The ball was snapped and Nick dropped back in the pocket. The offensive line’s protection was solid, allowing
Nick plenty of time to setup and step into his pass. He threw a long, high, and beautiful spiral
toward a receiver streaking down the home team’s sideline. Initially, Ben appeared covered by two
defenders, but he kept running, and the ball kept floating through the air.
At the last moment, one defender leaped to tip away the pass, but the
ball sailed just out of his reach.
Without breaking stride, Ben caught the ball over his shoulder. With two defenders giving chase, Ben kept
running and running, all the way to the end zone - and all the way into the
Saint John’s record books.
In the storied history of Saint John’s football, which began in the
year 1900, the Johnnies have played 835 games.
At a conservative estimate of 50 offensive plays per team per game, the
Johnnies have run over 40,000 plays.
During this time, St. John’s has scored 20,670 points, including more
than 3,000 touchdowns.
But, the Johnnies never had an offensive touchdown, or even an offensive
play, that covered more than 93 yards…until this past Saturday afternoon.
Nick’s pass to Ben resulted in a 95 yard touchdown. Welcome to the history books, boys.
Yes, the record will be broken someday.
And yes, at St. John’s individual records pale in comparison to team
accomplishments - the announcers didn’t even mention the record and Ben did
not find out until I checked the record books and sent him an e-mail about an
hour after the game.
However, setting records is still fun.
And watching from the grandstands, I found this record particularly
satisfying. You see, Ben is an
accounting major and I had him in class last year - he was a delightful
student. He sat in the front row, showed
up every day, and was very respectful.
He was one of the top students in the class. When I let him know he set the record, I was touched when he replied "Boz, I couldn't have done it without you teaching me about budgets and standard costs." Okay, maybe I made that last part up.
But it wasn’t just Ben who made me proud that day. Another accounting student is a pre-season
All-American cornerback. He deflected
the only two passes that were thrown his way, effectively taking away half of
the field from the opposing quarterback.
It was amusing, however, when I was visiting with him after the game, and
one of his much younger cousins scolded him, “Why did you drop those two
passes?”
Yet another accounting major is the kicker, who booted a 49 yard field
goal, sent all of his 7 kickoffs into or out of the end zone for touchbacks,
and converted all 7 of his extra points, one of which hit the camera stand
above the end-zone bleachers.
Two more accounting students were starters on the line.
As for Nick, the freshman quarterback who threw the record setting
pass? He is in his first semester at St.
John’s, and as I am on sabbatical, I have not yet met him. But sure enough, I found out that he is
currently taking an accounting course, as it is as a prerequisite for his
global business leadership major. I just
may have to try to convert him to an accounting major. After all, the beautiful thing is, athletes at St. Ben’s and St. John’s
are also great students, and this is especially true with accounting
majors. On the 2011 CPA exam, our
students scored 8 percentage points high than the state average and 15
percentage points higher than the national average.
It was a great day for the Johnnies, but I must admit…it was a great
day for the bean-counters as well.
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