[81alum]

That year marked the first time I traveled to an away game--my girlfriend and I drove north to see the game at Eugene and visit a friend of hers along the way.  It was a very promising beginning to the season, with a 35-25 win that made it seem as if our offense was unstoppable.  There was a lot of trepidation about the coaching changes--we had lost Bill Walsh two years earlier but then Rod Dowhower, the offensive coordinator, took over and kept the offensive scheme virtually intact for a year, but then he unexpectedly left and Paul Wiggin was the new coach--a former defensive end and NFL defensive coordinator.  As fans we were worried that the last of the Walsh magic would vanish, and games like Oregon and Oklahoma reassured us that our offense would still be powerful.

Well, the season turned out badly.  After Oklahoma we crushed all the bad teams and lost to all the good teams, capping it off with a big game loss.  Our defense was simply not very good.  Even worse, that was Wiggin's best year at 6-5, and we spiraled down through three more bad years, each worse than the last, until we were at 1-10 by the time Wiggin was fired.  I was on the east coast in grad school and almost stopped following Stanford football after the annual beat downs. 

But I will not forget that surprisingly sunny day at Autzen or the splendid news coming from Oklahoma--that was the last really "good" news about Stanford football for half a decade.

Oh, and that girlfriend and I have now been married for 33 years.

[81alum]

That year marked the first time I traveled to an away game--my girlfriend and I drove north to see the game at Eugene and visit a friend of hers along the way.  It was a very promising beginning to the season, with a 35-25 win that made it seem as if our offense was unstoppable.  There was a lot of trepidation about the coaching changes--we had lost Bill Walsh two years earlier but then Rod Dowhower, the offensive coordinator, took over and kept the offensive scheme virtually intact for a year, but then he unexpectedly left and Paul Wiggin was the new coach--a former defensive end and NFL defensive coordinator.  As fans we were worried that the last of the Walsh magic would vanish, and games like Oregon and Oklahoma reassured us that our offense would still be powerful.

Well, the season turned out badly.  After Oklahoma we crushed all the bad teams and lost to all the good teams, capping it off with a big game loss.  Our defense was simply not very good.  Even worse, that was Wiggin's best year at 6-5, and we spiraled down through three more bad years, each worse than the last, until we were at 1-10 by the time Wiggin was fired.  I was on the east coast in grad school and almost stopped following Stanford football after the annual beat downs. 

But I will not forget that surprisingly sunny day at Autzen or the splendid news coming from Oklahoma--that was the last really "good" news about Stanford football for half a decade.

Oh, and that girlfriend and I have now been married for 33 years.