Rival Claims

Pranks a Lot

Here are some of the ploys that have fueled the bad blood between intrastate rivals:

? Brigham Young radio play-by-play man Paul James lives in Salt Lake City, which is University of Utah (a.k.a. You-You) territory. Each year on the night before the Cougars-Utes game his front yard gets hammered by Utah students with all kinds of items, from litter to VW bugs. Following the game, the perpetrators clean up the mess.

?Two years ago a group of Cal students uprooted the Stanford tree costume from the Stanford Band Shak and took it hostage. At the height of the crisis a photo was sent to the Cal student paper that showed the captive tree wearing a blindfold.

?In 1961 an old cow, which had been donated to South Carolina's Sigma Nu chapter, was to be led onto the field at Carolina Stadium before the South Carolina-Clemson game by a fraternity brother dressed as longtime Tigers coach Frank Howard. A crown was to be placed on the cow's head and the title MISS CLEMSON written on her side in white shoe polish. Unfortunately the bovine Miss Clemson expired while en route to the stadium.

?Before the 1917 Texas- Texas A&M affair a few Texas alumni planned to put a 21-7 brand on a longhorn steer as a reminder of the previous year's victory over the Aggies. A few A&M fans learned of the plan, sneaked into the steer's pen and branded him 13-0, recalling the score of the '15 game won by the Aggies. The Texas folk then converted the 13 to a B, changed the dash to an E and inserted a V before the 0. Thus did the Longhorn mascot come to be known as Bevo.

?At the 1997 Big Game, in Palo Alto, an intrepid Cal alumnus, who had reportedly suffered through broadcasts of several Stanford home games for the sole purpose of recording the announcer's voice, was able to briefly control the Stanford Stadium P.A. system. Late in the fourth quarter of a game that Stanford would win 21-20, fans in the stands heard this synthesized announcement: "Penalty. Excessive arrogance. Stanford sucks."

?In 1989, Steve Spurrier, Duke's coach at the time, led the Blue Devils to a 41-0 abasement of North Carolina at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill. Afterward the Blue Devils, who had been running trick plays well into the fourth quarter, posed for a team photo beneath the scoreboard at Spurrier's behest.