This Official Finds Kindred Spirit : Fan: Crew chief from Missouri-Colorado game empathizes with Orange Bowl brethren.

The crew chief in Colorado’s infamous fifth-down victory over Missouri admits he had a strong rooting interest while watching the Buffaloes battle Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.

“I was in the hearts of those officials on every call,” said J.C. Lauderback, whose wife still screens his hate mail. “I was on their side. I knew exactly what they were going through because I was there just a few years ago in the Orange Bowl when Miami played Oklahoma for the national championship.”

Lauderback and several colleagues will be linked to one of the most bizarre events that ever figured in college football’s national championship.

“I am basically now handling this quite well,” Lauderback said Wednesday from Arkansas City, Kan. “But I still wish it had never happened.”

Last Oct. 6, Lauderback was in charge of the group which, along with every coach and player on the field, lost track of the downs at the most crucial possible time.

Colorado, on its fifth down with two seconds remaining, scored on a three-yard run by backup quarterback Charles Johnson for a 33-31 victory. Everyone became confused between the second and third downs when an official forgot to flip the down marker.

“We’ll never know how we let a down get away from us,” Lauderback said. “It boggles the mind. All the players, all the coaches, all the officials. Not one person noticed. It will always be an amazing thing in my mind. How could it happen? And if it’s going to happen, why must it happen in the last seconds of the last play that decides such an important game?”

One thing Lauderback takes sharp disagreement with is the contention that Colorado did not deserve the victory. He points out, as Colorado coaches have, that everybody was equally confused, and that Colorado would not have “spiked” the ball to kill the clock on third down if it had known the down was really the fourth. On the next--fifth down--Johnson scored.

“They at least would have tried to score (on what was supposed to be fourth down),” Lauderback said. “There is no doubt in anyone’s mind.”

Lauderback felt instant sympathy for the man who called a clipping penalty on Raghib Ismail’s long punt return on what would have given Notre Dame the lead in the final seconds.

“It had a bearing on the run,” Lauderback said. “It was called way before anybody had any idea he would score. A lot of people won’t look at it that way. But the knowledgeable people will.”