BOISE, Idaho — This Day In Sports…October 11, 2003:
The game that spurs one of the most famous quotes in Boise State history. It came at an interesting time, as the Broncos improved to 5-1 after beating Tulsa 27-20 on the blue turf. A week earlier, they had broken a school record for total offense in a 43-37 win at Louisiana Tech, with the team rolling up 732 yards and quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie throwing for a record 532. And Boise State would go on to tie its school record for wins in a 13-1 campaign that ended with a win over TCU in the Fort Worth Bowl. Just another day in paradise, right?
Well, unbeknownst to the fans in Bronco Stadium, Dinwiddie was banged up in the second half against Tulsa, and the Boise State star was just 2-of-10 for 23 yards. At one point some boos actually rained down from the stands. The Broncos were stunningly held scoreless after halftime until the final minute. And that was when things got really weird. Cradling a 20-14 lead, Boise State kept running its offense instead of running out the clock and scored a touchdown with 49 seconds left.
The ball went back over to Tulsa, which now had a chance at a miracle, and one play later, an 80-yard bomb had made it a seven-point game. The Golden Hurricane’s dream was still alive. The Broncos escaped by recovering the ensuing onside kick. Never mind that Boise State had held Tulsa to 259 yards up to that point. All anybody could talk about was the ending.
At his Monday luncheon, an irritated coach Dan Hawkins bemoaned the booing (as brief as it was). Then he answered criticism of the final-minute strategy by saying, “If we had knelt on the ball at the end of the game, wouldn’t that have been the end of the game? Yeah, it would have been. But Gandhi didn’t take a knee, Martin Luther King didn’t take a knee, Thomas Edison didn’t take a knee, and I sure as hell am not going to take a knee.” Hawk’s comments went viral—as viral as they could be in 2003.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
