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Bruin Nation, Bruins, Crosstown Rivalry, Exposition Park, Heisman Trophy, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, rivalry, Rose Bowl, Trojan Family, Trojans, UCLA, UCLA Bruins, UCLA Football, University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, USC, USC Football, USC Trojans, Victory Bell, Westwood
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UCLA running back DeShaun Foster going up and over USC defenders for a touchdown. Photo courtesy of latimes.com
MY ANNUAL CROSSTOWN RIVALRY COVERAGE CONTINUES,
WITH SOME PERSONAL MEMORIES OF THE 1998 BRUIN-TROJAN CLASH.
WHICH HAPPENED TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO (YIKES!)
Some would say that 2012-2014 was a pretty good period for UCLA Football,
What with Jim Mora ushering in that period with three straight wins over USC, two ten-win seasons and two bowl wins.
However,
While I can’t really speak for anyone else,
As far as I’m concerned, the true golden years for my collegiate alma mater in football was during a twenty-year period during the 1980s and the 1990s.
A twenty-year period which saw the Bruins…
- Go to eight straight bowl games in the 80s, including a Fiesta Bowl which saw them beat big bad Miami, a Cotton Bowl which I had the pleasure of being at as a member of the UCLA Bruin Marching Band, and three Rose Bowls – with the Bruins winning seven of them consecutively – which is still a record!
and,
- Beat their cardinal and gold-clad rivals from just south of Downtown L.A. no less than eight consecutive times in the 90s – which remains a record to this day and which pushed UCLA’s record over USC during that twenty-year period to 13 wins, six losses, and one tie.
Whenever I tell the current Bruins about those exploits, I get wide-eyed reactions and expressions of “WOW!”, me being sure that they were wishing that time machines existed so they can go back and watch those glorified triumphs;
Which unfortunately illustrates how far down the football program at UCLA has gone.
I personally witnessed four of those Bruin victories over those Trojans during that eight-game streak, in 1993, 1994, 1996 – the only overtime game in Crosstown Rivalry history which saw UCLA furiously come back from 17 points down in the fourth quarter,
And 1998,
Which I’m going to reminiscence about due to the fact that this season marks twenty-five years since that eighth straight Bruin win over ‘SC.
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Cade McNown, UCLA’s superstar quarterback who went 4-0 against USC. Photo couresy of baltimoresun.com
Saturday, November 21, 1998 was a typically warm, sunny day in So Cal…
I was a full time graduate student, working for my master’s degree and secondary teaching credential at Cal State Northridge after several years of working as an elementary school P.E. teacher,
And along with the rest of Bruin Nation enjoying the good times and memories that UCLA’s football team was giving us, the 3rd-ranked Bruins having won a program record 19 straight games going into the 68th Crosstown Rivalry clash with a just-okay USC Trojan team that, with freshman quarterback Carson Palmer, sported a 7-3 record and (I’m sure) was desperately looking to ruin the Bruins’ quest for a Pac-10 title and a possible spot in the BCS National Championship Game.
I had taken a friend of mine to the Rose Bowl for UCLA’s game with 11th ranked Oregon a month before, the Bruins pulling out an overtime win.
She had quite the good time watching the Ducks get beaten, so when I asked if she wanted to witness the number one sporting event and rivalry in So Cal – and on the West Coast, to be honest – she said yes as looking back, I think she wanted to see and experience what the rivalry between Los Angeles’ two biggest institutions of higher learning was like.
She said that would meet me at the edge of Lot H, the grassy area just south of the Rose Bowl where the UCLA Alumni Band, which I was and am a part of, played their pre-game concert for the tailgaters.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she, in retrospect, had wished she had gone to the Rose Bowl with me as she arrived right after the Alumni Band finished their concert and just before we were all about to head for the gates and our seats at Section 2.
I think, while probably not overwhelmed, she was quite impressed at the pregame pageantry with the two marching bands hyping their students, alumni and fans up with their fight songs, seeing all of us waving dollar bills at the USC band while they played “Tribute To Troy”, “Fight On”, and “Conquest”, and hearing all of us scream the “Eight-Clap” during the UCLA band’s “Sons of Westwood”, the chant “BEAT ‘SC!!” practically being heard all the way to the Westside.
She also saw a little of the Trojan Family’s obnoxiousness – which they were notoriously known for at that time but which has lessened in recent years – when a Bruin friend saw a USC band member flip him off.
And if I recall correctly, I saw a Trojan fan, with whom I’m sure was his little boy next to him, give the middle finger to either the UCLA band or the Bruin football team as they came out of the tunnel.
As for the game itself…
It went more or less as expected, the favored Bruins answering SC’s initial field goal with two touchdowns, taking a 27-10 lead and pulling away to a 34-17 win, giving Bruin Nation the right to keep the Victory Bell blue for the eighth straight year with me, my friend, and my fellow Bruin mates among the 88,080 in attendance that afternoon.
I remember my friend complaining about the Trojan band’s incessant playing of “Tribute”, saying that it gave her a headache,
Which I shouted in their direction in the south end zone seats; “You’re giving my friend a headache!” I yelled.
As the fourth quarter began to wind down, alumni yell leader Geof Strand started a chant that very quickly ran through the Rose Bowl growing ever so louder…
“EIGHT MORE YEARS!”
I walked her to the gate after the game ended, then joined some of my fellow Bruin Nation friends in a little celebrating before heading home, none of us knowing that a disaster that would ruin the Bruins’ season would strike that UCLA team in Miami two weeks later.
And at that time,
None of us knew that those Trojans would not only end that eight game streak the next year, but also become a dominant dynasty for the next decade under a new coach, some guy who was fired by the New York Jets and the New England Patriots after a year with the Jets and three years with the Patriots named Pete Carroll, that would see them,
- Win two straight national championships and come to within a yard of winning a third,
- Win seven Pac-10 Conference championships,
- Win four Rose Bowls,
- See two of their players win Heisman Trophies,
- Have a winning streak of over thirty games
and eventually…
- Have it all come crashing down due to NCAA rules being broken with one of their Heisman Trophy winners having to return his award, the program being forced to vacate 14 wins, and getting a two-year bowl ban
CLICHE ALERT:
The fact that it has been twenty-five years since that last triumph in the Bruins’ eight-game win streak over the Trojans freaks me out a bit.
I don’t think I’ll ever find it believable that twenty-five years can seemingly go by so fast.
I only wish the current UCLA students, particularly the Spirit Squad and marching band, and the students who were in Westwood for the bulk of this century, could have been there in the 1980s and 90s to see a Bruin football team that was up there with the Michigans, Ohio States, Alabamas, Georgias, Penn States, and Florida States among the nation’s elite programs.
Or were at the very least in the conversation of who had the best chance to win a “Natty”
I know I sound like an “oldie” pining for the good old days when I say this, but…
Those really were the good old days in Westwood.
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THIS BLOG TOMORROW!
The Reason:
MY OFFICIAL PREVIEW OF THE UPCOMING 93rd MEETING BETWEEN UCLA AND USC,
WHICH WILL INCLUDE MY KEYS TO THE GAME FOR BOTH THE BRUINS AND THE TROJANS.
So…
WATCH FOR IT & DO NOT MISS IT!
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DeShaun Foster going up and over (again!) against the Trojans. Photo courtesy of ocregister.com