The most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, exciting, thrilling finish in the history of college football took place 40 years ago. And 40 years from now, it will still hold that title. I was at the game with my sister. It was a moment almost impossible to process in real time and certainly impossible to put into words. But somehow, Joe Starkey managed to create the perfect call of the most unbelievable sports moment. If you were just listening on the radio, you probably wouldn’t have been able to tell what was happening, only that it was something crazy and it included a lot of band members. Oddly, that’s just about how it was experienced by those in attendance. Starkey’s call has become almost as famous as the play. Even after one of the longest play-by-play tenures in the business, he knows that his legacy will be dominated by this one call. “They’re going to bury me with it. It will be the first words when I die in the obituary. It lives on forever, apparently. This is 40 years later, and it’s starting all over again.” This weekend, I’ll be back at Memorial Stadium for the 40th anniversary of The Play as Stanford and Cal battle it out for the Axe—and to avoid a last place finish in the Pac-12. While the heritage of poor football shows no sign of abating, one tradition will come to an end. Saturday will mark the last call from Joe Starkey who will be broadcasting his final Cal game, ending a tenure that was itself pretty amazing, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, exciting, and thrilling. Here’s hoping that the Stanford band stays off the field (to be safe, I suggest they stay out of Berkeley altogether). Go Bears.