A day that rivals nothing else
They're doing more than just killing time before the kickoff of Saturday's 76th edition of the USC-UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl.
They're killing a few beers, a few brain cells, a few bugs that dare come out onto the Brookside Golf Course on a glorious day like this one.
As we wrote about in today's Daily News column, these are the sights you may or may not have missed were you tailgating among the masses before kickoff:
How do USC and UCLA fans coexist? Pretty well, as far as we could see from their actions speaking louder than words all across the Arroyo Seco. No matter what part of the golf course we'd venture to, there were plenty of Bruins sharing food and drink with Trojans, Trojans playing catch with Bruins ... even a Florida fan who no doubt was pulling for UCLA on Saturday as well.
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-- We came upon a gaggle of young, athletic females near the Brookside 7th green, all wearing the power blue UCLA T-shirts involved in some sort of competition that involved a Frisbee, yellow plastic cups and ... why are they running off to the side to do?
"Take beer shots," said Yvonne Leung of Irvine, a member of the school's BLU (Bruin Ladies Ultimate) squad that has embraced the frivolity of flying discs along with an attitude of play 'til you puke.
It's not an easy activity to explain, but it's a heck of a thing to watch. The pictures here don't do it justice.
Think college-aged girls, ultimately serious about their Frisbee flinging abilities, spaced about 20 yards apart like a game of horseshoes, trying to knock down the cups in front of their opponents, who then have to sprint and guzzle before they can play defense, which is mostly diving to prevent the other girl from throwing a Frisbee at her cups ...
"It's way fun," said Lisa Vampola of Santa Barbara, who's identified as Clyde (her nickname) and as the captain of the squad.
A group of USC fans walked by to watch.
"You can't get Gauntlet points for that," one yelled.
Sure, but you can get plenty of grass stains, scraped elbows and beer-soaked shirts.
Good enough for us.
There's more info on this thing at the group's official website.
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-- Brad Bring of Sherman Oaks had the UCLA Bruin stuffed mini mascot on a string routine going all day long, and enough UCLA fans came by to kick it without thinking about as Bring requested.
"C'mon, six-and-six is no way to live!" Bring shouted to a group of UCLA fans who refused to kick the bear as he commanded.
Oh, by the way, UCLA is 7-5 after Saturday's game.
At one point, a women let her fairly newborn son take a stomp on the bear, enough to where Bring had to get up and take a picture of it himself. Although ultimately, it seemed like the mom was just as eager to pose for herself.
Despite the fact Bring was all dressed up in USC garb -- all the way down to his custom-made Nike shoes that had his nickname, "SC Demon" -- plenty of UCLA fans kicked the bear anyway just because he asked nicely.
"Free kicking! No charge! Totally free!" he kept saying.
Eventually, Bring put two stuffed Bruins out there to be beaten upon. It caused one UCLA fan to exclaim: "That's a double murder." Touche.
A couple of girls representing Google video came by and shot some footage of people kicking the bear, and told us it'd be up on their website. We can't find it, so if you take a look youself and track it down, let us know.
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Read more to see the display of T-shirts, as well as other stuff we stumbled upon ...
-- Variations of the taser shirt were popular among the USC fans. The guy wearing this one above said he actually bought it before the USC-Notre Dame last week. "You gotta seize the opportunity when you come upon it," he said.
-- Cally Ross of Pasadena, left, and Marta Monroe of San Diego, both USC students, wore these homemade versions of the taser-themed shirt. Two other friends had them on, too, but "they're in the bathroom," said Cally. Too bad. You missed the photo op.
This woman was selling versions of her taser shirt, and said she was down to the last one, size L. "Twenty bucks," said a guy with her, wearing a Carson Palmer Bengals jersey (before revealing a far more risque USC-UCLA shirt underneath, one that featured a Trojan mascot standing behind a Bruin mascot and asking "Who's Your Daddy?"
Actually, she finally admitted they were selling her shirts for $10. Her and her friends ran off about 200 of the shirts and were walking around the south end of the Rose Bowl looking for prospective buyers. Maybe you can't quite see the medal stud clip in her lip, which added to the whole uncomfortable exchange.
But then again, it's what the edgy public wants, not some 45-year-old guy with a digital camera and too much time on his hands.
Here's Maria Jefferson and Lawrence Cabrera of Lancaster, our got our vote for best appearance by a mixed couple.
Van Nuys' Jonathan Brennan went with the Bruin-as-in-Ruin theme in the red T-shirts he was selling ...
While his business partner, Brandon Carpenter of Van Nuys, had the more racier version ...
Loulie Delatorre of Placentia was more than willing to admit her need for a Booty call. Unfortunatly for John David, he didn't make the call later in the day.
And as far as Asha (please don't use my last name) of Los Gatos, a UCLA grad with an econ-poli-sci degree, adding a P to the letters USC was a way for her to describe the opponent. You gotta sound it out phonetically.
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We'd seen plenty of kids' bounce-houses around the 'hood, but never an inflatable pub. But here was one in the middle of the golf course, ready to take customers. Order one for your son's next birthday party.
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And it's good to see beer pong is alive and well on the tailgate circuit, not to take a backseat to cornholing. Visit the official (or unofficial) website for more on the rules, regulations and stuff to buy to start one in your own living room during your next family gathering.
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What do these two ducks have in common? Nothing, it seems. At least they get along ...
Just like these two veteran fans.
Ain't it nice?
Comments
It seems that someone forgot to tell the Bruins that this was not supposed to be much of a "contest". I guess the Bruins had one more taser to deliver!
Posted by: John Kennelly | December 3, 2006 06:50 AM
I was on the south side of the Rose Bowl and the crowd was pretty mellow with USC and UCLA fans mixing together easily. That's usually the case.
However, the Rose Bowl staff really had problems dealing with people getting through the gates. There were very long backups at the entrance gates. I couldn't tell exactly what caused it, but it did take about 35-40 minutes for me to walk the last 50 yards in to the Rose Bowl and I got to my seat about 15 minutes after the game started.
Posted by: Wes Covington | December 3, 2006 09:46 AM