Basketball courts, batting cages and football fields across the country witness the scene countless times a day: a young athlete imagining he has the opportunity to hit the game winning three, home run or touchdown to win the championship.
It is a childhood fantasy for any athlete, all the pressure on their shoulders and they deliver. Every time they envision the scenario and the shot goes in, they imagine what it would feel like to be the hero, if only for a brief moment in time.
Then we grow up and realize not everyone is destined to experience that moment. The situation and circumstances need to perfectly synch up and your number needs to be called. The odds are against you. The wonderful thing about the Monon Bell Classic game is that it provides DePauw football players with an opportunity every year to be a hero. This is the story of one of those perfect moments in time for Jordan Havercamp '10 during the 2007 Monon Bell.
Havercamp, a sophomore transfer kicker from Denison University at the time, had yet to attempt a field goal during the season. For Havercamp, who received small Division I offers, his moment in the spotlight and that perfect swing of his leg was redemption. After choosing to transfer to DePauw because he felt he could easily win the starting kicker job, he was never able to crack the starting line-up even after consistently out-kicking his competition in practice.
A story that Hollywood would consider too cheesy was made even more poetic by Havercamp's missed extra point earlier in the game.
The scene was set for a hero's ending. With 2.7 seconds left on the clock and the score tied at 21-21, DePauw head football coach Matt Walker asked his inexperienced kicker whether he could hit the most important 47-yard field goal of his life. Havercamp calmly replied that he could. A few minutes later the kicker no one had ever heard of booted a perfect kick through the uprights as the time expired. His body language immediately gave it away; he knew it was good off his foot. Pandemonium ensued, fans rushed the field and mobbed Havercamp.
The kick propelled DePauw to a 24-21 victory in the Monon Bell and prevented Wabash from finishing the regular season with a perfect 10-0 record.
Six years later, in the same stadium where Havercamp became a campus legend with one swing of his leg, DePauw and Wabash will play for the 120th time in the rivalry's history. Will fate grant another Tiger the opportunity to live out his long-held childhood fantasy?
This is why we love sports.