A Play of the Day

CNN used to have a nightly sports show, CNN Sports Tonight, which included a nightly Play of the Day.

One Play of the Day occurred at the end of a 1985-86 UW basketball game against Illinois, in which a Fighting Illini hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer. The video for the Play of the Day was shot from underneath the UW basket pointing at the Illinois second-half basket and, behind it, the UW Band. When the Illini player hit the game-winner, the video replay showed, in slow motion, his reaction, his teammates’ reaction, and the band’s reaction, including (at least) one UW Band trumpet player whose reaction was a word that rhymed with “puck,” even though this was not hockey.

I watched the video when it played at 10:30 p.m. I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. to watch the replay to see my, uh, national TV debut with one of George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words you aren’t supposed to say on TV. It may be on a VHS tape somewhere in our house.

I only bring this up because I got into another play of the day, without obscenities on my part. (A few months later, in fact, I appeared extensively during the 1986 Wisconsin-Michigan football game, Camp Randall Stadium’s first night college game, only because I was in the front of the band and a camera was right in front of me. The following week I was placed on the band’s Dummy List, the chronicle of the week’s mistakes, for being on national TV more than director Mike Leckrone.)

UW-Platteville hosted North Central in one of two football games between Division III-ranked teams Saturday, and the highest-ranking pairing of the day. Two plays into the fourth quarter, North Central led 28-7. The Pioneers scored two touchdowns and got two defensive stops to force a punt. And then …

… punt returner Dillon Villhauer’s 75-yard punt return touchdown and subsequent extra point tied the game at 28-28. The game went into overtime, where Platteville scored and North Central did not, and the Pioneers had their biggest nonconference win in a long time, and a nominee for the D3football.com Play of the Week. (But not winner, which was a lateral run by a 280-pound offensive lineman.)

That is, believe it or don’t, not the best play I’ve seen this season. In the second game I announced this year, between Belmont and Black Hawk, also at UW-Platteville, Belmont quarterback Jon Bahr saw a snap soar over his head. Instead of doing what you’re generally told to do, which is to jump on the ball to prevent a fumble recovery, Bahr picked up the ball, ran to his left, dodged a couple of Black Hawk defenders, saw an open receiver down the field, and threw a pass to the essentially uncovered teammate. The play gained 35 yards from the line of scrimmage, but the throw went probably 55 yards.