Your UCLA/USC moment…

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Hey all,

How about posting your favorite personal UCLA/USC memory over the years.
Was it McNeal’s interception that cost the Trojans a bid in the national championship game?
Was it the fake kneel-down in 1986?
Was it the eight-game winning streak from ’91-’98?

How bout it guys…give me your best stories.

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  • RainMan

    The 1986 double-overtime win at the Rose Bowl, coming from 17 down with about 7 minutes left. I sat next to my brother-in-law, a die-hard Trojan fan who left the Rose Bowl in shock, both from the outcome and from the sight of the plastic white horses strategically placed and adequately “watered” in the urinals.

  • solomonbruin

    There were eight great years when I posted the score on my office door after each victory to show my Bruin pride and laugh at my Trojan friends about their lack of knowledge and ability to read which caused them to attend an inferior school.

  • Mensgym

    1960. UCLA beats SC and goes to the Rose Bowl. First game.
    1965. Beban to Altenberg and Witcher. Rose Bowl beats MSU.
    1967. Should have been a tie, but Andrushyshn (sp?) couldn’t kick a PAT.
    Toledo OT win.
    Barnes game and Stokes. Unbelievable.

    Biggest disappointment… Watching Danny Graham get the interference call with a ball thrown into the stands.

  • MaltBaa

    did they even have overtime in 1986? you must have meant 1996.

  • Russ

    I have been a Bruin for more than 60 yrs. & have many great memories and some that rip at your heart. The one I chose takes place in the last of the 4th qtr.(a home game in the coliseum) of the 1967 UCLA Tennessee game. It was the first game of the season and was billed as “the first bowl game”. At that time nearly all BRUIN games were at night. The score was Tenn. 16, UCLA 13. Gary Beban had driven the team to approx. the Tenn. 21 yrd. line and it was 3rd down and about 5 or 6 for a first down (at the closed end of the field). Tommy Prothro calls time out and Beban walks across the filed with a spot light following him. Prothro calls a play, but tells Beban not to give the ball to Mel Farr as the play calls for, but to keep it and run. Beban walks back across the field with the spot light on him. They break the huddle with the spot lights on the team, the ball is hiked and Beban fakes to Farr who crashes into the line, Beban brakes right for a step or two then bolts to the right and races for the end zone scores the winning TD all with the spotlight on him. It was Hollywood to the max and for me the single most exciting play I ever saw. What a moment in time, I will never forget it.

  • ucla84

    Geez – so many to pick from. Karl Morgan delivering roses in a sack. John Barnes. The streak. Marvin Goodwin in the end zone. That feeling when Eric McNeal came down with the football and we knew it was done.

    No – I’ll take the first play of the 4th quarter in 2006. We’d been punching them in the nose all day, and when they went for it again on 4th down, Christian Taylor blasted through the line and absolutely blasted C.J. Gable for a three-yard loss.

  • Slippery Pete

    1996 fourth quarter comeback and overtime win. Best game I ever attended

  • RainMan

    Absolutely 1996. Good memory, bad typing.

  • OCRick

    It was my freshman year at UCLA in 1993. Winner goes to the Rose Bowl. After the Bruins blow an early lead and SC mounts a second half comeback, Marvin Goodwin picks off a pass in the end zone to clinch the game and go on to the Rose Bowl. Even sweeter that we did it in their house.

  • Anonymous

    Marvin Goodwin in 93. I was a 5th year senior and we best sc to go to the Rose Bowl. People also studded out and changed the Hollywood sign that day and it said “Beat sc”. A great day to be a Bruin.

  • http://www.rickbucich.com NorCalRick

    I’m right with RainMan and Slippery Pete on the 1996 game but also 1992 comes to mind. Still remember one of the newspaper headlines the next day: UCLA Barnes Storms USC.

    The Barnes story was just so amazing you could make a move about it. The game itself isn’t as compelling if you remove that element.

    1996, I was in the stands not too far from USC fans who knew they had the game locked up. They started chanting in unison UCLA %$*&^. Moments later we had the ball and shortened their lead. They got quiet, their players tightened up and we got the win. I think that game might have taken a year off my life.

    I’d rather forget the 10/10 tie than many of the loses.

  • BE REAL

    First, this is the beauty of college ball, that some people can remember games from 40 years ago. In contrast, how many pro games stand out in one’s memory?

    Second, I have a bit of a different viewpoint. All the games mentioned I recall, but the 1999 game when SUC broke SUCLA’s 8-game streak was something to witness. It was the only time I recall seeing the fans flooding the coliseum floor despite the fact that the field was surrounded by guards.

