Boston College’s 23-19 victory over Michigan State Saturday night at rainy Alumni Stadium wasn’t enough to get the Eagles back into the AP Top 25. But if there existed a poll that measured a team’s strength on the basis of delivering drama, and then more drama, and with it all wrapped up in the kind of pure, raw emotion that isn’t easily forgotten, well, that’s where the Eagles would be tops in the nation right now.
You want drama? We give you quarterback Thomas Castellanos connecting with wide receiver Lewis Bond for a 42-yard touchdown with 1:28 remaining to put the Eagles ahead.
You want more drama? We give you safety Max Tucker, who intercepted a pass from Michigan State quarterback Aidan Chiles in the back of the end zone with 36 seconds remaining to clinch the victory.
You want emotion? It so happened this was the Eagles’ annual Red Bandanna Game, a mighty important date on the Boston College calendar. The game honors the late Boston College lacrosse player Welles Crowther, who was killed in the aftermath of the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist strikes while saving lives at the World Trade Center’s South Tower. It wasn’t until later that the man wearing the red bandanna was identified as Crowther.
Given the manner in which fans flooded the field late Saturday night, it’s possible Eagles fans were celebrating so much more than the positive outcome of a football game, even though that was a big part of it, of course. But Welles Crowther still resonates at Boston College, even though most of the school’s current students were yet to be born when the man in the red bandanna was saving the lives of as many as 18 people in the South Tower.
Just as former Boston College baseball captain Pete Frates still resonates at Chestnut Hill. Frates was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2012, about five years after graduating from BC. He went on to become one of the world’s most prolific spokespersons for ALS research and was one of the creators of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Frates died in 2019 at age 34.
It was just two months ago that a ceremony was held at Fenway Park to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Ice Bucket Challenge. The event brought the likes of Bruins legend Ray Bourque, former Sox pitcher Mike Timlin (whose mother died of ALS) and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey to the old ballpark. Also on hand was former Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan, who was buds with Frates during their days at BC.
Ryan had some spectacular seasons at BC before being selected with the third pick in the 2008 NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons; alas, the Eagles weren’t getting a lot of hometown love in those days. The 2007 Red Sox, after all, wound up winning the World Series. The 2007 Patriots went undefeated until losing to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. And the 2007-08 Celtics got off to a 30-4 start en route to winning their first championship since 1985.
To highlight what BC was up against in 2007, consider that the Eagles recorded a 38-28 victory over Wake Forest in the season opener at Alumni Stadium, with Ryan passing for 408 yards and five touchdowns.
That was a day game. Later that night at Fenway Park, Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz, making his second big-league start, threw a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles. Put another way, the Eagles were typically a secondary sports story on the the 11 o’clock news.
What happened Saturday night against Michigan State was quite different. The Red Sox were rained out, and the 1-2 New England Patriots under first-year coach Jerod Mayo are trying to put all the pieces together in the wake of their embarrassing 24-3 loss to the New York Jets Thursday night. Boston College, meanwhile, has its own first-year coach in Bill O’Brien, a Massachusetts native whose most recent job was as offensive coordinator of the Patriots under Bill Belichick.
O’Brien’s Eagles are 3-1. They opened the season with a 28-13 upset victory at No. 10 Florida State, and a week later, following a 56-0 victory over Duquesne (an FCS program), they made it onto the AP Top 25 at No. 24. The Eagles then nearly pulled off what would have been an even bigger upset at No. 6 Missouri before losing 27-21, falling out of the Top 25.
Then came Saturday night’s big win over Michigan State in front of a sellout crowd of 44,500 at Alumni Stadium. This is the part of the story where it’s easy to point out that Boston College has “arrived,” or that “the Eagles are back,” that the program is poised to grab the local headlines at a time when the Red Sox will almost certainly not make the playoffs and Patriots appear to be in a free fall (and with the Bruins and Celtics in preseason mode).
Sure. The Eagles are naturally going to be getting more attention, especially when the Bill O’Brien angle is taken into account. But again, what happened at Alumni Stadium Saturday night is so much bigger than all that.
Anytime the Eagles win the Red Bandanna Game brings heightened awareness to the event and helps ensure that the heroism displayed by Welles Crowther won’t be forgotten. There is also this: Boston College is still reeling from the tragic deaths of the Gaudreau brothers — Johnny, 31, and Matthew, 29 — both former stars on the Eagle hockey team. They were killed while riding bicycles on Aug. 29, allegedly struck by an automobile whose driver has been charged with driving under the influence and other crimes.
What a heartbreaking way for Boston College’s fall semester to begin.
More than anything, then, Saturday night was a chance for everyone at Boston College to simply unwind a little. And unwind they all did.
The Eagles play Western Kentucky on Saturday at noon at Alumni Stadium. Everyone can commence with worrying about the AP Top 25 with the opening kick.
(Photo of Boston College’s Lewis Bond eluding Malik Spencer on his way to a touchdown late in the fourth quarter: Mark Stockwell / Associated Press)
By Steve Buckley
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