For UCLA fans, the only thing worse than losing is losing to
USC.
And that’s something we’ve had too much of lately,
more than just the men’s and women’s basketball teams
losing to USC this past weekend. Sure, Bruin fans have
unfortunately gotten used to losing to USC in the big football game
every year, especially during this recent “dynasty” in
which the Trojans managed to win exactly one national championship.
But we’ve always had the other sports to bail us out.
UCLA fans have, in recent history, been able to take pride in
the Bruins’ domination over the Trojans in most other sports.
In my time here, I’ve seen UCLA and USC face off many times
in sports such as basketball, tennis, water polo, track and golf in
which UCLA beating USC was just a given.
Not anymore, it seems.
In the last few weeks, four UCLA teams ““ men’s
basketball, women’s basketball, women’s water polo and
men’s volleyball ““ entered their meetings against USC
as the favorites, but ended up losing. And if you look at the
standings for the Lexus Gauntlet, which gives points to each rival
school based on head-to-head wins at the end of the athletic year
and awards a trophy of a severed hand to the winner, UCLA is losing
to USC 50-15 right now.
Keep in mind that the most lopsided score in the four-year
history of the Lexus Gauntlet came just last year, when UCLA won
70-40. Now I’ll be the first person to point out several
flaws in the Lexus Gauntlet formula used to award the severed hand.
(My favorite example being that while men’s volleyball is
worth five points, women’s volleyball is worth 10 ““ the
same as football and men’s basketball.)
That’s not the issue for Bruin fans here. What’s
done is done. It’s just that I, and many UCLA fans, need to
see some wins against USC for our own sanity. Not because I want to
win the Lexus Gauntlet. I couldn’t care less about the
sponsor-driven competition for the severed hand. I know these wins
will come. And they may come sooner than we think.
The men’s and women’s basketball teams may get a
rematch with USC at the Pac-10 Tournament. And both tennis teams,
along with men’s volleyball, host USC before the end of
winter quarter. So there is still hope that we can finally get that
one stupid song USC’s band plays on a continuous loop during
sporting events out of our heads.
Ңbull;Ӣbull;Ӣbull;
The onepeat.com billboard is supposed to be up within the next
few days, somewhere near the USC campus. For those of you who
don’t read me every week (shame on you), the funds for the
billboard were raised by Louisiana State fans who saw their
football team go unnoticed in winning the national championship
after the 2003 season and the billboard asks the question,
“Shouldn’t dynasties win more than one?”
It’ll be great to finally see the much-hyped billboard go
up. But another bonus is that the founders of onepeat.com raised
more funds than they needed for the billboard, and plan to donate
the extra funds to the Red Cross for the Hurricane Katrina relief
effort (like they said they would before this whole thing started)
““ $2,625 in all.
After my initial column about the Web site and billboard, many
USC fans e-mailed me, arguing that the onepeat.com guys were
selfish, stupid and many other words I can’t print, saying
that they shouldn’t have the nerve to raise money for a
billboard when the hurricane victims need the money.
Well, it’s very reasonable to assume that a good portion
of the people who gave money to onepeat.com wouldn’t have
given their money to the relief fund, because, obviously,
they’re using their extra money for a billboard.
So it’s safe to say that a good portion of that $2,625
wouldn’t have been given to the relief fund without the
incentive of the billboard pointing out USC only won one national
championship during its “dynasty.”
Also, one of the many Web sites that was created in response to
onepeat.com is ForaWorthyCause.com, which says it will donate all
funds to the Save the Children charity. That Web site has only
raised a measly $720 ““ about one-fourth as much as
onepeat.com plans to give to the hurricane relief fund.
And, by the way, you can credit onepeat.com with being the
original reason that the $720 was raised (and any other future
donations to the Web site), since ForaWorthyCause.com was launched
in response to onepeat.com. Are the onepeat.com guys saints? Of
course not. Their main goal was to build the billboard, not to
raise money for hurricane victims. But it’s very cool that
onepeat.com is going to have a charitable impact as well, even if
it’s not an overly large one.
E-mail Quiñonez at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.