    I was disappointed that SUCLA was not allowed to storm the field after the 2006 game but there were horse-backed police deterring that display of emotion.

    I was sitting alone amongst the SUCLA throng at the 1996 comeback game, and I swear 1/3 of the bruins left the game before it was over (much to their dismay today).

    The 2004 game was one of the most important in SUC history, having not won a national championship since 1978. SUCLA put up a gallant defense and made SUC fans sweat, but in the end it was Reggie Bush with 2 electifying runs that gave SUC the win and an opportunity in the Rose bowl to win a co-national championship.

    The 1992 game I have a bit of a foggy memory, but I believe SUCLA came back from the dead to take the lead, but I thought SUC then got a touchdown at the very end but was forced to try for 2 to win (unfortunately no overtime in those days), and did not get it. Maybe I am wrong.

    1965 was electric. Beban and SUCLA had been beaten down all day long, but the score was only 16-6. Beban then hits a long one for a td. SUC’s quarterback, Troy Winslow, instead of giving the ball to heisman trophy winner Garrett, tries a sneak around end, is stripped of the ball, and Beban on the very next play fakes a run right, stops, pivots to the left, and hits the game winner. Just electifying, and it was my introduction to the “rivalry.”

    Of course, it was the 1967 game that was the pivotal game for both programs. SUCLA was No. 1 and SUC No. 2. The SUCLA kicker not only missed an extra point but also 2 field goal tries. And of course the O.J. 64 yard run finished the game, and changed the course of history for both schools.

    LAWYER JOHN

  • uscmike

    My favorite memories are watching USC stop the streak in 1999, and winning 9 of the last 10. Nothing can beat that, although the Marinovich-Maddox 45-42 duel was pretty awesome.

    Beat the bRuins!! Fight On!!

  • Anonymous

    13-9. Easily my favorite moment, but I remember my first UCLA/SUC game, the Barnes to Stokes, as a freshman. That was pretty magical also.

  • Mike in SJ

    I think the ones you remember best are the ones you saw in person.

    I was in the student section for Karl Morgan’s 1982 sack, the first game in the series played in the Rose Bowl. The year before we’d lost in the last second on a blocked field goal. In this game, USC scored as time ran out and was only a point behind. They went for two points, and we were all thinking, “oh, no, not again.”

    Then Morgan flew through the line and the game was over, just like that. We all went nuts. The combination of excitement and relief is hard to describe, but I remember it happily to this day.

  • SD Bruin

    Barnes to Stokes may one of the best stories (along with Normie Dow in 1966), but my first SC-UCLA memory is Karl Morgan sacking Scott Tinsley. I was 12 years old and watching the end of the game at a friend’s house up the street. When Morgan sacked him, I ran out of the house with no shoes on, down the street screaming at the top of my lungs. Neighbors were poking their heads of their houses like I was being kidnapped or something. My mother met me on the sidewalk and we screamed together. From that moment on, the third Saturday of November (and now other dates) is always the best or worst day of the year.

    GO BRUINS!
    U! Rah, rah, rah
    C! Rah, rah, rah
    L! Rah, rah, rah
    A! Rah, rah, rah
    UCLA BEAT SC!

  • solomonbruin

    Jon,
    You’re doing a great job.The cross town morons would rather read your stuff than the lame cheer leader blog they get in the ghetto.

  • BE REAL

    This is an interesting segment because it brings back memories for both SUCLA and SUC.

    And I love how SUCLA puts down SUC for “being in South Central.” First, it shows what bigots bruns are. Second, it indicates their geographic ignorance (South Central is about 6-miles south of SC). And third, it shows how they missed out walking through the largest rose garden in the world onto the storied coliseum to watch another SC beat-down of an inferior opponent. Probably will happen again tonight.

    Priceless.

    LAWYER JOHN

  • cerritosbruin

    I know JR Henderson was a great basketball player, but when reporters asked how he felt about the sc game, he said, “It’s just sc.” Those were the good years. We were in the midst of 8 years of domin8tion. Reading that quote in the Daily Bruin made an everlasting impression on me. I hope a win this year in football helps all Bruins return to that swagger.

  • theuclan

    no doubt skip hicks scoring in double overtime to beat SC in 86…

  • Anonymous

    I can’t remember whether it was in ’90 or ’91, but the Daily Bruin ran a photo after the game that epitomized UCLA class versus USC bad-sportsmanship… a UCLA player offering a helping hand to Todd Marinovich, who was sitting crosslegged on the field, looking up at the Bruin and giving him the finger.