. But that one stung.Swan song for a man in stripesWisconsin-Illinois was college footballs last tie game, but for the Big Ten officiating crew at Camp Randall Stad

Mark Lisheron has attended Wisconsin games since 1970. He saw the Badgers suffer through a decade without a winning record and two lengthy stretches without a bowl appearance.But none of those sorry seasons featured the Wisconsin game Lisheron considers to be the worst he has ever witnessed. It was a game so utterly forgettable but also one never forgotten because of its status as a footnote in the college football history books.The date: Nov. 25, 1995.The teams: Wisconsin and Illinois.The place: Camp Randall StadiumThe stakes: Bowl eligibility for 5-5 Illinois; senior day pride for Wisconsin.The result: 3-3. Yes, a tie.As it turns out, the last tie in college football history. The sport introduced overtime in the 1995 postseason and for all games in 1996, which meant Illinois-Wisconsin, the regular-season finale, would become the final deadlocked collegiate contest.Some of college footballs most famous games ended in ties, including the 1966 Notre Dame-Michigan State clash, billed as the Game of the Century. Other notable ties include the 1946 Army-Navy contest and the 1973 Ohio State-Michigan game, which led to a controversial vote about the Big Tens Rose Bowl participant.The Illinois-Wisconsin tie, meanwhile, was in a different category.It generated nothing, Lisheron said. It was two feckless teams going back and forth. Ive been at games where Wisconsin has taken it on the chin, but Ive never been to a worse football game because nothing happened. Neither team moved!Those on the field shared the sentiment.The game itself its probably one of those everybody-wants-to-forget-it games, Wisconsin offensive lineman Chris McIntosh said. Did anybody leave that day happy?Despite the general dullness, the game featured more subplots than points. ?This is the story of The Last Tie.?Bevells last standDarrell Bevell deserved a better sendoff. He had been the face of Wisconsins football renaissance, coming to Madison by way of Northern Arizona University and a two-year Mormon mission in Cleveland. In 1993, he set team records for pass yards (2,390) and pass touchdowns (19) in leading Wisconsin to its first Big Ten title and Rose Bowl appearance in 31 years.But Wisconsin was 4-5-1 -- yes, the Badgers tied Stanford earlier that season -- entering Bevells senior day. He didnt make it to end of the game.Wisconsins uncharacteristically inconsistent run game and young and mediocre offensive line left Bevell exposed to a ferocious Illinois defense, led by Kevin Hardy and Simeon Rice, the Nos. 2 and 3 overall selections in the 1996 NFL draft.Bevell got knocked all over the stadium, recalled longtime Wisconsin broadcaster Matt Lepay. He kept getting up. I was thinking, Dude, get off the field.Illinois didnt record a sack in the first half but piled up hits on Bevell. One in particular, delivered by Rice and Hardy on a pass, deposited Bevell on his side, leaving him with terrible back pain.Darrell would play through anything, Badgers offensive tackle Jerry Wunsch said.Bevell pushed forward. It was senior day. His parents were in the stands. His abdomen ached at halftime, but the trainers couldnt tell him the exact cause.With three minutes left in the game, the pain had peaked and Bevell couldnt even bark the cadence. He hobbled off the field and went to the locker room on a golf cart. Before taking X-rays, he used the restroom and urinated blood.I still had my cleats on and I was looking at this little X-ray tech, said Bevell, now the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator. I remember saying, Im going, Im going. I just felt it. I ended up passing out.An ambulance transported Bevell to University Hospital, where he entered intensive care. The diagnosis: a lacerated kidney. His abdomen had filled with blood until it couldnt bleed anymore, he said.Had the blood gone through the lining in Bevells abdomen and into his legs, he would have needed surgery.?I was real fortunate, he said.After reaching the hospital, Bevell immediately wanted to know whether Wisconsin had won the game. Thats when he heard about the tie.It sucks, it sucks, he said. You dont feel like you win or lost. Its like, What did we do? Theres no credit either way.Illini bowled overA win over would have made Illinois bowl eligible, but it wouldnt have guaranteed a spot. Athletic director Ron Guenther had spent the days before the game furiously brokering bowl options. He proposed a scenario: if Illinois and Iowa won their last games and Michigan State lost its finale, Iowa would go to the Sun Bowl, Michigan State to the Liberty Bowl and Illinois to the Independence Bowl. Illinois had played East Carolina in the Liberty Bowl the previous year, and organizers didnt want a rematch.But MSU coach Nick Saban didnt want the Liberty Bowl, either, as the school hadnt?enjoyed its experience there two years earlier. If Michigan State had won its last game, it would have gone to the Sun Bowl, and Iowa would have accepted the Liberty Bowl, freeing up the Independence Bowl for Illinois. But a Spartans loss meant they would go to the Independence or Liberty, and they wanted Shreveport.After a week of talking with bowl officials, television networks and schools, Guenther told the Chicago Tribune that Illinois bowl hopes were on life support entering the Wisconsin game. Guenthers big selling point remained the Chicago TV market.I remember being in the press box with these guys who had flown in from the Independence Bowl, Guenther said. I had one of our donors with us, and we came down to stand on the sideline.They stood there in the final minute as Illinois drove to the Wisconsin 36-yard line. The Illini lined up for a 54-yard field-goal attempt that, if successful, would almost surely win the game.Guenther watched the ball flip toward the goal posts, right on line. It fell a few feet shy of the crossbar.In my opinion, its worse than a loss, Guenther said.The AD went to the locker room afterward, as he always does. But he had no idea what to say. The bowl reps? They just left.We