The Pick

"Huard, going to go back and throw the ball ... sets up, looks, throws toward the corner of the end zone and ... it's intercepted! Intercepted! The Ducks have the ball! Down to the 35, the 40 ... Kenny Wheaton's gonna score! Kenny Wheaton's gonna score! Twenty, the 10 ... touchdown ... Kenny Wheaton! On an interception!" — Jerry Allen, Oregon radio broadcaster

Kenny Wheaton's gonna score!

Goosebumps.

Where were you on October 22, 1994? You'd know the answer if you're a Ducks fan over the age of 30.

It was the day a legend was created and the fortunes of the Oregon football team changed forever.

It was the day a redshirt freshman cornerback from Phoenix joined the likes of immortal Ducks runner Steve Prefontaine as an Oregon icon.

It was the day of "the Pick," the most famous play in the history of Oregon football: a 97-yard interception return for a touchdown in the final minute of the Ducks' 31–20 win over ninth-ranked Washington at Autzen Stadium.

It was a play that propelled the Ducks to the 1995 Rose Bowl — the Rose Bowl! — in the days before the Bowl Championship Series, when playing on New Year's Day in Pasadena, in the Granddaddy of Them All, was still the single-greatest prize for a Pac-10 team.

It's a play credited with turning a middle-of-the-road program with nine bowl appearances in its previous 95 years into one with a run of 17 bowl games and 18 winning seasons in the following 19 years, including appearances in three Rose Bowls, two Fiesta Bowls, and the 2011 BCS Championship Game.

It's a play shown on the Autzen Stadium scoreboard before the start of every home game, to thunderous applause.

Kenny Wheaton's gonna score!

But not before the Ducks almost gave the game away, allowing the Huskies to drive all the way to the Oregon 8-yard line with 1:05 left and the Ducks leading 24–20.

A touchdown seemed inevitable for Washington, and with it, another devastating loss to the Huskies that would've dropped Oregon to 4–4.

Instead, Washington quarterback Damon Huard dropped back and threw a deep out to 5'9" wide receiver Dave Janoski near the front-left corner of the end zone.

Wheaton knew from film study that the Huskies liked to throw that deep out when they got close to the goal line. He told himself that if he saw that play coming, he was going to try and jump the pass; if he missed, he knew it would be a touchdown.

He didn't miss.

"It was just a bad decision," Huard recalled on the 15 anniversary of the play in an interview with a Eugene television station. "It was a ball that I threw out late to the flat, and you know, good things don't happen when you throw out into the flat late. And the kid jumped it, read it, and ran it back."

Kenny Wheaton's gonna score!

But not if Damon Huard could make a tackle first.

Replays show the Husky quarterback had a good shot to at least slow Wheaton down when he cut back toward the field from the sideline to dodge a Washington offensive lineman around the Oregon 40-yard line. But Huard pulled up and never even got a hand on Wheaton, who then had nothing but 60 yards of open field ahead of him.

"He was a quarterback. Quarterbacks don't tackle," Wheaton said. "I was expecting him to hit me. I really was. When I made the cut I was thinking, Okay I'll take this hit. I just didn't want the big guy to hit me ... When I didn't get touched it was like, Well there's no way they're gonna catch me now."

When Wheaton made it to the end zone he was mobbed by teammates — including many who rushed in from the bench, and even some Oregon cheerleaders — as Autzen Stadium erupted into pandemonium.

Huard has since admitted he should've made the tackle but was too shell-shocked at the time.

"I think I was so Oh my gosh! That just happened. That ball was intercepted that I didn't go make the tackle," Huard said. "And had I made the tackle we probably wouldn't be talking about it today."

If Wheaton hadn't made that interception, many things would be different today.

The Natty

It took 115 seasons until Oregon played for a national championship,...