This rivalry burns with a friendly fire

Saturday at the Rose Bowl, UCLA and USC will write the 78th chapter in their football rivalry.

The winner will claim the traditional Victory Bell, taken from a Southern Pacific railroad and stolen from UCLA by USC students in 1941, before it was deemed the prize for the game’s winner.

The rivalry dates to 1929. It took 13 years for UCLA to win a game, and in doing so the Bruins made their first Rose Bowl appearance on New Year’s Day, 1943.

In his recent book, “The Maisel Report: College Football’s Most Overrated and Underrated Players, Coaches, Teams and Traditions,” Ivan Maisel proclaimed that this battle of Los Angeles is the most overrated of college football’s storied rivalries, though most of his argument is based on his denunciation of the Los Angeles sports scene.

Not so fast.

Although UCLA-USC doesn’t have the tradition of the Army-Navy game, the regional significance of the Iron Bowl between Auburn and Alabama or the history of Ohio State-Michigan, it routinely cracks top-10 lists of college football’s best games, and its tickets are annually among the most sought after.

While Maisel’s claim might be unfair, it’s pretty safe to say that UCLA-USC is not the “best” rivalry from a national standpoint (everyone’s rivalry is the best to them). It’s certainly not the nastiest either.

It is, however, one of the most unique.

Of the top 25 major metropolitan areas in the United States, Los Angeles is the only one with two BCS football teams. Whereas all rivalries are defined by proximity ““ border wars, sharing a highway, even sharing a road as is the case in North Carolina ““ only UCLA and USC share a major city. Excuse me for discounting Rice and Houston.

While this might seem trivial, it contributes to the unparalleled environment of the rivalry.

Most notably, the game doesn’t electrify Los Angeles the way it would if it were a small country town or Midwestern city, where football is religion.

And yes, it is an inescapable fact: sports simply aren’t as important in Los Angeles as they are in other metropolitan areas.

After all, other cities don’t have Oscar parties. Other cities don’t have hordes of snowboarders and surfers, people-watchers, vanity-lovers and the weather of a resort destination all rolled into one package. Other cities don’t leave their team’s Western Conference championship presentation and compulsively use their cell phones instead of watching games.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being different. It’s probably a good thing that there is more to do here than incessantly follow sporting events. They don’t boo Santa Claus in Los Angeles, and they don’t believe in curses either. People don’t define their lives by a college football game.

In cold weather cities and small podunk towns, sports simply mean more. They are often at the center of cultural and social events. However, this isn’t Friday Night Lights in Odessa, Texas.

UCLA and USC folks aren’t quite as obsessive. For the millions in the city who aren’t even alumni of one of the schools, they seem to be generally indifferent. Blink and miss the big game.

Maybe that’s because neither team has been dominant at the same time since the 1980s. Or maybe that’s because there is more going on in this metropolis than college football.

Obviously, the two campuses come to life for the big contest. Then again, the campuses don’t invigorate the city itself. Instead, they are slightly lost within the hustle and bustle – the sacrifice of staging major college football in a sprawling urban area.

Sean Denvir grew up a big sports fan in the area and noted the fickle nature of Los Angeles and USC sports fans. “When they were stinking up the Coliseum in the mid-late ’90s, you couldn’t find a USC fan anywhere,” he explained. Denvir has an interesting perspective ““ he attended both UCLA (for undergrad) and USC (for grad school).

The feeble attendance numbers at the Rose Bowl this year indicate a similar disinterest from many Bruins and Angelenos regarding UCLA football. By comparison, despite a 3-9 record this season, Michigan sold out every home game, and the average price of a ticket on StubHub for its year-end collision with Ohio State was a staggering $404. As of Nov. 25, the average UCLA-USC ticket was $175.

Denvir is one of many students who attended both schools. Along with sharing a city, UCLA and USC share facilities and students. It is commonplace to see USC garb in Westwood establishments. I’ve never seen someone given too much trouble for it, though.

This is characteristic of the other unique aspect of this rivalry ““ how relatively friendly it is. The scathing behaviors and senseless violence that is common in other rivalries might exist between USC and UCLA, but they are not the norm.

