The legendary Bell of Byzantium, said to hold half of all the
world’s gold, is an important bell. The Liberty Bell, a
symbol of the founding of our fine country, is an even more
important bell. But do you recall the most important bell of them
all?
Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about the Victory
Bell, formerly of the Southern Pacific freight locomotive, now the
famed prize awarded to the winner of the annual UCLA-USC football
game.
Once perched proudly above a steam engine, the 295-pound bell
now quietly waits 363 days out of the year in a dark warehouse for
its chance to ring above the cheers and jeers of the Southern
California crowd its come to know throughout the past 65 years. For
two whole days, the bell is displayed at the victor’s campus,
starting the Monday following the game.
But while the bell has resided in the slums of Trojan land since
1998, it’s time to take it back whether we win or lose
Saturday.
For those that take the bell at face value as just a hunk of
metal, it has a story or two to tell, not to mention a surprisingly
tawny hue that will get any warm-blooded Bruin up out of their
seats to furiously work at devising a master plan to rescue what
rightfully belongs in Westwood.
Originally given to UCLA as a gift from the Alumni Association
in 1939, the Victory Bell spent its next two years being lugged to
each football game where it was rung by cheerleaders after each
Bruin point. And then darkness descended.
At the first game of the 1941 season in which UCLA battled
Washington, six of Tommy Trojan’s minions from the USC
chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon disguised themselves as Bruin
supporters and paid the bell a visit after the game. After helping
to load it onto a truck bound for Westwood, one of the men quietly
snatched the keys from the ignition. While the true Bruin
supporters left to find a spare key, the six men stole away with
the truck and kidnapped the bell.
USC’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon to this day displays a replica
of the bell in its house which serves as a reminder of their
“achievement.” That’s right, 63 years after that
fateful day back in 1941, one of the fraternity’s proudest
moments remains having committed grand theft auto.
For the next year, the Victory Bell was hidden from pursuant
Bruins in the fraternity’s basement, Santa Ana, the Hollywood
Hills, and as one USC web site put it, seemingly amazed by the
cleverness of the scheme, it was “even concealed beneath a
haystack.” Oh USC, always so crafty!
The bell faded in students’ memories until a picture of it
was published in a USC publication. Subsequently, a UCLA student
painted over Tommy Trojan. In retaliation, USC students burned
their school’s initials into several of UCLA’s
lawns.
The pranks were escalating at such an alarming rate that police
had to interfere, and USC’s then-president, Dr. Rufus B. Von
Kleinsmid, threatened to cancel that year’s football game
between the rivals. In order to quell the chaos, student body
presidents Bill Farrer of UCLA and Bill McKay of USC signed an
agreement on November 12, 1942 stating that the winner of the
annual football game would gain rights to the Victory Bell for the
following year. The Bruins won the bell back that season, defeating
the Trojans 14-7.
Today the bell rests with USC. But why? What UCLA administrator
settled for an annual “Battle of the Bell” instead of
demanding the immediate return of Bruin property. It helps that the
USC Alumni Association reimbursed UCLA half of the Victory
Bell’s cost, but the fact remains that something that was
supposedly so sacred to our school was taken.
Would it be wrong to steal the bell back? After all,
weren’t the USC students of SigEp lauded for their heroism?
If indeed there is no victory for UCLA this year, it might be time
for a few wily Bruins to take some action and change the name of
the Victory Bell to the “Vengeance Bell.”
Because the truth of the matter is that UCLA has trained you to
do it. We brag about past successes at vandalizing USC during
freshman orientation and campus tours. We do our best to force a
“Hate Thy Southern California Neighbor” mentality upon
students at the pre-game bonfire and other Beat “˜SC
events.
With the school so proudly perpetuating this rivalry,
we’ve been given an excuse to go out and do something
illegal. So if the Bruins don’t win this Saturday,
don’t be afraid to turn to thievery.
And if the cops inquire why you’re carrying around a
300-pound bell, tell them it belongs to us.
E-mail Johnson at ejohnson@media.ucla.edu