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This Day In Sports…December 10, 1994, 30 years ago today:
In the Division I-AA semi-finals at Bronco Stadium, Boise State rallies past Marshall 28-24 to advance to the national championship game the following week on Marshall’s home field. It was the 14th game of the season—the seventh straight since the Broncos’ last bye—and it showed on the field. A battered quarterback Tony Hilde threw two first half interceptions and was replaced by Mark Paljatak before halftime. Paljatak ate into a 24-7 Marshall lead with a touchdown pass to Lee Schrack 55 seconds before the break, giving Boise State some hope.
The Thundering Herd would not score again. While linebacker Brian Smith’s 13 tackles were leading a gritty defensive effort, Hilde returned late in the third quarter and led an 89-yard scoring drive that culminated early in the fourth with a two-yard run by star tailback K.C. Adams, who was as nicked up as anybody. That made it 24-21. Then with 7:51 left in the game, Hilde took advantage of a blown Marshall coverage and hit a wide-open Schrack for a 34-yard TD. The Herd had three more possessions, with of the final two reaching the Boise State 38-yard line. They turned it over on downs on both.
As is the case today, the stadium had to be sold from scratch for postseason games. It had already been done the previous two weeks, with 14,706 showing up for a win over North Texas on Thanksgiving weekend and 15,302 turning out for a victory over Appalachian State in a driving rainstorm the following week. On Monday the week of the Marshall game, Allen and I taped a TV commercial in the snow on the blue turf, imploring fans to be like Green Bay and Buffalo. Pokey whipped around, pulled off a ski mask, and exclaimed, “If we get 20,000 fans for the Marshall game, I’ll ride a horse down Broadway!”
It was a snowy week, but the sun came out the day of the game, and the snow had been safely removed from the field. The attendance was 20,068. The following Monday before the weekly Bronco Athletic Association luncheon, a horse was delivered to Broadway, and Pokey climbed on it and rode about four blocks with cameras and fans following along. It wasn’t entirely comfortable for him. The Broncos lost to Youngstown State that week in the national championship game—and a few days later Allen announced he had been diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer that would claim his life two years later.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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