As seventeen-year-old Nate Hassis left the football field on Saturday, October 25, 2003, the senior quarterback at Springfield Southeast High School was thrilled. In the last game of the season, his team had beaten Cahokia High School 42-20. But he had additional reason to be riding high. With seconds left in the last game of his high school career, he had completed a 37 yard pass. The completion gave Haasis 5,006 yards for his career, setting a new record for the Central State Eight Conference and making him one of 12 Illinois high school quarterbacks to pass for more than 5,000 yards.

But a post-game press conference with both coaches would later confirm that all was not as it appeared. With less than a minute to go in the game, Hassis was 29 yards short of the record. Since the opposing team had the ball, Springfield's coach realized the only way Nate would have a chance to break the conference record was to get the ball back. Calling a time out, Coach Taylor conferred with Cahokia's coach and secretly hatched a plan. Springfield Southeast would let Cahokia score an uncontested touchdown. Nate's team would get the ball back with time on the clock for one last drive. The agreement was that when Nate passed the ball, Cahokia defenders would not attempt to interfere.

A few days later, Nate wrote a letter to the president of the athletic conference asking that the pass be stricken from the record books. In it he wrote, "While I admittedly would like to have passed the record, as I think most high school quarterbacks would, I am requesting that the Central State Eight does not include this pass in the record books."

The honors student, who has stated he would like to attend an Ivy League school following graduation, told an Associated Press reporter, "I just didn't feel right having it…. I wanted to preserve the integrity and sportsmanship of the league."