On This Day 25 Years Ago: "Goodbye, Hello Heisman"

Submitted by Mercury Hayes on

Title says it all. Twenty five years ago Desmond Howard provided us one of the most iconic football plays and poses in a 31-3 win over Ohio.

Always loved the similarities between Howard's return and Woodson's return. Hopefully Saturday we get a third memorable punt return by another generational player. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQy2ohW9OaI

[Edited to provide video of both returns because you can never watch them enough]

robpollard

November 23rd, 2016 at 12:06 PM ^

- He was enthusiastic, but not over the top (e.g., his wonderful, almost under his breath "Look at that!" when Desmond begins juking people)

- His accent/tone were wonderful (southern, but easily understandable wherever you came from, with a nice tone ala Ernie Harwell)

- He was correct (I don't recall him going through a phase like many older announcers when they frequently misidentified people)

- He was descriptive, but not overly wordy (again, the Desmond clip was perfect).

There are some good announcers today, but he was literally irreplaceable.

robpollard

November 23rd, 2016 at 12:17 PM ^

I probably was blocking that out. It also might be b/c I didn't see many of his game when he quasi-unretired in the early 2000s to do west coast games.



Regardless, he was certainly at the top of his game during the Desmond and Woodson years. I could listen to the man pronounce "WHEAT-lee" while Tyrone smashed and zoomed past people in the Rose Bowl for hours.

robpollard

November 23rd, 2016 at 2:34 PM ^

That's funny! I'm sure he did that, and I seem to remember that too, now that you say it.



But listening to these clips (thanks Wolverine Historian), he really doesn't say much of an "H" -- if he does, it subtle and not distinct. If anything, Musberger does it more. Regardless, it's great.

For example (2:23 mark):

Ronnie Kaye

November 23rd, 2016 at 3:09 PM ^

He was nowhere near at the top of his game in the Woodson years. I had the '97 UM/OSU game on VHS for years. There were a shitload of mistakes by Jackson that afternoon. He had pretty much admitted by that point he wasn't as good as he used to be and originally planned on that being his second to last season.

Ronnie Kaye

November 23rd, 2016 at 3:06 PM ^

He was correct (I don't recall him going through a phase like many older announcers when they frequently misidentified people)

HO. LEE. SHIT.

Are you fucking kidding right now? The last decade of Keith Jackson was THE standard of announcing blunders. He made mistakes left and right. His last game (USC-Texas Rose Bowl) he was wondering why the clock wasn't running on a 2-point conversion attempt! Some would argue that he was never that sharp. Look at the clip of Woody Hayes punching the Clemson player. Jackson had no idea what the hell was going on, even though everyone watching on TV did.

It's unbelievable how many people just see/hear what they want to. 

 

CoverZero

November 23rd, 2016 at 1:17 PM ^

25 years.  Time flies.  I wonder what my life would  have been like if I married my girlfriend from back in those days.

CoverZero

November 23rd, 2016 at 5:07 PM ^

Yeah but Ive never been in love with another woman since.  We had a weird connection going on.  She is married now and has 2 teen age kids.  A few years ago we reconnected on email and sent a lot of emails back and forth.  I ended that recently though because I felt that it was not respectful to her husband.  I dont think he knew that we were emailing. 

but you are right...maybe it was not meant to be...

BlueFront89

November 23rd, 2016 at 1:39 PM ^

and will never forget them as they are not only iconic moments in M history, but they are iconic moments in my life. The best part of the Woodson return on this video is the sound of the crowd's audible crescendo all three times he avoided a tackle and broke loose.  It almost sounds like it was professionally remixed due to the timing being so perfect.  Here is hoping that Peppers makes it a trifecta this weekend!