Mention the play "split left, X-Dover, Y-Clear" to a Pitt fan, and it might not illicit much of a reaction.

But say it in much simpler terms -- fourth-and-17 -- and no doubt the response will be something like "Ah, yes, Pete Gonzalez to Jake Hoffart against West Virginia in 1997" because that play is the one that put Gonzalez's name among the many other legends in Pitt's storied football history.

From that point on, Gonzalez became known simply as "Pistol Pete."

Ten years after that game -- the Panthers upset West Virginia, 41-38, in a triple overtime thriller and earned a most improbable bowl bid -- Gonzalez is an icon among Pitt fans. Very few days go by that he is not reminded at least once about that scrappy team and the game on that cold November day at Mountaineer Field.

"Legend? Nah, when they start using that word when they talk about you, it just means you are getting old," Gonzalez said, with a laugh. "People still tell me that game is one of their best memories as Pitt fans, and that makes you feel good. I don't know about that legend stuff, though. All I really wanted to do when that season started was help Pitt get back on track and get to a bowl game.

"I just wanted people to say that I made a difference, that I was a guy who played hard and competed and had a small hand in helping get things turned

back around for Pitt. I am sometimes amazed that people still remember that game like it was yesterday, but it was a great day for Pitt."

That 1997 team, which was the first under coach Walt Harris, was special for a lot of reasons.

It was the first Pitt team since the 1991 season to finish the regular season with a winning record and the first since 1989 to earn a bowl berth. It had produced upsets of Miami and Virginia Tech and a dramatic, double-overtime win against Rutgers -- in which Gonzalez set numerous records -- and it is generally regarded as the team that laid the foundation for Harris' mostly successful tenure.

And Gonzalez, who was a fifth-year senior from Miami, was the face of that team, not just because he was the starting quarterback, but also because he was very much its heart and soul. Gonzalez was considered a half-step too slow and a bit too short. But what he was was a winner.

That's why Harris said Gonzalez was the easy choice -- among a talented field that included Tony Zimmerman, Leon Murray, D.J. Dinkins and the 1996 starter Matt Lytle -- to be the Panthers' starting quarterback in '97.Harris said he liked Gonzalez's talent, but he was even more enamored with his natural leadership ability and his football intelligence.

"It was clear to me early on in the spring who was going to be the guy," Harris said. "Pete was a great football player, and we had a lot of them on that team and a large group of seniors who were tired of losing. That made it special. And he was unquestionably the leader of that team, and guys responded to him. He just had a great personality, he was smart and he didn't ever believe we could lose a game. Those guys fought and fought every game that year."

A bowl game seemed like a pipe dream after the Panthers fell to 4-5 with a 32-27 loss to a Donovan McNabb-led Syracuse team. The Panthers rallied late and appeared to have it won when Billy West scored a touchdown with 2:12 to play to give Pitt a 27-26 lead, but McNabb threw a touchdown pass with 28 seconds left to pull out the win for Syracuse.

That meant Pitt would have to win its final two games -- against a nationally ranked Virginia Tech team and the Mountaineers, who were 7-3 heading into the game and loaded with 11 future NFL players, including Marc Bulger, Amos Zereoue, Jerry Porter and Anthony Becht. The Panthers had lost four games in a row to Virginia Tech and were on a five-game losing streak to West Virginia.

But Gonzalez threw for 315 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Panthers to a 30-23 upset of the Hokies to set up the showdown with West Virginia.

"There was never a question in my mind going down there that we'd find a way to win the game," said Gonzalez, who lives in Mars and is the vice president for development of Texas Keystone, Inc., an oil and gas company. "We knew it was going to be a physical game, and it was brutal. I mean, they beat me up; it seemed like I got hit every play. But we liked physical games, we liked tough games and, if you looked, we were in those crazy games that came down to the last play just about every week, so we were completely comfortable when it went into overtime."

Pitt took an early lead in the West Virginia game, but the score was tied, 35-35, at the end of regulation of a see-saw game. Both teams missed field goals in the first overtime, then both teams turned the ball over in the second, but West Virginia's Jay Taylor made a 52-yard field goal to give the Mountaineers a 38-35 lead in the third.

That meant that Pitt had one last possession to try to tie or win the game, but Gonzalez was sacked on third-and-10 from the 25. The season boiled down to this: The Panthers faced fourth-and-17 with the season on the line. That's when Gonzalez completed the pass to Hoffart and, two plays later, hit Terry Murphy for a winning, 12-yard touchdown pass.

Pitt received a Liberty Bowl berth after the game and was beaten by Southern Mississippi, 41-7. But that is mostly a footnote to the 1997 season because the Panthers already had built a foundation for the program and beaten one of their most bitter rivals.

"We had a lot of confidence, even though the only people in that stadium that day who believed we could win were 2,000 or so of our fans that had made the trip and the 60 or so guys on our team," Gonzalez said.

"It was really us against the world. West Virginia had a lot more NFL guys than we did, but we knew we had better pure football players than they did, just tough guys who made plays and wanted to win. And we didn't match up with them man-for-man, but, schematically, we knew they couldn't stop our offense.

"There was nothing as sweet as walking out of that stadium with a victory. We were drained, emotionally and mentally, we were physically beat up, but we knew we had done something special and, if you look at what happened with the program after that, we really helped get things started."