Colorado Victory Upheld; Seven Officials Suspended

A play that never should have been run cost Missouri a victory, resulted in seven Big Eight officials being put on indefinite suspension and could affect the national championship.

The Big Eight ruled Monday that Colorado’s 33-31 victory over Missouri will stand even though game officials inadvertently allowed the Buffaloes a fifth down that resulted in the winning touchdown on the game’s final play.

Carl James, Big Eight commissioner, said in a prepared statement: “It has been determined that, in accordance with the football playing rules, the allowance of the fifth down to Colorado is not a postgame correctable error. The final score in the Colorado-Missouri football game will remain as posted.”

While there was confusion in the final frantic seconds, Colorado clearly had five downs. After spiking the ball on fourth down to stop the clock, quarterback Charles Johnson scored from the one-yard line on fifth down.

Colorado, ranked 14th, is 4-1-1 and could get a second consecutive shot at a national title if it repeats as Big Eight champion and returns to the Orange Bowl.

The officials, whose collective experience totals 177 years and includes 19 bowl games, were suspended indefinitely beginning with this week’s games. Their future in the league was uncertain.

J.C. Louderback of Arkansas City, Kan., referee and crew chief for the game, said of the officials in a prepared statement: “We are human. We erred. And, we feel terrible in regard to the circumstances at the end of the game.”

Said Colorado Coach Bill McCartney, who had charged that the field was so slick it was unplayable: “If Missouri had outplayed us and if the field conditions had been fair and an inadvertent mistake by an official had worked in our favor, I would call our squad and coaches together and discuss with them whether we should forfeit because we won unfairly,” McCartney said. “But I don’t feel like we did.

“It was remarkable under the circumstances that we won the game. We counted 92 times when our players slipped on that turf. That turf is treacherous and it took us right out of our game.”

Said Dick Tamburo, Missouri’s athletic director, of the fifth down: “I know no one purposely does anything like that. But we have seven people who were supposed to be monitoring that thing. The whole episode is most disappointing.”