Robbie Bosco prepares to take a snap throughout sport in opposition to Michigan on the 1984 Vacation Bowl. Mark Philbrick, BYU Photograph
BYU quarterback Robbie Bosco lays on the sector after being injured through the Vacation Bowl in San Diego, California, December 21, 1984. Ravell Name, Deseret Information
BYU quarterback Robbie Bosco celebrates after his group gained the Vacation Bowl in San Diego, California, Dec. 21, 1984. Ravell Name, Deseret Information
A saddened Robbie Bosco and Vai Sikahema go away the sector after BYU’s 10-7 loss to Ohio State within the Florida Citrus Bowl. Deseret Information Archives
BYU quarterback Robbie Bosco celebrates together with his group after successful the Vacation Bowl in San Diego, California, Dec. 21, 1984. Ravell Name, Deseret Information
Mendacity on a locker room desk contained in the bowels of Jack Murphy Stadium, BYU’s group medical doctors provide junior quarterback Robbie Bosco a few solutions — “would you like a shot or some ache remedy?”
Bosco contemplated his choices whereas on the identical time questioned how on this planet this was occurring to him, and of all nights, this night time?
The No. 1-ranked Cougars had come to San Diego to face Michigan within the 1984 Vacation Bowl. Hanging within the stability was an unbeaten season and shot on the nationwide championship. Bosco’s downside was he couldn’t get his stability after taking a success early within the sport.
“I throw a move to (Glen) Kozlowski to the left aspect and a man rolls up on my leg,” Bosco recalled. “My foot will get caught up within the turf and he simply retains rolling.”
Bosco tried to rise up however couldn’t.
“I’m pondering, ‘You've got to be kidding me?’ That is the primary quarter!”
And so started the story of two accidents with two very completely different outcomes — one set him up for greatness whereas the opposite ruined his profession. To borrow a line from Dickens, for Bosco “It was the very best of instances. It was the worst of instances.”
The gladiator
“No, I don’t need any painkillers,” Bosco informed the group medics. “I need to have a transparent thoughts going again on the market.”
Along with his leg closely taped, he bought off the desk and walked out of the locker room the place his dad was ready.
“I’m taking place the tunnel to get to the sector and I met my dad midway,” Bosco mentioned, combating his feelings. “My dad wasn’t the form of particular person to do this. He would keep up in his seats or behind the fence at observe till LaVell (Edwards) would say, ‘Louie, come out right here.’ That meant rather a lot to me.”
Just a few steps later, Bosco appeared underneath the stadium lights and the predominant BYU portion of the sold-out crowd of 61,243 erupted.
“It was as if all of the followers have been trying down there and ready after which I stepped out from the tunnel, and it was superior,” Bosco mentioned. “It was in all probability one of the wonderful issues I’ve ever skilled.”
With backup quarterback Blaine Fowler on the sector working the group, Bosco grabbed a soccer and began to heat up.
“I’m pondering, ‘Oh man, I’m unsure I can do it?” he mentioned. “I can’t plant superb on my leg, they usually taped it up tremendous tight.”
With a excessive ankle sprain, ligament issues in his knee and a cracked rib, Bosco walked over to quarterbacks coach Mike Holmgren to try to persuade him that he was prepared to return in.
BYU quarterback Robbie Bosco lays on the sector after being injured through the Vacation Bowl in San Diego, California, December 21, 1984.
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“Uh, no,” Holmgren said whereas shaking his head in disbelief.
“I mentioned, ‘Sure! I’m getting into!’” Bosco recalled saying. “So, I ran in and mentioned, ‘Blaine, let’s go. Sorry.’”
Fowler left the sport simply as he had within the 1982 Vacation Bowl when an injured Steve Younger stunned the group by placing himself again in — additionally in opposition to Holmgren’s needs.
Bosco huddled up his teammates and took a go searching.
“I might simply really feel it,” he mentioned. “I might really feel the look in all of their eyes that ‘Right here we go! Let’s go!’ That was a sense I had by no means skilled.”
The Cougars, handcuffed by 5 turnovers, and with Bosco’s left leg draped in tape from his foot to his thigh, rallied from a 17-10 fourth-quarter deficit to beat Michigan 24-17 on Kelly Smith’s landing catch with 1:23 to play.
“The sensation was if we don’t win this sport, we're going to be similar to a dozen different BYU soccer groups and we aren’t going to face out,” Bosco mentioned. “In our minds as gamers, we needed to win this sport. It meant that a lot to us.”
BYU quarterback Robbie Bosco celebrates after his group gained the Vacation Bowl in San Diego, California, Dec. 21, 1984.
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Shoulder bother
BYU marched into the 1985 season believing it had a greater squad than 1984, however within the fourth sport at Temple, Bosco’s profession took one other painful flip. This time, it was his proper throwing shoulder and when it was pushed into the exhausting floor at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, one thing modified.
“They (medical workers) informed me it was tendinitis in my shoulder and I’m pondering, ‘I can play with tendinitis,’” Bosco mentioned. “The issue was, after each two video games, I’d must go to the hospital and get cortisone photographs.”
The analysis proved to be false, and Bosco stored taking part in when he ought to have been resting.
“I’d miss lots of observe through the week after which I’d exit to the video games and begin warming up and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t throw the soccer,” he mentioned. “I’d go in and get therapy and are available out for the sport. Adrenaline would pump up and I felt like I might play.”
