Memorable Moments: Champine Record Becomes Afterthought

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On October 29, 1983, coach Leon Fuller's 3-5 Rams were beginning to click heading into Week 9 of the 1983 football campaign. The second-year head coach had offensive talent that made the term "Wacky WAC" a reality with multiple-yard offensive games and high scoring, too. Although Fuller was known as a defensive head coach, he could not deny the talents of his quarterback Terry Nugent, tight end Keli McGregor and wide receiver Jeff Champine. He also had freshman Steve "Baby Bull" Bartalo at fullback, who barreled his way on the ground for the Rams offense.

CSU headed into their tilt against New Mexico with a two-game winning streak, the first time since 1980 they had won two in a row. Their 1982 loss in Albuquerque, a 24-29 close contest, was still fresh in their minds and they wanted revenge.

The Rocky Mountain News and Rocky Mountain Collegian reported the game was all UNM throughout most of the contest. The saving grace was that a passing combination of Nugent to Champine had kept the Rams in the game with the senior wide receiver catching 11 passes on the day by late in the fourth quarter.

After Nugent had fumbled the snap and New Mexico recovered, the CSU defense held the Lobos and forced a punt that put the ball on the CSU 20-yard line with a mere 40 seconds remaining in the game. The Rams trailed 24-17, had no timeouts and 80 yards of Hughes Stadium grass to chew up just to tie the game.

Nugent, a veteran senior quarterback, set to work and with little time available, called his own plays on the historic drive to the end zone. He hit Champine on three passes for 19, 6 and 16 yards and one to McGregor for 17 yards to get the Rams enough yards to breathe. That made 14 receptions in the game for Champine, a record which still stands 37 years later.

Under intense defensive pressure and near midfield, Nugent realized he was about to be sacked and intentionally grounded the ball to stop the clock at 9 seconds. While the Rams took a 15-yard penalty, it allowed Nugent to make the call to his offense for the Hail Mary pass to the right corner of the end zone. After the game, flanker Ron Jenkins said, "Terry just told us to run the Hail Mary and for Keli to go up and tip it to me and watch for the ball. He said 'Keli you tip it, and Jenx you catch it.'"

That is exactly what happened as the 6-foot-5 McGregor leapt over all of the Lobo players to tip it into Jenkins' hands. However, the play happened at the 1-yard line with only one second left on the clock. The Rams had to snap the ball immediately after the play clock resumed on the first down, and Nugent screamed at the line of scrimmage so loud the media in the back of the end zone could hear him yell, "Quarterback Sneak!"

Nugent plunged over the goal line with no time remaining and the Rams down by one point. Again, the senior quarterback called his own play and decided a two-point conversion was what the Rams needed to win the game. He called for an "868" tight end screen in which McGregor broke from fellow tight end Harper LeBel to scoot across the middle for the reception. The play worked like a charm and McGregor held the ball up in his right hand to signify one of the greatest comebacks in CSU history. While the 1980 Wyoming comeback led by Steve Fairchild had a similar ending, that was done with two-time outs remaining for the Rams. With no timeouts, this drive went down as the longest and fastest touchdown drive in school history.

Champine broke his own record of 12 receptions that day with 14 -- only Michael Gallup's two games of 13 receptions in 2016 and 2017 have come close to Champine's record. Champine went on to break Willie Miller's all-time school record for career receiving yards that season, a record now held by Rashard Higgins.

Other records fell that day on offense, including Nugent breaking his own school record of yards passing in a game with 434, which now stands as tied for fourth.

Champine summed it up in the locker room that day as the most exciting game of his career and said, "Eighty yards in 40 seconds with no timeouts and a Hail Mary pass and a two-point conversion? How could it be more exciting?"

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