The Cal 100: No. 33 -- Kevin Moen/Gary Tyrrell

Their chance meeting in the end zone was the most memorable aspect of the 1982 kickoff return known as The Play

We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.

No. 33: Kevin Moen/Gary Tyrrell

Cal Sports Connection: Moen was a four-year letter-winner on Cal’s football team (1979-1982). Tyrrell was on Cal’s Memorial Stadium football field on November 20, 1982, and played a memorable role in a Golden Bears victory that day.

Claim to Fame: Moen and Tyrrell had an accidental, split-second interaction in the end zone on the final play of the 1982 Big Game that is a major part of Golden Bears football history.

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OK, I can hear the griping: How in the world did Gary Tyrrell, a former Stanford band member who never played college sports, earn a spot on our Cal 100 list? 

Well, Tyrrell did not receive a spot on his own; it is in conjunction with former Cal football player Kevin Moen that Tyrrell is honored. 

Abbott and Costello, Romeo and Juliet, Batman and Robin, Bonnie and Clyde, Sonny and Cher, Thelma and Louise, Simon and Garfunkel are pairs linked forever in our minds. So it is for Moen and Tyrrell.

Their chance meeting in the end zone at Memorial Stadium following the final play of the 1982 Cal-Stanford game produced both a literal and figurative impact that is part of Cal football lore, rivaling Roy Riegels' wrong-way run in the 1929 Rose Bowl as the most memorable moment in Cal football history.

Three other Cal players – Richard Rodgers, Dwight Garner and Mariet Ford – and Moen were the Cal players who pulled off the famous five-lateral kickoff return on the final play of the 1982 Big Game to give the Bears a 25-20 victory. But the indelible punctuation mark was Moen spiking the ball on the head of the unsuspecting Tyrrell in the end zone after Moen had crossed the goal-line, sending Tyrrell and his trombone to the ground with a thud.

Here is a video of The Play, and you will note that Moen's smashing blow to Tyrrell in the end zone is not mentioned:

People with a vague recollection of The Play don’t remember the players involved or the final score, but they do remember the trombone player getting blasted. A recently published book about the The Play was titled Five Laterals and a Trombone.

Tyrrell had no idea that moment would become significant until he read a headline in the next day’s Mercury News that read “Stuff This in Your Trombone.” Even then he did not know it would lead to an eternal relationship with Moen as they attended event after event after event together for years to relive their instant of contact.

“He became by traveling buddy,” Moen said last fall before the 40th anniversary of The Play. “I’ve done hundreds of events with Gary.”

Moen and Tyrrell became friends.

They did not know each other before their fateful moment or immediately after it, but several days after Moen’s smackdown of Tyrrell they started to become linked, as Tyrrell began getting calls from all sorts of media outlets. Basically an introvert, Tyrrell was uncomfortable with the attention at first, but grew to accept it, even enjoy it. He realized that, whether he liked it or not, he would be known forever in the sports world for that single moment. His obituary will note that instant. So will Moen’s.

“He was one of the guys at Stanford that kept a good perspective on what The Play was,” Moen said. “It wasn’t life or death. It’s wasn’t the end of the world. He erroneously thought the game was over and happened to be standing at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Or the right place at the right time.

It should be noted that, aside from the pandemic-impacted 2020 season, Tyrrell has attended every Big Game since his premature venture onto the field in 1982. 

Now, how can you claim he has not had an impact on Cal sports?

Read more about the Moen-Tyrrell relationship here, and then click here for a story of the The Play from the mouths of the people involved.

The Cal 100: No. 34 -- Pete Cutino

Cover photo of Gary Tyrrell and Kevin Moen is by Bita Ryan

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