Scott Carpenter, Millennium Hall of Fame

Richard Dunn

Moments of glamour in the trenches are rare for offensive linemen,

but Scott Carpenter made a lasting “impression” in his final football

game for Stanford.

With nothing but bragging rights on the line in the 1984 Stanford-Cal

clash, Cardinal players were loose during the week of practice leading up

to the Big Game, then went out and played with reckless abandon in their

27-10 victory before 75,662 fans at Berkeley as they improved to 5-6 to

cap the season.

“We were not going to a bowl game, and we were playing for pride against

our arch rival,” said Carpenter, a former Corona del Mar High standout

who started every game for Stanford in ’84 -- on his way to earning

Academic All-American honors.

While Carpenter helped open holes for Stanford fullback Brad Muster to

gain 204 rushing yards and set a Big Game record in the win over the

Golden Bears, he remembers a running play in which he steamrolled a Cal

linebacker in front of the Stanford coaches, including head coach Jack

Elway.

“They were all jumping up and down and cheering,” Carpenter said of his

pancake block that sprang Muster (later of the Chicago Bears) for a long

run.

“That’s as much (praise) as you can get as an offensive lineman ...

knocking people down and feeling good about it, and having your teammates

and coaches appreciate what you’re doing. That’s the epitome of what

football is all about.”

Carpenter, 6-foot-4, 260 pounds at Stanford, enjoyed perhaps his finest

hour when the Cardinal played at Oklahoma in the ’84 season opener, going

up against future Vince Lombardi Award winner Tony Casillas.

“That was the best game of my career,” Carpenter said. “(Casillas) did

get one sack, but we played him straight up for 60 minutes, and we had a

ball doing it.”

Known for his footwork, Carpenter often used brain over brawn as an

unheralded offensive lineman.

“I wasn’t that big, I wasn’t that strong and I wasn’t that fast, but I

was where I was supposed to be,” said Carpenter, who played guard

primarily at Stanford, but also lined up at tackle and center. “There’s a

mental part to playing on the offensive line, just like quarterback, it’s

just not as obvious. It’s not always the fastest guy who wins.”

A 6-4, 230-pound two-way tackle at CdM (Class of ‘80), Carpenter

graduated from high school with a 3.55 grade-point average and earned a

football scholarship to Stanford, where he was honored with the NCAA

Post-Graduate Scholarship in June 1985, which he used to attend UCLA Law

School.

Carpenter, a two-time first-team All-Sea View League selection and 1979

second-team All-Orange Coast area pick by the Daily Pilot as an offensive

tackle, was the Sea Kings’ team captain on the ’79 squad coached by Dick

Morris and the fourth brother in his family to strap it on for Corona del

Mar.

A two-year varsity player and a member of the South in the annual Orange

County All-Star football game, Carpenter said there are days when he

wonders what would’ve happened if he dedicated himself to pro football.

An international relations major, Carpenter spent his final collegiate

semester in Europe. In order to graduate in June ‘85, Carpenter was

required to study abroad and learn a foreign language (he chose German).

Stanford maintained a campus in Vienna, Austria, where Carpenter studied

European politics and Austrian culture for six months.

“If I didn’t go to Europe, it would have delayed my graduation for a

year, and I had determined that I wasn’t a hot prospect (for the NFL), so

I decided not to go for it,” Carpenter said. “I’ve second guessed it a

few times, because there were three other guys from Stanford -- all

offensive linemen -- who eventually signed NFL contracts that same year,

including the guy who backed me up.”

Carpenter, teammates with quarterback John Elway at Stanford but never

lined up in a game with the two-time Super Bowl champion, redshirted his

first year at Stanford and was injured most of his sophomore and junior

years. He once had back surgery and sprained both ankles (at different

times).

By his fifth year (the autumn of ‘84), Carpenter cracked the starting

lineup as the Cardinal produced victories over UCLA, Illinois, San Jose

State, Oregon State and Cal.

Carpenter’s percentage of penalties and sacks given up were both low, but

the Newport Beach native opted for Europe and on-time graduation.

Today, Carpenter is an Irvine-based attorney who lives in that city with

his wife, Gina, and two children: Catherine, 7, and Benton, 5. Gina (nee

Garrett) is a former Estancia volleyball player.

The son of Dennis Carpenter, a former state senator, state Republican

chairman and lobbyist from Orange County, today’s honoree in the Daily

Pilot Sports Hall of Fame has declared a different playing field than

what his Stanford diploma might suggest.

“I gave up on international politics, like most of us,” said Carpenter, a

business and real estate lawyer, who attended Stanford’s Rose Bowl game

against Wisconsin this year, as well as the Big Game, when Stanford beat

Cal to clinch its first Rose Bowl berth since 1972.