It’s more than just yearlong bragging rights. More than
just quips of who’s better than whom. The key to the city is
at stake.
The magnitude of the crosstown rivalry is only known to a select
few.It’s Texas and Oklahoma, Army and Navy, Florida and
Florida State, Alabama and Auburn, Ohio State and Michigan.
For the past 75 years, one of the most storied rivalries is USC
and UCLA, which will take place this Saturday at the Coliseum.
“It’s a defining game,” Bruin offensive
lineman Ed Blanton said. “You could have gone to USC and been
undefeated, and if you lose, the season doesn’t mean
anything. The same thing if you are 0-9, and you go beat USC, then
it means everything. The one game against them can turn around the
whole season.”
On the line this year is a share of the Pac-10 Championship, a
possible BCS berth and the Rose Bowl, not to mention the fact that
the past six match-ups have gone to USC.
This is only the second meeting ever between an undefeated USC
team and a one-loss Bruin squad, the first one coming in 1988, when
UCLA Hall of Famer Troy Aikman was quarterback.
Also riding on the game is the Lexus Gauntlet, which is a
head-to-head competition of 18 sports. The school that wins the
majority of the rivalry games across all the sporting events is
proclaimed champion. Last season the Bruins took home the Gauntlet.
For the 2005-2006 season, however, USC holds a 15-10 lead over UCLA
in hopes of returning the trophy to downtown Los Angeles.
“The Gaunlet Trophy is a great symbol for the
rivalry,” USC coach Pete Carroll said. “This football
game means a lot toward the competition between the two schools,
and each team is just trying to do its part.”
But there’s a tradition in the football game that goes far
beyond merely the event itself. It even goes beyond the Gauntlet
Trophy. The annual “Battle for the Victory Bell”
carries the weight of 75 years of crosstown rivalry and is the
setting for some of the most memorable football games in college
football history.
In the 1966 season, quarterback Gary Beban, who would end up
winning the Heisman Trophy, had broken his ankle the week before
the Battle for the Victory Bell. Walk-on quarterback Norman Dow led
the Bruins to a miraculous 14-7 victory over the Trojans, who had
played a perfect season until that game. Bruin fans stormed
Westwood after the game, and the entire campus of UCLA was in
jubilation.
Thus began the modern rivalry between the football teams, as the
1966 victory marked the first time the Bruins had truly
overshadowed the usually dominant Trojan program.
Once perched proudly above a steam engine, the 295-pound Victory
Bell has also been at stake between the UCLA and USC game since
1942.
It first came to signify the rivalry after USC students stole
the bell from UCLA’s campus in 1941. The bell was originally
given to UCLA by the UCLA Alumni Association, and after it was
stolen, the schools decided the victor of the rivalry game would be
able to keep the bell on its campus for the following year.
With reports from Sagar Parikh, Bruin Sports senior
staff.