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Trinity Miracle Play Named SCAC's Top Football Moment
San Antonio - The Trinity University Tigers football "Miracle Play" has received the highest honor from the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.
The conference, of which Trinity is a member, named the 2007 play as the Top Moment in the history of SCAC football.
Trinity, led by Head Coach Steve Mohr, who has completed his 21st season at the Tigers helm, beat the Millsaps Majors 28-24 on October 27, 2007, in Jackson, Miss. The last-second play kept the Tigers in the race for the SCAC title, which they later shared with Millsaps.
The famous 60-yard, 15-lateral Miracle Play concluded when wide receiver Riley Curry crossed the goal line with no time left on the clock.
Here's the sequence of events on that afternoon in Mississippi:
Trinity quarterback Blake Barmore began the play with a 10-yard
completion across the middle to Shawn Thompson. But then, as the
Millsaps celebration began, and the clock ran to 0:00, Thompson
opened the sequence of laterals to Curry. From there,
the ball went from Curry to Josh Hooten (an offensive lineman), to
Michael Tomlin, to Stephen Arnold (another offensive lineman), to
Thompson, to Brandon Maddux, to Curry, to Maddux, to
Barmore, to Thompson, to Curry, to Tomlin, to
Hooten, to Maddux, and finally to Curry, who ran 44 yards for
the game-winning score!
Interest in the play went national...even international, with its multiple appearances on YouTube.
The Miracle Play won the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Year for 2007. The announcement of the win and a $100,000 general scholarship was made on the Fox Network during halftime of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Championship Game in New Orleans.
Time magazine named the Miracle Play as the No. 1 Sports Moment of 2007. Trinity football also received recognition from the San Antonio City Council and the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association.
Coach Mohr, along with Tiger team members and supporters,
traveled to Los Angeles in July 2008, as the Miracle Play was
nominated for an ESPY Award on
ESPN.
Of course, the Miracle Play is still popular on YouTube. It was later named by USA Today as part of a decade-ending countdown of the top 10 Web sports sensations since 2000.
A member of the Trinity family paid tribute to the venerable play during the University's Commencement ceremony in May 2010. Graduate Brendan McNamara, speaking on behalf of the class of 2010, talked about “traveling the road less traveled.” McNamara referred to Robert Frost’s 1916 poem, “The Road Not Taken.”
In the poem, Frost refers to a fork in the road, where choices have to be made. Does the traveler take the well-traveled or less-traveled route?
McNamara said that when he and his classmates graduated from high school, they chose the road less traveled. He challenged Trinity’s graduating class to make their own road, just like the Tiger football team did with the Miracle Play.
A roar went from those in attendance in Laurie Auditorium!
Other information about the Miracle Play, and multimedia links, are available on the SCAC Web site at www.scacsports.com/inside_athletics/anniversary20/fball_top_moment.
Below, you can watch (or re-watch) the sensational video:
