Legacy Lives on Anniversary of Signature Win
Victory over Arizona put CSU football on the map
Mike Brohard
There was nowhere else he was going to college.
Whether he was good enough to play football or not, Jack Moran knew from an early age he was born to be a Ram. It was in his blood. A family tradition.
To be on campus, as a member of the Colorado State football team is a literal dream come true. He’s emotional about it, feelings he wears on his sleeve.
“I was talking to my dad about getting a CSU tattoo on my forearm, and we sat down, and he drew up this thing, and I was like, ‘that’s it, that what I want,’” Moran said of the art on his right forearm. “It’s pretty close to the drawing. The A wasn’t orange, but it’s pretty similar.”
All his dad, Sean, had to do was draw from his own experiences. What stands out about the place, what monuments mean the most. The Aggie A was a perfect touch. Then again, Sean knows a bit about applying those.
On this day 30 seasons ago, a resurging program left the Rocky Mountains and headed south for a game no one outside the program really gave the Rams a hope of winning. Led by coach Sonny Lubick in the second year of his legendary run, the Rams may have been 5-0 at the time, but the opponent was No. 6 Arizona. At the Wildcats’ place. An undefeated team Sports Illustrated had tabbed as the best in all the land when the 1994 season began.
It was a squad highlighted by its defense, the Desert Swarm, complete with two starters who would go on to become members of the College Football Hall of Fame.
“There was a feeling in the air we got that there’s nobody else on this planet that believes we can go down there and do what we did,” Sean said, recalling decades of the past as if they were the week prior. “We could feel it in the locker room. Sonny’s message to us in the locker room was, ‘why not us, why not now?’
A 21-16 victory later, Colorado State landed in the top 10 of the national polls for the first time, en route to the first 10-win season in program history. Those memories of the past come back easy these days for Sean and one of his teammates, Greg Myers.
They’ve always remained involved with the program, but now it’s different. Now, they’re watching their sons suit up in the green and gold.
“Don’t remind me,” Myers joked. “It is pretty special when you think about it. I think both kids, it’s maybe in the back of their mind: I think I deserve to be here. Dad was here. I think it’s an interesting transition, and I think both of them are good kids with good character, which fits well into this program. It will be exciting to watch them play in the future.”
A future fathers and sons alike hope repeats some memories of the past.
The win over Arizona remains the signature win in program history. In an instant, Colorado State had name recognition. The team was in the national polls all season, and from 1997 through 2003, the Rams were ranked every one of those seasons.
College football had since changed. It’s no longer a big deal to have a game televised, it’s more surprising when a team isn’t on one channel or another these days. From the morning window until long after dark, there are multiple games on concurrently.
Eventually sons ask fathers about days long past. For both Dagan Myers and Jack, those dates were rather recent.
He doesn’t talk about it much. But when somebody recognizes him, they always talk about the 77-yard fumble recovery, so I hear it a lot.Jack Moran
Greg had a storied career, the only player in Western Athletic Conference history to earn first-team honors four consecutive years. He was a dynamic safety, as noted by his winning the Jim Thorpe Award in 1995, the first player to win a major individual award at CSU. He was also a tremendous punt returner.
For a spell, he took all of those awards out of his office. When they went back up, Dagan started asking questions.
“He doesn’t talk too much, he’s not a big talker. He likes to keep it his own, but going into high school was when I started gaining an interest in his career,” Dagan said. “He’d have all his wards and trophies in his office, and I’d see it every day. He talks more about the team than the win. He talks about how the defense was just special and he had a bunch of fun with all his buddies on the team and they played as one. It’s pretty gool to hear and see about the history.”
Which is why Greg unpacked all of it out of boxes and put it back on display. The memories. Not of his glories, but those of the Rams. And each one made him think about a certain teammate or another, each one a good memory.
As a player, he doesn’t immediately recall past games and scores. Not that he could forget the significance of the Arizona win, but honestly, not all of it.
“I actually watched video of it again for highlights, and I realized how much I missed of the offense and how good they were,” Greg said. “Anthoney Hill just killed it, passing and scrambling. There’s a lot of good memories, but the big one is Sean Moran and his return. I was, ‘hey, I actually had a bit of speed back then.’ I’d pull a muscle now.”
