The 1994 Boise State Broncos football team represented

Boise State University Boise State University (BSU) is a Public university, public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding ...

in the 1994 NCAA Division I-AA football season. The Broncos competed in the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...

and played their home games at

Bronco Stadium Albertsons Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. It is the home field of the Boise State Broncos of the Mountain West Conference. Known as Bronco S ...

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown are ...

. The Broncos were led by second-year head coach

Pokey Allen Ernest Duncan "Pokey" Allen Jr. (January 23, 1943 – December 30, 1996) was a gridiron football player and coach in the United States and Canada. He played college football for the Utah Utes before going on to play professionally for the BC Lio ...

Schedule

Source:

Regular season

Coming off a 3–8 year in 1993, Boise State finished the 1994 regular season at 10–1 and 6–1 in conference to win their sixth Big Sky

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

, their first since the

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

season of

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

. The only blemish was a one-point loss at

Idaho State , mottoeng = "The truth will set you free" , established = , former_names = Academy of Idaho(1901–1915)Idaho Technical Institute(1915–1927)University of Idaho—Southern Branch(1927–1947)Idaho State ...

in mid-October. A convincing 38–14 win over top-ranked

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

in early November put the Broncos into the top ten. To complete the regular season, #6 BSU hosted third-ranked

rival A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

, and won for the first time since

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

, breaking a twelve-game winning streak for the Vandals. Both teams entered the game at 9–1 (and 5–1 in conference); they switched rankings for the next poll. Unranked at the start of the season, Boise State finished third in the final poll, released prior to the playoffs.

I-AA playoffs

Three Big Sky teams made the 16-team field for the I-AA playoffs: Boise State (10–1), Idaho (9–2), and Montana (9–2). Idaho lost a first round road game, and Montana won two home games before falling on the road to defending champion

Youngstown State Youngstown State University (YSU or Youngstown State) is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio. It was founded in 1908 and is the easternmost member of the University System of Ohio. The university is composed of six undergraduate colleges an ...

in the semifinals, foiling an all-Big Sky final. Conference MVP quarterback

Dave Dickenson David Dickenson (born January 11, 1973) is a Canadian football head coach with the Calgary Stampeders and former professional player with the Stampeders and the BC Lions where he won the 2006 Grey Cup and was named the game's MVP. Dickenson als ...

did not play due to an ankle injury, and the Griz lost 28–9. The Penguins had defeated

on the same field in the semifinals the previous season. The Broncos hosted and won three close games, against and #2

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

to raise their overall record to Prior to hosting their third straight playoff game at home (following the home game against Idaho), Allen promised to ride his horse down Boise's Broadway Avenue if the Marshall game had an attendance over 20,000. Allen fulfilled his promise two days after the game and rode westbound on University Drive, from Bronco Stadium at Broadway to the Student Union. In the I-AA finals five days later at

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

, they were defeated by the defending champions,

Jim Tressel James Patrick Tressel (born December 5, 1952) is an American college football coach and university administrator who is currently the president of Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. Before becoming an administrator, Tressel was the ...

's top-ranked Youngstown State, 28–14. The 15 games are the most Boise State ever played in one season, and finished at 13–2. The 1994 season is known by BSU fans as ''The Magic Carpet Ride'', as the Broncos won all ten home games on the blue

AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...

of Bronco Stadium. This was Boise State's last Big Sky title in football and final appearance in the I-AA playoffs; BSU moved up to

Division I-A The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

and the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Allen's cancer

Bothered by shoulder pain for about a month, Allen had outpatient surgery in Boise for a

biopsy A biopsy is a medical test commonly performed by a surgeon, interventional radiologist, or an interventional cardiologist. The process involves extraction of sample cells or tissues for examination to determine the presence or extent of a diseas ...

three days prior to the 1994 championship game, and was diagnosed two days after the game with

rhabdomyosarcoma Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a highly aggressive form of cancer that develops from mesenchymal cells that have failed to fully differentiate into myocytes of skeletal muscle. Cells of the tumor are identified as rhabdomyoblasts. There are four subt ...

, a rare form of muscle The tumor in his upper right arm was removed in March and Allen underwent extensive

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

and a stem-cell transplant in July at the Fred Hutchinson Center in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. He returned to coach the Broncos in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

while going through treatment, and the cancer was declared in remission in December 1995, but the doctors warned of likely recurrence.

References

{{1994 Division I-AA football playoff navbox Boise State Boise State Broncos football seasons Big Sky Conference football champion seasons

Boise State Broncos football The Boise State Broncos football program represents Boise State University in college football and competes in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) as a member of the Mountain West Conference. The Broncos play their home games on ...