YouTube Gold: Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary Pass

One of the great moments in college football history

Doug Flutie was an incredibly accomplished quarterback at Boston College, the only school that offered him a scholarship: he won the Maxwell Award, the Davy O’Brien National Quarterback Award and the Heisman Trophy. By any measure, he had a brilliant career.

Yet, somewhat like Duke Basketball legend Christian Laettner, Flutie is best remembered for a single play.

In 1984, Flutie and Boston College were playing Miami the day after Thanksgiving. It was a high-scoring game and ‘Canes QB Bernie Kosar scored late to put Miami up 45-41.

BC got the ball back on its own 22 with just :28 seconds left. Flutie took the snap on the final play and scrambled around for a bit before launching what will forever be called a Hail Mary pass to the end zone…which was caught by Gerard Phelan to give the Eagles a 47-45 win.

Flutie, who at 5-9 was small for pro football, nonetheless built a solid career in the NFL and CFL.

His #22 was retired by Boston College, which may have been grateful for something else too: after that pass, applications for BC went through the roof.