There is a special time of year when every UCLA fan ““ be it a student, professor, faculty or Los Angeles resident ““ thinks long and hard about what it means to be a Bruin.
The UCLA fan thinks of the time-honored blue and gold; he thinks of the mighty hills of Westwood and the Bruin statue on campus. More than any other time of year, the UCLA fan thinks these thoughts while preparing to face our dreaded football rival: the University of Southern California.
Certainly, when UCLA faces USC, we revisit what exactly it is that makes us Bruins. After two incidents that occurred last week, however, Bruin pride has been both wounded and inflamed.
Last week, USC fans splashed oil-based paint on the bear statue in Bruin Plaza. The Bruin was a yellow and red mess, splattered with Trojan-colored paint and without a clear culprit at whom fingers could be pointed.
This Editorial Board would like to remind people of what constitutes a healthy rivalry, because USC seems to have forgotten.
Past pranks have been relatively harmless. A little water-based paint on Tommy the Trojan last year was easily fixed. The Inverted Fountain was dyed red in recent years, and the water turned pink ““ a prank that turned out to be funny and all in the name of fun. This year, however, things went too far.
Oil-based paint cost thousands of dollars to clean off and also poses an environmental hazard. The culprits slashed the tarp in which the statue sat, adding additional costs.
This Editorial Board is not against pranks. They can add to the college experience and in fact encourage some real passion within our rivalry, which is meek at best in comparison to others of equally high profile.
But let’s keep in mind that school spirit is about us. It’s about generating energy on campus by joining together against the enemy, by rallying, and by finding unity in a competition against the other school. It’s about hugging complete strangers next to you when UCLA scores a touchdown, wearing blue all week and doing countless eight-claps at the pep rally, all without feeling a bit self-conscious. And yes: It is also about chanting “Beat ‘SC” and making non-obscene gestures involving credit cards. Competitive behavior is slightly antagonistic, but it is rooted in school pride and fun.
Those who splashed paint on the Bruin, however, took spirited school pranks much too far, and the football game itself only added fuel to the fire. A timeout and a subsequent touchdown pass have fans of both schools feeling more distaste for their rival school than most have in many years.
But we have a new start, UCLA and USC fans: basketball season. Though the vandalism and near-fight that broke out on the field were not appropriate ways to get to this point, the rivalry is truly on again, and that’s a good thing. The football game set the stage for what should be a competitive and passionate rivalry. This board hopes that the football game and the buildup to it becomes a way to reinstate our rivalry in the healthiest manner possible in the future.
If we cannot refocus our Bruin pride, it is going to be a long, cold winter.