Fernando Mendoza will enter the NFL Draft after leading Indiana to a 16-0 season and its first College Football Playoff national championship, he announced on social media Friday. The quarterback was awarded the Heisman Trophy and is expected to be taken by the Las Vegas Raiders with the first pick of the draft.
As impressive as those accomplishments were, the moment Mendoza will best be remembered by Hoosiers fans came with 9:18 to play in the title game against Miami. He took off on a designed running play from the 12-yard line, accelerated and bounced off several defenders before diving into the end zone, thrusting the ball over his head to score.
Now there’s a bobblehead to commemorate that historic moment. And there may be no one happier than Josh Rawitch, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Rawitch doesn’t get excited by any old bobblehead. He sees so much sports memorabilia that it takes something special to grace his desk.
But he’ll make room for the “Fernando Mendoza Diving Touchdown Bobblehead,” issued this week by the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum. Rawitch, you see, is an Indiana graduate, even though he grew up in Northridge and covered high school football games for The Times while in high school.
“In my office I only have really unique, random bobbleheads like Dave Matthews and Jack Kerouac,” he said. “And this definitely qualifies.”
Phil Sklar, CEO of the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, said Hoosiers bobbleheads are on pace to shatter records for college championship sales.
“We anticipate the Fernando Mendoza Diving Touchdown Bobblehead to be one of the most popular that we have ever offered,” he said.
Rawitch also can appreciate a timely bobblehead. The MLB Hall of Fame and Museum features an exhibit on the history of baseball bobbleheads called “Getting the Nod.”
“We have more than 1,000 in our museum collection and it’s clear how popular they are among fans as a way of commemorating big moments,” said Rawitch, who plans to purchase the one of Mendoza. “Unfortunately, the Mendoza one won’t quite fit there, but it will look great in my office!”
Mendoza described the touchdown run on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Thursday night, saying the play was designed for him to run to his left but that he saw daylight to the right and improvised.
“It’s like when you miss your exit on maps, and you’re like, ‘Oh shoot, here we go,’” he told Fallon. “But luckily it was an exit to a touchdown. I saw these huge football players in front of me and I was like a human pinball machine. I was like, boom, boom, bang, getting banged up and all of a sudden I’m in the air and I was like ‘I might as well reach for the touchdown.’”
To which Fallon replied, “Legendary!”
Mendoza spent two seasons at Cal before transferring to Indiana, where he completed 72% of his passes for 3,535 yards with an FBS-leading 41 touchdowns. He rushed for 276 yards and seven more scores.
If he goes to the Raiders, Mendoza would join fellow quarterbacks Cam Newton and Joe Burrow as the only players to be the No. 1 overall pick after having won a national title and the Heisman Trophy.