Colorado Football’s Fifth Down Controversy: Revisiting the Play 36 Years Later

The lunacy of modern-day college football continues. Politicians are trying to regulate sanity in an insane world while fans are scratching their collective heads over how Michigan beat Western Michigan. The topic seems like a lifetime ago now.

Apparently, in these days of instant replay, the best the NCAA can come up with, concerning the obvious error, was “Sorry about that. The officials screwed up. Western Michigan University should have won — Michigan did on a Hail Mary after time expired — but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Please.

The was drawn back this week to that Saturday in September. Immediately after the game was complete, friends with strong ties to Mizzou — I’m a grad — bombarded me with text messages. “Western Michigan got screwed just like the Tigers did back in 1990!”

Holy cow. Some wounds continue to fester almost four decades later.

The memories of that October day. They’re still fresh. It was a beautiful fall day in Columbia, Missouri when the nationally-ranked Colorado Buffaloes Football brought its vaunted I-bone attack to town.

Colorado was trying to dig out from a disappointing 1-1-1 start to the season and stay alive for a potential national championship. Then, the national champion was decided by sports writer’s votes, not today’s 12-team playoff system.

Timing is everything. Had there been instant replay at slippery Faurot Field? The five-down fiasco never happens. A lingering question to this day: did CU backup quarterback Charles Johnson score? Inept officiating said yes.

Your scribe was the sideline reporter for the CBS Colorado broadcast crew televising the game back to the Denver market. It was chaotic immediately afterward.

Dangerous too. Angry Tiger fans stormed the field. Those who didn't were throwing projectiles from the stands. The one and only time in a long career where interviewing players required dodging incoming artillery. Crazy.

Once it was obvious the outcome was flawed, all eyes turned to Buffs head coach Bill McCartney. I’ll never forget a Mizzou fan shouting at Coach Mac afterward, “McCartney, you’re a Christian, don’t lie. You know you got five downs!”

For heaven’s sake, everyone — especially Buff fans — wondered, “Would McCartney forfeit the game?” The answer was a resolute, “Hell no.” In 1990, the Buffs went on to win their only national championship, besting Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.

36 years later, the unthinkable has happened again. How? Why? Federal lawmakers are discussing passing the “Protect College Sports Act” but maybe it’s too late.

One still-miffed Tiger fan displayed a wonderful sense of humor with this snarky text: “I’m putting money on Michigan to win the national title this year. There is precedent.” Brilliant jab. But hopefully there is now no remorse with such a bad pick. 

Colorado's national championship run was special and is still the peak years of the program.