#HAIL MARY FOOTBALL BOSTON PRO#

It was so rare, which is what made it special.' Team have gotten so much better at drawing up Hail Mary's, putting guys in position and practicing the play. 'Hail Marys rarely happened back then,' Flutie says now. Bernie Kosar set a school record for 447 yards passing, and four touchdowns from running back Melvin Bratton had appeared enough to lift Miami to victory. A high-scoring affair brought both teams into the fourth quarter tied at 31. The game was played on Thanksgiving Day weekend, and it pitted Heisman frontrunner Flutie against a Hurricanes program that fans, in his words, 'loved to hate.' The entire country had been tuned in to watch Boston College-Miami at the Orange Bowl.

It wasn't just Boston that was captured by the moment. That's when we knew something had happened.' But there were 10,000 people waiting for us at the airport.

#HAIL MARY FOOTBALL BOSTON PRO#

'Then we got back in town, and Boston is a pro sports town. 'This last-second miracle, it was exciting for us.

'It's amazing to me because, in the moment, it was this once-in-a-lifetime win for our program,' Flutie says. 23, 1984, Flutie and his teammates had no idea the masses would care. That play, affectionately nicknamed the 'Hail Flutie,' is a classic moment in college football history. Thirty years after Flutie's last-second Hail Mary produced a game-winning touchdown and a big win for Boston College, it's fitting that the quarterback's own recollection of the moment has been molded by the perceptions of millions of college football fans. We had a pre-snap penalty that moved us back, and there were some other things that went on before the snap. 'The memories I have in my mind are being in the huddle. I have those memories pretty much only because of the pictures. I asked our strong safety who caught the ball.

'There's a picture of me after the completion in one of my offensive lineman's arms,' Flutie says. His most vivid recollections of that play are all about what happened before the snap. What Doug Flutie remembers isn't the completed pass, the ecstasy of victory, the post-game celebration after his Hail Mary pass beat Miami on the road.

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