These Trojans Didn't Horse Around

One thing about Hollywood, when it gets its hands on a good story line you can be sure it will be repeated from here to eternity. As a consequence, everyone knew what to expect in last Saturday's revival of the annual pre-Thanksgiving extravaganza that features USC and UCLA battling for the league championship. Also at stake was a certain ancillary right for the winner, to wit, a Rose Bowl berth.

Thus, as the final minutes of the game ticked away, the crowd of 90,387 in the Coliseum, and everyone at home tuned in on TV, leaned forward, knowing that the script called for a dramatic finish—an interception, a long touchdown pass, a dazzling run. The suspicion is that a secret codicil to the Los Angeles city charter requires that the USC- UCLA game has to end on a spine-tingling note, as it did last year when USC won with a 38-yard field goal two seconds before the credits were rolled.

In the 48th game of the series, favored USC struck early and almost turned the contest into a rout, but UCLA came back to trail by only 17-10 with 5:10 remaining. The Trojans had the ball on their own 20 following the kickoff, but they had been stalled the whole second half and the script plainly demanded that they would be stopped once more. Whereupon UCLA would take over and, zingo, a spectacular Bruin drive would unfold, the only question being whether it would result in a touchdown.

What the fans got instead was a sunset seminar of power-I ball control featuring USC Tailback Charles White. The crisis point came with 1:24 left, USC in possession on its 47, third down and six to go. The ball went to White for the 32nd time, and he raced around the left side for 11 yards and a first down. The Trojans then ran out the clock and left the field clutching big bouquets of roses. Since 1967 the two teams have met seven times with the right to go to the Rose Bowl hanging on the outcome, and the Trojans have won each time. Like they say, it plays well.

It so happens that the 11 yards White gained on that key play also shot him past Anthony Davis to become the leading rusher in USC—and PCC, AAWU, Pac-8 and Pac-10 conference history—as a junior.

The warmups for this year's game maintained the same high level of nonsense as in the past. There were all the pranks and insults and hoopla that help Angelenos forget the Skid Row stabber or whatever fiend might currently be afflicting the town. The staffs of the Daily Bruin and Daily Trojan played the latest version of a flag-football classic called the Blood Bowl, won this time by the Daily Bruin, and published parodies of each other's sheets. At a Coliseum-area coffee shop, a waiter lifted his apron to show off a button pinned to his belt proclaiming GOD is A TROJAN. Outside the Coliseum, button connoisseurs wandered among the picnickers and tailgaters and sighted some hoary—and usually obscene—standbys.

If Trojan Coach John Robinson had sported a button it would have stated SPEED KILLS. Robinson rates UCLA Halfback James Owens, the 1977 NCAA and AAU high hurdles champion, as the fastest football player he has ever seen. Owens is always a threat to escalate a kickoff return or a dive play into a touchdown. Robinson's strategy was to shut off the possibility of a long return by having Frank Jordan kick off—a new role for the fellow who kicked the game-winning field goal in '77. It paid off. Jordan, who has proved his accuracy by kicking 22 field goals in 33 attempts in 1977 and '78, kicked the ball away from Owens all afternoon.

For his part, UCLA Coach Terry Donahue worried about his defense being "stretched"—trying to stop USC's rushing attack, which features White and Fullback Lynn Cain, at the same time it was trying to shut down the passing of Quarterback Paul McDonald.

Jordan's 21-yard field goal gave USC a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, and Trojan fans felt that was a particularly good sign because 1) the Trojans usually spot their foes a few points and 2) they go wild in the second quarter, having outscored opponents 103-6 in that period this season.

It was no different Saturday as McDonald threw touchdown passes to Calvin Sweeney and Kevin Williams in the second quarter to give USC a 17-0 half-time lead. On the first one, a 36-yarder, McDonald used what the Trojan staff calls a "check with me." He called two plays in the huddle, then announced in code at the line of scrimmage which one he was going to use.