Road to 1991 Perfection: McKay Caught Game-Winning TD, Survived Double Whopper
Orlando McKay ran a slant over the middle and pulled in an 8-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter at Nebraska. From his knees, he raised his arms to celebrate.
He got absolutely leveled.
No Cornhuskers laid a hand on him. Instead, nearly 700 pounds of over-exuberant Husky starting offensive tackles tried to crush him.
He felt a double whopper of NFL-bound big boys arrive all at once.
"Lincoln Kennedy and Siupeli Malamala pancaked me with my legs back behind me," McKay said. "I'm screaming at them because I feel like both of my knees are ripping apart. In the film, you can continue to see bodies diving on the pile."
McKay came away a little sore but he survived that unnerving yet glorious moment in front of the goalpost. Ninth-ranked Nebraska didn't fare quite so well.
The wide receiver's scoring catch and the ensuing extra-point kick put the No. 4 Huskies ahead for good at 22-21, leading to a stirring 36-21 victory before a sea of red fans at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.
It remains one of the greatest wins in UW football history. This marked Nebraska's first home loss in six seasons. It was monumental.
McKay was as involved in the outcome as much as anyone who wore a visiting uniform in bringing the Huskies back from a 21-9 second-half deficit.
He caught a 33-yard touchdown pass that was nullified by penalty in the third quarter, but put the home team off balance.
A short time later, he caught a crucial 4th-and-8 pass for 15 yards that put the UW on the Cornhusker 15. That set up a Beno Bryant scoring scamper on the next play that pulled the Huskies within 21-16 and represented the first of four unanswered touchdowns.
McKay's touchdown catch from Billy Joe Hobert had the UW in front with 11:20 remaining. Hobert scored on a 3-yard option run and Jay Barry went 81 yards on a scoring breakaway run to close out Nebraska. It was a tidal wave of points in a difficult environment.
All of McKay's heroics in the heartland landed him mention in a Sports Illustrated article that came out the following week. It wasn't a big feature on him, but the fact his name made it into the national magazine was enough.
He and his two brothers, one of whom is Ritchie McKay, a college basketball coach for New Mexico, Oregon State and now Liberty University, had set a friendly wager.
"Me and my two brothers bet on who would be in Sports Illustrated first," Orlando said. "I won the bet."
This is another in a series of articles and videos that will replay the UW's 1991 national championship season, which is the apex of Husky football. While we're waiting for the 2020 season to begin, we'll use '91 as a conversation piece.
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