Ten minutes into practice Wednesday, the entire UCLA football
team shot out of its stretching lines and bolted for the entrance
gate screaming like mad. Some ran straight for the locker room,
while many others jumped the side walls of Spaulding Stadium. But
then there was tackle Kevin Brown, who sheepishly sprinted out of
the gate after being the lone athlete who couldn’t make the
climb over the the six-foot wall. No, this wasn’t a highlight
reel of last year’s game at USC, but instead the
re-establishment of an old Bruin tradition resembling a high-school
ditch day. “When I was here, I remember the senior leaders
telling all the underclassmen that everyone better go,” coach
Karl Dorrell said of his days as a wide receiver. “They would
say, “˜If we’re going, everyone is going.'”
Fulfilling the dreams of most football players, the day off from
practice signifies a conscious choice by Dorrell and the coaching
staff to re-establish old Bruin traditions that have not lasted
through the years. Unfortunately for the players, this new
tradition will only occur once a year.
FORMER COACH DIES: Foster Anderson, a former
UCLA coach, died Monday of complications from a long illness. He
was 64. Anderson was a three-year starter for the Bruins from 1959
to 1961 and was the only man to serve on the coaching staffs of
both USC, the Los Angeles Rams and UCLA, where he coached the
secondary in 1977.
SATURDAY SCRIMMAGE: The coaching staff has had
to rethink its game plan for Saturday’s scrimmage after the
already-thin offensive line suffered even more injuries, this time
to lineman Ed Blanton and center Robert Chai. Dorrell said Tuesday
that the scrimmage would have to be more controlled than he would
have hoped because he didn’t have the depth needed to simply
let them play. The staff plans to expand upon the practice
scrimmages it already had this spring by setting up a more
situational atmosphere.
POSSIBLE WALK-ON: Recent baseball signee Parker
Hanks will have to decide whether he will also play football while
at UCLA. Parker, of De La Salle, had a team-high 124 tackles last
year as a linebacker with two sacks and three fumbles. The football
staff has encouraged Parker to walk on, but he has yet to make a
decision.
INJURY UPDATE: Blanton, who sprained his MCL in
practice Monday, came back with negative X-rays and will not need
off-season surgery.