
By Neil Cohn, November 2007

Hello stanfurd Cardinal, this Big Game is a treat
As it marks the occasion of an incomparable feat.

Twenty-five years, we celebrate this night
Of giving the sports world its most riveting sight

After all of these years, we still watch its reprise,
Shouting and screaming like it’s before our eyes.

“Amazing! Sensational! Dramatic! Heart-rending!”
Starkey summed up a most unthinkable ending.

Five laterals you say? A clock down to nil?
A band on the field, later feeling quite ill?

You thought that you’d won after that field goal,
And with four seconds left, had your eye on a Bowl.

But you can’t blame the Bears, for acting the dethroner
Of making your school look like a well-placed tromboner.

For the Bears don’t quit when you might think they’re done,
They’ll take your squib kick and fight til they’ve won.

Now twenty-five years have gone and past,
But once again at the end, Cal will hold the Axe.

Somehow it’s fitting, despite all of your cries,
For you to receive sport’s most dubious prize.

And so stanfurd, “Thank you”, in your own stupid way,
For making Cal look as good as we did in The Play.

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