Tupa: How I almost missed seeing one of the best defensive plays in BYU football history

(Note: This is the final installment of a two-part column.)

It was Sept. 22, 1984, on that breeze-brushed evening in Honolulu, Hawaii. The thermometer enjoyed an easygoing mood at an ‘olu’olu 78 degrees.

Down on the turf at Aloha Stadium, fate unfolded a gridiron drama like a timeworn treasure map.

High above the madding action — almost to tip-top of the stadium, which seemed to sway back and forth with the press of excitable humanity squeezed together — I witnessed arguably the best defensive play in BYU football history.

BYU clung to a 12-10 lead in the fourth quarter when on third-and-inches from the two-yard line, Hawaii quarterback Rafael Cherry — whose physical presence seemed to loom as large as a King Kamehameha statue — lined to bully the ball into the end zone. As the ball was snapped, BYU linebacker Kyle Morrell launched himself, Superman-style, over the Hawaii center, grabbed Cherry by the shoulder pad as he flew past the quarterback and made a complete flip in the air while still clutching on to Cherry and keeping him from going forward.

Hawaii was forced to boot the field goal — BYU went on to win, 18-13, en route to a beaten (13-0) season and national title.

Witnessing that game, especially the play by Morrell — who would go on to play for the Minnesota Vikings — remains a special memory.

But, as I started to explain in the first part of this column, I almost missed that opportunity altogether.

More:Perspective from the top of the stadium

Somehow, between the time I left my room in the Marine Corps barracks (Kaneohe, Hawaii) and to the front door of my date (a lovely young lady from my church), I lost the tickets!

After stopping by the PX to buy a map of Honolulu — I didn’t know my way around the city and was driving a borrowed car, anyway — I went directly to her family’s home. Just as I drove up, I looked down to the other seat to check on the ticket envelope. It wasn’t there.

Once in her driveway, I rustled through the front seat, and under it, and couldn’t find them. Devastated, I told her about my dilemma. One of us suggested we drive to the stadium anyway and try to buy tickets at the gate.

We arrived and parked somewhere what seemed to be on the fringe of Japan to walk to the stadium. The tickets were sold out, and my heart felt flatter and more humiliated than spoiled soda.

Being a spiritual girl, she suggested we make a little prayer. I remembered the seat number of the tickets, and I figured if we could just get inside the gate, all would be well.

That meant we had to convince a ticket taker of the sincerity of our predicament — which is akin to talking a junkyard dog out of biting you. But, we happened to find a soft-hearted gate keeper — and she believed us and let me in.

We headed immediately to the seats I had bought — only to see two Marines sitting there. What I had figured is that when I had gone into the PX to buy a map, I had put the tickets down on the store shelf.

I argued for a minute with the guys, telling them I knew they had taken my tickets. But, they refused to budge and I knew if security got involved, my date and I were out the stadium.

So, then we searched for a couple of vacant seats of people who might not attend. Finally, we found a couple toward the top of the stadium. They belonged to some family members of people who sat around us, but they said their relatives weren’t coming and kindly let us sit there.

I wish I could say that had been my most embarrassing dating calamity. Not even close.

But, it was bad enough.

About a week or two after the game, I left with my squadron to fly to Japan for a half-year deployment.

But, the young lady — obviously blessed with a heart of charity — wrote me a few times and even went out with me a couple of more times after I returned to Hawaii.

When I think of BYU football and Hawaii I think of the remarkable odyssey of that evening — and hope the young lady has had a happy life.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: TupaTalk: One of best plays in BYU history and how I almost missed it