The Year Stanford Went from Ragtag to Riches

Not much was expected of the last Stanford team to play in the Rose Bowl game.

The Indians, as they were then known, came to Pasadena for the 1972 Rose Bowl with an 8-3 record that included an embarrassing loss to San Jose State--just like this year’s team, which plays Wisconsin on Saturday.

Also, like this year’s team, they represented a conference, the Pacific 8, that was said to be in decline--possibly because Stanford had won the title two years in a row--and were decided underdogs against a powerful, ground-oriented Big Ten Conference opponent.

Never mind that Stanford was the defending Rose Bowl champion, having upset previously unbeaten Ohio State on Jan 1., 1971, as a 13-point underdog.

That 1970 team had been led by Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett, who would go on to have an exceptional NFL career that included two Super Bowl victories.

The 1971 team was led by Don Bunce, a longhaired blond who would go on to become Stanford’s team physician.

“This is not a team, it’s a Capra comedy,” Times columnist Jim Murray wrote of the ragtag Indians, whom some considered only a notch above the school’s irreverent band in terms of decorum. “You all know what a football team looks like, right? I mean, those crew cuts, uptight, nights in a monastery.

“These kooks all got their hair sticking out in back of their helmets. They wear--so help me!--yellow shoes. Also red ones and white ones. You would think they picked up this cast of characters at the Passion Play--or a rock festival. You felt like asking them what they did with the guitars.”

In effect, they smashed them over the heads of the Michigan Wolverines, whose faint hopes of a national championship were dashed, 13-12, when Rod Garcia, a Chilean citizen from La Mirada High, kicked the winning field goal with 12 seconds to play.

Bunce, who had redshirted the previous season while watching Plunkett lead Stanford to its first Rose Bowl appearance in 19 years, was the game’s most valuable player, passing for 290 yards and completing all five of his passes for 66 yards during the winning drive to set up Garcia’s kick.

The 31-yard field goal, however, was far from automatic.

Seven weeks earlier, in a 13-12 loss to San Jose State at Stanford Stadium, Garcia had missed all five of his field-goal attempts, plus his only extra-point attempt.

“Looking back, it’s actually great the way it worked out,” Garcia said this week. “San Jose needed that victory--it was great for them--and [the loss] didn’t bother us a bit. And it made it even better for me to go from a total loser to a hero.”

Garcia’s kick capped a magical season for coach John Ralston’s Indians, who were a diverse, free-spirited group that prided itself on its ability to overcome racial and sociological barriers during a tumultuous time.

“We were a group of guys that looked like we should be rock stars,” said Garcia, a 48-year-old father of four and grandfather of three, who lives near Bakersfield and works for a company that specializes in environmental cleanup. “We were a motley crew, an unusual mix. . . .

“But Coach Ralston treated us with respect, and therefore he got it back. He was a big part of that team--the attitude and the image he put forth. . . . I remember there were times in practice where he would require us to run five or 10 sprints, and we would always do one more for the coach. . . .

“It was just one of those teams. We were a very close-knit group of guys. There was a real strong bond between all the players. We were all very important to each other.”

Still, nobody expected them to return to the Rose Bowl.

“It was very similar to what’s going on this year, although we did have a very good defense,” Garcia said. “The expectations were not high because the legacy of Jim Plunkett and the team he had was just huge. We were following in some big footsteps.”

Led by Bunce and the “Thunder Chickens” defensive line, the Indians wrapped up their second consecutive conference title with a 20-9 victory over UCLA on Nov. 6 at Palo Alto.

When they lost the next week to San Jose State, however, the Indians assured themselves of being heavy underdogs against Michigan, which was 11-0 during the regular season and was a 10 1/2-point favorite in the Rose Bowl.

But Stanford, which ended the regular season with a 14-0 victory against California in which it limited the Golden Bears to 38 yards rushing, was not intimidated.

“As a kicker, obviously I’m not a player, but I watched game films, I studied the opponents as much as anybody,” Garcia said, “and I really felt we had a chance to beat Michigan. They were old-fashioned--three yards and a pile of dust--and I thought if we got a lead on them, there was no way they were going to come back.

“As it turned out, the only lead we got was with a few seconds left, but sure enough, I was right. They couldn’t get back.”

Trailing, 10-3, midway through the fourth quarter, Stanford gambled on fourth down at its 33-yard line, executing a fake punt that resulted in a 31-yard run by Jackie Brown to the Michigan 36. Brown capped the drive with a 24-yard touchdown run, and Garcia’s extra point pulled the Indians even at 10-10 with 7:29 to play.

Michigan regained the lead at 12-10 with 3:18 to play when Stanford’s James Ferguson, attempting to return a short field-goal attempt by Michigan kicker Dan Coin, was tackled in the end zone by Ed Shuttlesworth for a safety.

The Wolverines also got the ball back, and a chance to run out the clock, after Stanford’s ensuing kickoff. But, to the considerable annoyance of Coach Bo Schembechler, they were forced to punt.

“It’s a hell of a thing,” he fumed afterward, “to lose a Rose Bowl game when you’ve had it won. . . .

“We needed one first down, that’s all. If we had gotten it, we would have won. That’s all there is to it.”

Bunce, who completed 24 of 44 passes, began the winning drive with 1:48 to play. He completed five consecutive passes--to tight end Bill Clark for 13 yards, flanker John Winesberry for 16, split end Miles Moore for 11, fullback Reggie Sanderson for 14 and Winesberry again for 12.

With the ball at Michigan’s 14-yard line, Garcia came on to kick.

For the kicker, the San Jose State game was a distant memory. He had already kicked a 42-yard field goal, tying the score at 3-3 in the third quarter.

But as Ralston approached to offer encouragement to Garcia, 255-pound defensive tackle Greg Sampson stepped between the coach and the sophomore kicker. Remembering that Ralston had spoken to Garcia before each of his kicks in the San Jose State game, Sampson “came up to me,” Ralston recalled afterward, “and said, ‘Please don’t talk to Rod.’ ”

Garcia, though, said Ralston’s words weren’t the problem in the earlier game. Years later, after Garcia left Stanford with a then-NCAA record 42 field goals, doctors told him that he had probably been kicking with a broken left foot, which was causing the considerable pain as he planted it to kick.

By the Rose Bowl, the pain had subsided and Garcia provided the season’s storybook ending.

Garcia and Bunce, however, weren’t the only Stanford stars.

Led by Sampson, linebacker Jeff Siemon and safety Randy Poltl, the Stanford defense limited Michigan to 3.5 yards a carry and 26 yards passing.

After scoring its only touchdown with 13:01 to play, Michigan didn’t get another first down.

“If you saw these guys in street clothes,” Simeon said of his teammates, “you’d never believe they’re football players. It’s such an incredible mixture of personalities and interests. But that might be the key to our unity too.”

The Wolverines, meanwhile, seemed to be in shock.

“Our season isn’t anything now,” linebacker Tom Kee said. “This blows everything.”

The erstwhile Indians will gather Friday for a New Year’s Eve party at the Beverly Hills home of fullback Hillary Shockley, who played a key role in both Rose Bowl seasons a generation ago.

They’ll raise a glass to this season’s team and toast their own triumphs.

“Sometimes I’ve wondered, ‘Was it me that did that?’ ” Garcia said of the kick that cemented the Indians’ legacy. “It’s so far in the past that you wonder, ‘Was it a dream or was it real?’

“And I’ve had nightmares where I miss that kick, and I see myself back on campus, trying to find my classrooms. And when I ask for directions, I get a nasty look. I’m really glad I made it.”