Yukica had 18 months remaining on his contract and fought to retain his position in a legal proceeding in which Penn State’s Joe Paterno, who had been among his football coaches during his college playing career, testified on his behalf. That firing set in motion a court battle that was an unusual, high-profile challenge to athletic administrators’ freedom to make coaching changes at will. He was fired after consecutive sixth-place Ivy League finishes in 19 at a college that had won more conference championships than any other and that had expectations of Ivy football supremacy. But it was at Dartmouth - where in his first season (1978) he took a team that had lost 27 lettermen and won the first of his three Ivy League championships and was named New England Coach of the Year - that he encountered a special hell. When he returned in 1978, he told colleagues that there was “a special heaven’’ on the Big Green campus, where he had retained many friends, including Seaver Peters, the athletic director who had been a neighbor and who had pursued him for the football head coach job seven years earlier. He had been an assistant coach under Bob Blackman for five years at Dartmouth College. Yukica was lured from the University of New Hampshire with the hope, explicitly expressed, that he could return Boston College to national prominence but departed for Dartmouth before that ambition was fully realized. Yukica, who compiled a 68-37 record at the college between 19, was the bridge figure between the Eagles’ 19-13 victory over Tennessee in the 1941 Sugar Bowl and the Doug Flutie “Hail Mary’’ pass to Gerard Phelan that sealed a 47-45 triumph over the University of Miami in 1984. Said Hopkins to reporters: “If I can get my hands on the ball, I’m coming down with it.Joseph Michael Yukica Jr., for a decade the head football coach at Boston College and then the central figure in a pathfinding legal case involving the rights of fired coaches, died Thursday in Hanover, N.H. "I’m just glad he caught it,” the quarterback said via the Arizona Republic. From the reaction of teammates and the home crowd, he knew the play was successful. Murray scrambled backward and stepped out of a Buffalo tackle attempt before spinning and hurling the ball to Hopkins, who out-jumped three Bills defenders for a touchdown in Arizona's 32-30 win.īecause of his momentum after the throw, Murray never saw the catch. The throw was made into same end zone where Rodgers connected with Janis. Nearly five years after Rodgers’ incredible throw, Murray made a similar Hail Mary of his own. Situation: First and 10 from the Buffalo 43-yard line. Arizona’s Kyler Murray to DeAndre Hopkins vs. The Cardinals, however, won the game in overtime. “Losing in that fashion, especially with the offense pulling that out, another ‘Hail Mary,’ is unbelievable,” said Packers linebacker Clay Matthews. "I saw Jeff briefly and I just tried to put some air on it to give him a chance,” said Rodgers of the miracle, 59-yard touchdown heave, thrown while he was scrambling to his left, falling away and under heavy pressure from pass-rushers. The touchdown and extra point tied the score at 20. Situation: Second and 15 from the Arizona 41-yard line. Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers to Jeff Janis vs. "Unfortunately, when we play it, it's a victory for the other team.”Ħ. Saints head coach Mike Ditka, whose team had given up a Hail Mary touchdown to end the first half the previous week, was incredulous: “ a prevent defense, but if it’s played with a certain technique, it’s called a victory defense," he said.
Before the play, Cleveland defensive tackle Darius Holland was resigned to another loss: “I had my shoes untied, my shirt untucked." he told the Akron Beacon Journal. On the final play, Couch sprinted right to avoid pressure and heaved a ball that was tipped in the air and caught by Johnson just inside the front pylon for a touchdown.
Cleveland was on its way to a hard-luck defeat in New Orleans, trailing 16-14 with two seconds left and 56 yards to go. The Browns had an 0-7 record, losing five games by double-digits, in their first year back in the NFL since the original Browns moved to Baltimore. Situation: First and 10 from Cleveland's 44-yard line. Cleveland’s Tim Couch to Kevin Johnson vs. “That was the Lord … that was the Lord,” said McCartney. 1960 Mirabal sisters assassinated by Trujillo regime