Hill was great in the game, and his two passing touchdowns to tight end Justin Shull – identical bootleg plays drawn up that week by offensive coordinator Day Lay – provided an early boost. But the seminal play of the game belonged to Sean.
Arizona was coming back with Colorado State leading. The Wildcats had put together a lengthy drive, and on second-and-1 from the CSU 11 … Sean remembers it unfolding with clarity 30 years later, standing on CSU’s practice field.
“Like it’s the back of my hand. I remember Garrett Sand came up the middle free on a blitz that coach Larry Kerr had called for the ‘A’ gap. I don’t remember at the line of scrimmage what happened, but I remember coming free right away,” Sean said. “I thought it was going to be a pass, so I did a pass-rush move. I see Garrett come up the middle and hit the quarterback before he could hand it off. The same blitz worked about 20 plays earlier. This time it caused a fumble, and I remember thinking the ball is bouncing around.
“I remember going to get it, it took a favorable hop. I still had to bend almost to the ground and almost falling over when I picked it up. I secured it and thought, don’t fall, don’t get caught. Everything I was trying to do was just hold on to the ball, and 77 yards later, unbelievable.”
The only person who could have stopped him was Myers. He shows up late in the frame, looking for any possible Wildcat to block.
That was the play which caught Sean off guard.
As he was heading into high school, he started asking questions of his father, wondering if he had any old film of him playing. So, Sean fired up his computer and called up the Arizona game.
With no explanation.
“It was awesome. I didn’t know it was him at first, because he looked really fast and really skinny, so I was like, ‘no way that’s you.’ But lo and behold, it was,” Jack said. “He doesn’t talk about it much. But when somebody recognizes him, they always talk about the 77-yard fumble recovery, so I hear it a lot.”
It’s the play every CSU fan remembers from the victory which shut down Elizabeth Street west of campus, students pouring into the street and shutting it down well into the night. But there’s more to the story.
There always is, and it’s the part which makes Sean still laugh.
“I was so tired afterwards. I run off the field and the coaches are celebrating, and I remember having to push them out of the way because I was about to projectile vomit. And I did,” Sean said. “All over the frigging place, for about 5 minutes. I sat on the sideline and started to chug water. I had to miss a bunch of plays, Luckily my backup was a pretty good kid, Adrian Ross.
“Throwing up was obviously worth it.”
Truth is, Sean and Greg don’t talk about the Arizona game all that much. When teammates get together, sure, they share stories. Mostly they talk about the things which Lubick would prefer not to know about, the time spent together and what it took to raise the level of attention the program started to receive.
String wins together, the collective story is a much better tale than the individual chapters. They had a bond back then and created a culture. They never cared who they played, just the fact they all had another game together.
“Especially when I run into Sean Moran, we talk about going down to Arizona, down to LSU, all of those games you played like that and you didn’t care who you were playing against,” Greg said. “It didn’t matter who was across from us. You’d get on the field and be like, this is cool, but once the game started it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter if Teddy Bruschi was on the other side.”
What the fathers hope the sons take from the stories is not their individual achievements. Both are in the Colorado State Athletics Hall of Fame. Both went on to have professional careers.
What they want for their sons is greater than what they experienced as part of those teams. Being tasked with lifting a program back up and doing it the right way. As a group with a purpose. Any time, any place, any opponent.
Jack, a defensive lineman like his father, is redshirting while adding weight and strength to his frame. And the No. 77 he wears is a nice touch, matching the yardage of his dad’s return. Dagan is redshirting too. He is taking is father’s advice to be patient, especially considering his high school career covered all of one season after a late start to the game.
Like their fathers before them, they just want to be ready when the time comes.
“This year you can tell is special. Jack and me, we can feel it,” Dagan said. “We’re learning from everyone and were excited for this year. It’s a special thing to be able to follow in their footsteps, to learn and develop and see what happens.”
And Colorado State is the one place they want to do accomplish all those goals. If they ever have doubts, one call back home can assure them it most certainly can happen.
Support Colorado State Athletics: Tickets | Ram Club | Green And Gold Guard