Even with Bosco reeling, the Cougars completed the common season 11-2 and ranked No. 9 earlier than shedding to No. 17 Ohio State 10-7 within the Citrus Bowl.
In two years, Bosco and the Cougars went 24-3, however his largest loss throughout that spectacular run had but to be revealed.
A saddened Robbie Bosco and Vai Sikahema go away the sector after BYU’s 10-7 loss to Ohio State within the Florida Citrus Bowl.
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Stunning discovery
The true diploma of Bosco’s harm didn’t floor till after Inexperienced Bay chosen him within the third spherical of the 1985 NFL draft. The Packers despatched him to a specialist in Los Angeles the place orthopedic surgeon Frank Jobe made a stunning remark and operated the next day to restore it.
“So, for 11 video games (following the harm at Temple) my shoulder was popping out of socket each time I threw the ball. That’s what I used to be going by,” Bosco mentioned. “I didn’t realize it. No one knew it.”
Sadly for Bosco, hindsight that at all times reveals the higher path hadn’t occurred but.
“It in all probability would have been higher for my profession to sit down out and get the surgical procedure proper then (after the Temple sport) and prepare for the draft,” Bosco mentioned. Such sensible reflection, nevertheless, would have acquired some stiff interior resistance on the time. When within the second, gamers need to play.
In immediately’s sport, Bosco would have probably left BYU for the draft after 1984, however NFL guidelines prohibited groups from deciding on underclassmen — a rule that modified two years later.
“Robbie had sufficient within the books to be a excessive draft decide if he’s 100% wholesome,” mentioned Fowler. “If he will get surgical procedure and is wholesome and throwing it like he can, he performs 10-15 years within the NFL.”
It was too late. Even after surgical procedure, Bosco’s shoulder by no means totally repaired, and he retired from soccer after his second season in Inexperienced Bay and began to teach. At the moment, Bosco works at BYU as director of the Varsity Membership. He lives regret-free and holds no grudges for a pricey misdiagnosis 37 years in the past.
“I believed Robbie was so nice in school. I beloved watching him play,” mentioned Marc Wilson, BYU’s first consensus All-American, 1979 Sammy Baugh Trophy winner, and two-time Tremendous Bowl champion. “I believed it was so unlucky what occurred to his professional profession. He harm his shoulder and, similar to Gary Sheide, he by no means actually was the identical and it value him his professional profession.”
Sheide, one other Sammy Baugh Trophy winner in 1974, injured his shoulder through the Fiesta Bowl in opposition to Oklahoma State, which minimize his NFL profession quick.
“I believe that Robbie would have excelled within the NFL if his shoulder hadn’t been injured,” Sheide mentioned. “He was pretty much as good as any of these extremely touted BYU quarterbacks that performed after me.”
A knock on the window
Whereas Bosco was turning heads as the highest quarterback in Northern California at Roseville Excessive in 1979 and 1980, he was watching Wilson and Jim McMahon gentle up the scoreboard.
“Wilson was one of many the explanation why BYU was so good, and I wished to be part of that,” Bosco mentioned. “Throughout my senior yr, McMahon is throwing for 500 yards and 4 to 5 touchdowns a sport and setting 80 NCAA information and I’m like, ‘I’ve bought to get there! I’ve bought to get there!’”
There was only one downside. Sean Salisbury was the top-rated quarterback in Southern California who additionally had a suggestion from BYU.
“He was a member of the church and I wasn’t, so my thought was, if he goes to BYU I’m going to Cal,” Bosco mentioned. Former BYU offensive coordinator Doug Scovil was additionally recruiting him to San Diego State.
Tom Ramage was BYU’s defensive position coach, however Northern California was his recruiting territory. He arrange camp in Bosco’s hometown and didn’t go away for per week whereas he waited a call.
“I stored telling him, ‘I’m not going to resolve till I discover out about (Sean) Salisbury.’ I’m in center of math class at college and rapidly, there's a knock on the window.” — Robbie Bosco recalling his recruitment to BYU
“I stored telling him, ‘I’m not going to resolve till I discover out about Salisbury,’” Bosco mentioned. “I’m in center of math class at college and rapidly, there's a knock on the window.”
Bosco, his math trainer Mr. Pellegrino and all the class turned to look and there's Ramage waving to get his consideration. With permission from his trainer, Bosco left the room.
“He informed me Salisbury goes to USC and I mentioned, ‘OK, I’m going to BYU,’” Bosco mentioned. He went into the P.E. workplace to name his dad and signed the letter-of-intent that afternoon.
It’s secure to imagine that Ramage had no thought Bosco would throw for 8,400 yards and 66 touchdowns at BYU, or that he would win the Sammy Baugh Trophy because the nation’s greatest quarterback and end third within the Heisman Trophy race, or that he would win this system’s first and solely nationwide championship.
What Ramage did know, as he tapped on the glass at Roseville Excessive, was a window of alternative had simply opened, each for Bosco and BYU, and he wasn’t about to attend one other minute to shut the deal.
Dave McCann is a contributor to the Deseret Information and is the studio host of “After Additional Assessment,” “Countdown to Kickoff,” “The PostGame Present,” and play-by-play announcer for BYUtv. He's additionally co-host of “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com.
BYU quarterback Robbie Bosco celebrates together with his group after successful the Vacation Bowl in San Diego, California, Dec. 21, 1984.
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