knew 6-5 was going to put us in [a bowl], Hardy said. Theres a bit of emptiness. You didnt win, you didnt lose, but the game is over. Youre looking at the scoreboard and youre like, 3-3, thats ridiculous. This is our last game playing for Illinois. Its like, Whats going on now? I do remember being in the locker room and some guys were wondering, Do we still have a chance?We didnt have a losing season, but we didnt have a winning season, either.Maybe a foot shortThe plaque still hangs on Bret Scheupleins wall at his home in Florida.It reads:AT&T Long Distance Award Brett (sic) Scheuplein, Illinois Longest Field Goal November 25, 1995Perhaps the ultimate irony of The Last Tie is that it featured the longest made field goal in college football that week, a 51-yarder Scheuplein converted midway through the fourth quarter. The kick turned out to be Scheupleins career long and earned him a national honor.It was a cool day, 40 degrees at kickoff, but not overly windy or frigid for Wisconsin in late November. Scheuplein kept a hunting boot over his right foot to keep it warm and nearly forgot to remove it before kicking the 51-yarder.But it was his second attempt, the 54-yarder in the final minute, which lingers.It was actually a very good kick, Illinois punter Brett Larsen recalled. He hit it well. I dont remember what that wind was doing, but as soon as he hit it, I think he thought it was good. If I remember right, he kind of put his hands in the air, like, Yeah, thats good. And then it just fell short. It was like a yard short or a half-yard short, right in front of the crossbar.Scheuplein thought he had it, until he didnt.No one was hard on me, he said. It wasnt like I missed a 25-yarder. They knew it was a long shot. But its the ones you miss, those are the ones that stick with you, especially when theyre that close.As a kicker, you cant beat yourself up too much. But that one stung.Swan song for a man in stripesWisconsin-Illinois was college footballs last tie game, but for the Big Ten officiating crew at Camp Randall Stadium, it also marked the final game for J.W. Sanders, the field judge that day. Sanders had started officiating Big Ten games in 1975 before moving to the NFL for most of the 1980s. He returned to the college game for his final few seasons on the field.Referee Dick Honig gathered his crew for dinner in downtown Madison the day before the Wisconsin-Illinois game. The crew then returned to the InnTowner Madison, a few blocks west of the stadium, for their pregame meeting.That night, line judge John Kouris read a passage he had written for Sanders to the crew.An excerpt:When we step unto a torrid stadium floor in late August or stand tall in the November snow, wind and rain amidst the catcalls and epithets, we are not officiating a college football game. We are instead standing at the edge of time and looking into eternity.? And for those precious moments when we are sprinting down the sidelines with wide receivers less than half our age or jumping into skirmishes with young men twice our size, we are quenching our collective thirst with short sips from the fountain of youth.?We are the September winds sweeping across Midwestern towns -- Coal City, Cloverdale, Newton, Delphi? -- and hosts upon hosts of silo-filled, steeple-attended villages. We are the parched breath of autumn and the harbinger of summers death.Kouris said officials often got on one another for showing a sensitive side, but Sanders appreciated the tribute.?J.W. was a very well-respected official, Kouris recalled. He was always leading clinics and helping those of us wanting to get to the Big Ten. He was a prince of a guy.The officials had reviewed overtime rules during their clinic before the 1995 season. After the game, Kouris approached Honig.If this game was next year, wed still be playing, he said. Wed be freezing our ass off a lot longer. ?Hollow in historyWhen the game ended, those involved didnt give much thought to their involvement in a small piece of college football history.Even as they reflect on the game more than two decades later, the feelings arent overly fond.Wisconsin offensive tackle Jerry Wunsch: We just did all this work, blood, sweat and tears, people broke bones and no one got anything. It feels like a loss because you didnt win. The result is so deflating, actually.Illinois linebacker Kevin Hardy: Its not one of those situations we could have done anything different. There wasnt that, Oh no, it cant end like this! But in hindsight, we would have liked to be able to decide it.Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez: It was just blah. You feel like nothing was accomplished. So the games over, you dont win, you dont lose, you cant celebrate. I wouldnt have wanted to be a fan in that stadium.Illinois punter Brett Larsen: Theres something to be said for history. That does make it intriguing, especially Notre Dame-Michigan State [in 1966], some of those games. But Im definitely in favor of overtime rules and giving somebody a chance to win.Wisconsin linebacker Tarek Saleh:? Many years later, its OK to talk about. I wouldnt want to advertise it, especially when I was 22 years old. Now its hey, we were part of something. You would rather have won the game and moved on, but its fine to be mentioned, somebody remembers you for something. So its not the worst thing in the world.For Badger fan Mark Lisheron, the game had one positive impact. It was the first time he and his longtime friend Dave Patterson took their young sons to a Wisconsin game.Dave and I have talked about that game many times over the years because of its forgettable-ness, Lisheron said. It felt like a big waste of time. But we were happy to get the boys together. Cheap Nike Sb Shoes Online . Andrew Luck lost his favourite target and the Indianapolis locker room lost one of its most revered leaders when Reggie Wayne was diagnosed Monday with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that will cost him the rest of the season. Cheap Wholesale Nike Sb Shoes . 10 VCU 85-67 on Thursday night at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. 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