Jon Carroll on Marlon Wood

Jon Carroll, colunist for the San Francisco Chronicle, is not a sports fan. However, he had reason to comment on two catches made last week.

The other catch was not particularly athletic, although it did require calm under pressure. It happened at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, home of the Play, the five-lateral end-of-game miracle play that allowed Cal to beat Stanford, an event that always makes God smile. This time it was Cal's opponent, the University of Washington, that was momentarily visited by the triumph fairy.

Last play of the game: Washington, down a touchdown, 40 yards from the goal line. Washington quarterback Carl Bonnell threw it high and far; three athletic Cal defenders rose to intercept it. It bounced off all 30 outstretched fingers and fell into the hands of a lightly regarded Washington receiver named Marlon Wood.

He could have dropped it; no one would have blamed him if he had dropped it. No one expected that the play would be successful. But he caught it, turned and struggled an additional 2 yards for the touchdown. Cal won in overtime, so Wood's catch became a footnote. Yet it's something that he'll have forever. In Seattle, it'll be, "Marlon Wood? Say, aren't you the guy ..." "Yup, that's me. I caught that ball."