Trinity Football Game Makes National and International News, and a Lot of It

 By Susie P. Gonzalez

October 29, 2007 — Trinity’s administrators and professors – not to mention the Office of University Communications – spend countless hours trying to position the University in the national spotlight. Who knew that all it would take to get there was a spontaneous football play involving 15 lateral passes that started with a mere two seconds on the clock as the opposing team was poised to celebrate a victorious homecoming?  What has come to be known as the “Mississippi Miracle” – the wild play that allowed Trinity to upset the Millsaps Majors 28-24 on Oct. 27 – catapulted Trinity onto front pages of several newspapers along with at least 200 mentions on national television shows, sports radio talk shows, media interviews, and Internet sites and blogs.

Best of all, the national exposure brought a heart-warming e-mail message from a former Tiger gridiron great  – Tarpon Wiseman ’91– who is now a major in the U.S. Army. He wrote, in part, “Yesterday morning I was sitting in an Iraqi Army dining facility in a town just north of Baghdad called Taji. A small TV in the corner gets a fuzzy version of Armed Forces Network (AFN). Sportscenter was playing. The Top 10 was playing. Trinity lateralled their way to a Div. III win right in front of me. A lot stinks about being over here in Iraq (again), but at that moment, ESPN took me 3,000 miles away. I could not have been more proud of those young players, that football program, and that school. It's an honor, boys, thanks.”

A version of the video has been posted to YouTube.com, where it has been viewed and reviewed by hundreds of thousands of  people. According to Justin Parker ’99, Trinity’s sports information director,  the video has been seen all over the United States, as well as in Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, Mexico, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. 

Although Trinity coaches, players, and even the game announcer  have become  media darlings, Parker is the Trinity staffer primarily responsible for making the widespread coverage possible. Almost within minutes of the game ending, he was bombarded with media requests, and four days later, they haven’t stopped. He writes, "One of the earliest requests I received was from ESPN for an interview with Coach (Steve) Mohr.  That turned into a request for him to appear on television live for ESPN’s First Take and College Football Live.  (Are you kidding me??!?!!?)  College Sports Television called....they wanted a copy of the video.  An Austin radio station wanted an interview...wait a minute!  The UT Longhorns played this weekend, and an Austin station wants to interview someone from Trinity? After that, the requests began piling in at an unbelievable rate," Parker said, estimating he received at least 400 e-mails, phone messages, and voice mails within two days of the game.   

Among the media placements we are pleased to report (in no particular order) are:

• ESPN (several programs and individual columnists, including one who called the play Trinity’s “lateralpalooza.”)
• CNN
• Sports Illustrated
• Sporting News
• NBC Nightly News
• ABC World News Tonight
• Monday Night Football
•  USA Today
• Associated Press
• New York Times
• Los Angeles Times
• Chronicle of Higher Education blog site
• Front page of the San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle
• Fort Worth Star-Telegram
• Austin American-Statesman
• Waco Tribune
• Galveston Daily News  
• Palm Beach (Fla.) Post
• Salon.com
• Jackson (Miss.) Clarion Ledger (where the play is now known as the Major Misery, among other unflattering terms.)

© PAWS

For more information and to watch the additional video go to Trinity Athletics or a special web site created by Parents and Alumni With Spirit (PAWS).

© 2007 Trinity University