Current students and graduates continually describe the other school as an institution they “respect.” Many people have friends at the rival university. Countless alumni live and work together. UCLA- and USC- framed license plates drive bumper-to-bumper in traffic without crashing into each other or flipping each other off.

Some people take offense at the thought of not having an overly intense rivalry. Why? What’s wrong with being civil for a change?

“It’s not like we’re mean,” Jeff Knox told me when I asked him how intense the UCLA-USC rivalry is. Knox was on yell crew for UCLA and now does PA for men’s soccer.

USC faithful echo a similar sentiment.

“I always had to respect (the Bruins),” Rhett Bollinger told me. Bollinger was a sports editor at the Daily Trojan, has missed three USC home games in 14 years, and founded a Facebook group called “UCLA Sucks at Everything.” He said the Facebook group was more of a joke and all in good fun ““ he borrowed the idea from other schools with similar groups.

Displaying even more perspective, most fans here seem to regard the accomplishments of the season as a bigger deal than beating their rival. I could not find anyone who would rather beat UCLA or USC than win a national title.

If that sounds, well, normal, I’ve had dozens of Buckeyes insist they would rather beat Michigan than hold the national championship trophy at the end of the season. Although this makes the rivalry game more meaningful, it is certifiably insane.

Like all other rivalries, UCLA-USC has its share of requisite “you suck” slogans and various insults. Yet, it is all still done in a cordial manner.

As Bollinger told me, “UCLA was a four-letter word in my house. But it’s fun to make it a rivalry. There is nothing you can take away from them.”

There is little enmity or violent hatred in this rivalry. Perhaps that’s because it wasn’t rooted in a war. (See: Kansas-Missouri and Ohio State-Michigan)

Then there is Lonnie White’s book, “UCLA vs. USC: 75 years of the Greatest Rivalry in Sports.” Lonnie may be shooting too high with that superlative, although White’s claim has more to do with the peripheral sports the two schools excel in. To say that about the football game alone seems far-fetched, but the matchup is certainly no slouch.

Consider the economic numbers behind the game. StubHub publishes information on what showdown game produces the greatest demand for tickets and highest average price. According to their Top 25 Rivalry Rankings, UCLA-USC is ninth this year, averaging $175 per ticket as of Nov. 25, down from the $247 average ticket price last year.

In 2005, The Crosstown Battle was the top-ranked game in the country, averaging $365 per ticket the week before the game.

While these numbers aren’t quite as formidable as the $400-something people shell out to see the Iron Bowl or Ohio State-Michigan, they are a clear indication that UCLA-USC is a heavyweight in the rivalry department, even when both teams aren’t peaking. Its tickets annually rank near the top of rivalry games in demand and average cost.

Of course, nothing amplifies a rivalry, both nationally and local, like winning. It’s impossible to ignore that for two decades, USC and UCLA have not synchronized their success. The Bruins won a rivalry-best eight in a row over USC in the ’90s, and the Trojans have dominated this decade, taking a 6-2 edge into Saturday’s game.

And when the game is over, the students celebrate as expected. Couches burned on Landfair in 2006 until they melted the backside of a car.

“There were ladies flashing from the rooftops,” Knox recalled. “There was a naked guy dancing around a (burning) couch.'” All because UCLA beat USC in a game of pigskin.

In general though, people seem to treat this game with a great deal of respect, and maintain the perspective that, when all is said and done, it is only a game. That is rare in a 24/7, maniacal sports world dominated by a feverish East coast media.

A USC graduate’s post in an online discussion said it best:

“We compete for excellence, not to destroy and demean the other school. I, for one, love the rivalry, and maybe all you other football fans can’t understand it, but I have tremendous respect for my Bruin “enemies” from the north. They are some of my best friends and family in the world, and I won’t let a stupid football game ruin that. In fact, I think it enhances my relationships with them. It is a special time of year when that football game rolls around.”

That special time of year is two days away. Maybe some couches will burn.

If you have a rivalry story to tell or a couch to burn, e-mail Taylor at btaylor@media.ucla.edu

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