It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. My dad walked down the
stairs of my Berkeley home to greet the family, wearing USC shorts
and a UCLA football jersey. This was not unusual. Since his son is
a Bruin and one of his daughters is a Trojan, he’s done this
before. While I am in my second year here in Westwood, my sister is
in the middle of her fourth year across town wearing red and
yellow.
I remember my senior year of high school when I was hearing back
from colleges. I had already gotten into UCLA and I was checking my
USC letter. I had to be a shoo-in. Given the playful relationship I
share with my sister, it sounded fun to cheer with her or even
against her. I wasn’t sure which one I’d be doing when
I had to make the choice. I never had to choose. I am a member of
the small club of students to get in to UCLA and not USC. The
letter read, “we cannot give you admittance, but since
you’re already a member of the Trojan family, we’d like
you to meet with a counselor and try applying again.” My mom
peeked her head in asking how I wanted to respond. “Tell them
I said, “˜Go Bruins,'” I replied.
Tossing a football outside the house over break, my sister and I
rattled off famous alumni of UCLA and USC at each other. It was a
Gordon Bruin-Trojan showdown for living-room bragging rights.
My Jack Black to her Will Ferrell. Her Troy Polamalu to my Troy
Glaus. Luckily, I have a predisposition towards memorizing
completely random and often useless pieces of information like
movie quotes, sports trivia and famous former Bruins. This
information was not so useless this Thanksgiving. Some of the
notables I called upon in my victory: Sean Astin (the actor who
played Rudy), Corbin Bernsen (who played third baseman Roger Dorn
in “Major League”) Jim Morrison, Francis Ford Coppola,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and my home run in the bottom of the ninth,
Jackie Robinson.
When we were little and still went to the same elementary
school, we used to play “Tecmo Bowl” together on the
original Nintendo. Walter Payton was easily the best player in the
football video game making the Chicago Bears the best team. She
chose them. My sister thought that all of the teams were exactly
the same and that I was just complaining because she had scored a
touchdown. Not the case. Let the record show it was a 30-yard
rushing touchdown involving several broken tackles. Neither Reggie
Bush nor Maurice Drew could have duplicated it. Well, maybe Drew if
it was brought up in a debate with my sister.
Like most sibling rivalries, I’ll admit that the younger
brother is more into it than the big sister. I’ve got more to
win and she’s got more to lose. Being two years older,
she’s got seniority for life. I have to battle against that,
and now with back-to-back national titles, she is sitting pretty.
She can relax.
Except my dad looks better in the powder-blue jersey than the
cardinal and yellow.
My sister implied that I had cheated for prime real estate by
buying it for him. I said that, “Dad asked specifically for
it. He said it’s his favorite jersey in all of sports.”
He verified my claim. Parents are always the trump card in any
sibling rivalry.
My mom is hilarious. The rivalry scares her. Whenever we joke
about it at all she gets visions of siblings standing with bayonets
on opposite sides of the Civil War. I have to stop and remind her I
still love my big sister. I just want to win. Whether it’s at
Nintendo, poker or school rivalries.
So here’s my request to the football team. I hate to be
too much of a homer, but for my home in Berkeley, this could be
big. I know there are a lot of reasons to win on Saturday, like
national prestige and making it to a better Bowl game, but
here’s one more: I will get bragging rights during Sunday
morning cereal and isn’t that what life is all about
anyway?
E-mail Gordon at bgordon@media.ucla.edu if you also have a
sibling that goes to USC.