Top 50 Cal Sports Moments -- No. 32: Triumphant Defeat, 1991

No. 7-ranked Cal lost to No. 3 Washington in a dramatic, tight football contest between unbeatens in 1991, but the crowd at Cal's Memorial Stadium rewarded the Golden Bears players anyway

Sean Dawkins caught a touchdown pass in the 1991 game against Washington / Peter Brouillet-USA TODAY Sports

As the Pac-12 Conference era comes to a close after more than a century we count down the top 50 moments involving Cal athletics.

THE MOMENT: On the afternoon of Saturday, October 19, 1991, seventh-ranked Cal had failed to score a touchdown on its final play from the 23-yard line, losing to No. 3 Washington 24-17. The crowd of 74,500 at Cal’s Memorial Stadium suddenly became silent, some Cal players cried and Golden Bears tackle Todd Steussie slammed his helmet to the ground.  But as the Cal players trudged to the tunnel at the end of the stadium, the crowd stood and gave the team a long, loud standing ovation in appreciation of the performance.  You had to be there to fully appreciate that moment.

THE STORY: You have to understand the plight of Cal football at the time. The Bears had gone seven consecutive seasons without a winning record before going 6-4-1 in the 1990 regular season, causing celebration when they earned a bowl berth for the first time in 11 years and just the second time since 1950.

Hopes for the 1991 season were soaring as the key components of that 1990 team – quarterback Mike Pawlawski, running back Russell White and wide receiver Sean Dawkins – were back in 1991.  The Golden Bears showed their potential in the 1991 opener, when Cal scored 12 touchdowns in an 86-24 victory over Pacific, causing the Cal Victory Cannon to run out ammunition.

Attendance for that home season-opening game was 27,185, but when Cal was 5-0 and ranked No. 7, 74,500 people showed up at Memorial Stadium to see if the Bears could challenge unbeaten, third-ranked Washington in the biggest college football game in Berkeley in years.

It was a tight, defense-dominated game in which several big plays provided the scoring. Cal trailed 24-17 when it took over at its own 25-yard line with 57 seconds left and no timeouts remaining.  A 34-yard pass from Pawlawski to Damien Simien with eight seconds remaining put the ball at the Washington 23-yard line, and after Pawlawski spiked the ball with five seconds left, he threw a pass that went threw the hands of Cal’s Mike Caldwell in the end zone.  But there were offsetting penalties, allowing one more play with :00 showing on the clock.  Pawlawski’s pass intended for Brian Treggs was batted down by Washington’s Walter  Bailey at the 3-yard line, ending the game.

Cal’s players were distraught, and the Cal crowd, loud as possible in the closing seconds, was suddenly silent.  But as the players walked slowly to the tunnel to leave the field, the people in the crowd rose to their feet and gave the Bears a long, loud ovation as they left.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Joan Ryan ended her column the next day with this:

“Yet if the players were angry and upset, they might have been the only ones in the stadium. The fans rose to their feet and cheered the Bears as they left the field. They cheered as if their team was parading by with a trophy.

Never has a loss been applauded so passionately, though of course the fans weren’t cheering the loss. They were saluting the men who had come so close and played so hard and made those who believed in them feel justified for believing.”

Coach Bruce Snyder said afterward he would have gone for two and the win if Cal had scored that late touchdown, even though a Cal tie would have put Cal in the Rose Bowl if both teams had won the rest of their games.

Washington finished unbeaten and shared a national championship.  Cal wound up 10-2, losing to Stanford, but upsetting favored Clemson in the Citrus Bowl to finish with a final AP ranking of No. 8, still the Bears’ highest final ranking since 1950.  Snyder left Cal to become Arizona State’s head coach after the 1991 season. That did not get a standing ovation.

*Top 50 Moment No. 33: Camelot's Death

*Top 50 Moment No. 34: Rosy Fumble

*Only specific acts that occurred while the team or athlete was at Cal were considered, and an accomplishment of a season or a career was not included unless it can be identified in a particular moment.

*Leslie Mitchell of the Cal Bears History twitter site aided in the selection of the top 50 moments.

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