Face Of The Program?

by Nestor on Jun 19, 2008 4:00 AM PDT in Football

About a month ago we alerted you to a survey on WWL which asked UCLA fans who we think is the face of our football program. So we put up our own poll now featured again on our front page.

My suggestion was some guy who holds the all time UCLA record for passing and total offense, orchestrated a 20 game winning streak and went 4-0 against Troy. For a while it was too close to call until it shifted a bit in favor or CRN.

Well now WWL has come out with their pick:

Photo Credit: maveric2003 (flickr)

Yeah, according to them the Rose Bowl is the face of UCLA football. Their reasons:

How many teams' home stadiums are national historic landmarks? How many teams get to play in the No. 1 stadium in college sports (according to Sports Illustrated)? The Rose Bowl game has been played here since 1923, but it's also been UCLA's home since 1982 after the Bruins abandoned the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, their home since 1928. Best of all: Five times the Bruins have played a home game in January -- representing the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl. -- Ted Miller

FWIW I believe Miller is a Husky beat reporter from Seattle, who covers the Pac-10 for ESPN.

Not sure how I feel about that. Seems like ESPN totally missed the boat at least according to the poll here on BN. Thoughts?

GO BRUINS.

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I said this ESPN, although, not as well thought out as below:

Gary Beban is the face of our program, like it or not. He is our only Heisman winner, and he is one of the greatest athletes our great program produced. Not to mention, Gary was the quarterback in the game that is widely considered to be the ‘marquee’ game in the $c-UCLA rivalry, the 1967 Game of the Century.

Cade would be a great choice, but I think he’s too recent given the age our program.

The Rose Bowl, can not be the face of our program. The Rose Bowl is a place (while greatly loved) it is also the location of a great other moments in other programs histories (see Texas in 2006, Michigan, Ohio State, even ugh $c, amongst others). Gary is distinctly Bruin and belongs to no other program.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Victory or until next year!

by ncrpz2 on Jun 19, 2008 9:10 AM PDT 0 recs

Beban vs. SC

The 1967 game was a good game featuring the OJ run. But, the game of all games in his time was 1965, Garrett running up and down the field and then fumbling at the wrong times, 20-16 in a dramatic manner, and for the Rose Bowl….. my favorite game of all time, and one that sealed the deal for me as a Bruin football faithful, even though recent years have tested that loyalty mightily. To see the faces of the SC alums in their yukky colors afterwards in 1965 marching around trying to get out of the coliseum, was priceless.
Bill

BillSouthBay

by BillSouthBay on Jun 19, 2008 9:16 AM PDT 0 recs

Sounds about right

I never had the chance to see Beban in person, but what from I hear he was one of the best to ever suit up for the Bruins.

Victory or until next year!

by ncrpz2 on Jun 19, 2008 9:28 AM PDT up 0 recs

20-16 is the best game of all time

We were so beat. We were getting pounded. But we never gave up. Beban hit Witcher (best pal of sjh) for a 48 yard TD. Then a two-point conversion to Byron Nelson (and Curt Gowdy must have said a million times “No relation to the former golfer of the same name.”) Then Kurt Zimmerman kicks a perfect 10 yard one bouncer to Dallas Grider. Then on 3rd and 15, Coach Prothro calls the “X post H” but instead of throwing to Farr, The Great One hits Altenburg for the TD to give us the lead. But they still had time, and they ran Garrett four times for 9.9 yards and that was it, sports fans.

I will never forget the way the sky looked that day. Somehow I found myself wandering on the trOJan side of the field after the game (we rushed the field in those days) and found a play McKay had drawn up on a piece of cardboard under their bench. I remember basically nothing else for the next two or three months.

by Fox 71 on Jun 19, 2008 3:21 PM PDT up 0 recs

The good old X-POST-H..

..thanks for the great helping of nostalgia!

You should have Hoovered up the piece of cardboard; it would have been a great piece of memorabilia.

The players and the fans were going crazy. I remember jumping on Dallas Grider’s back and pounding his helmet and him turning around and practically squeezing the life out of me in sheer joy. (High fives had not been invented in those days.)

While many have their own personal favorites for favorite UCLA games (esp. versus the condoms), very few can match this one for drama as Fox points out. A Here is a good description Fox’s recollections in more detail.

It also ranks up there for sheer drama because we got “invited” to the Rose Bowl and upset the #1 MSU Spartans 14-12.

For those of you arguing over a college playoff verus the bowl system, this will drive you nuts: the next year UCLA upset USC in the famous “Norm Dow” game and went 9-1 while USC went 7-3. They selected USC over UCLA to go to the Rose Bowl (I think it was one of the last vestiages of the “no repeat” policy) despite the fact that USC got the crap kicked out of them by Notre Dame, 51-0 in the following game. UCLA went nowhere..and the condoms lost to Bob Griese and Purdue

..also, if Zenon Andrusyshyn (who is still playing football somewhere) hadn’t funked an extra point and two field goal attempts, the 1967 game would have been a hat-trick win for Tommy Prothro instead of the show-case for that double-murderer wearing the ugly-assed shoes.

God, it's great to be a Bruin!

by WHP '68 on Jun 20, 2008 6:48 AM PDT 0 recs

Voted Off the Island

I’ll never forget the vote that sent sc to the Rose Bowl even though we were 9-1 and had beaten them.

I was a first year student at the USC Law Center (not to be confused with sc). When they announced the vote there was a rally on campus. I could hear it through the open window of one of my law school classroom. I was so pissed off, I slammed my books shut, stormed out of the classroom and went home. That’s not something that was done in those days. (Law school was a lot more formal and regimented; most of my classmates wore coats and ties every day; I wore the uniform the first day, and never again.) As I left, I was so mad the professor wisely did not say a word as I disrupted his class.

As to favorite victories, both 20-16, the following Rose Bowl, and the Barnes game are burned in my memory. My personal favorite? The Rose Bowl victory over MSU. We were such incredible underdogs—and we won with grit and creativity.

It is so great to be a Bruin.

sjh

by Class of 66 on Jun 21, 2008 9:01 AM PDT up 0 recs

Figures

A Husky wouldn’t pick Neu as the face of UCLA football. You could go with so many choices. Though right now, I would say that CRN is the face of our program, undoubtedly. Throughout history, I think Donahue, for better or for worse, is whom most will remember as the face of the program.

by tasser10 on Jun 20, 2008 10:53 AM PDT 0 recs

Yeah, but . . .

wouldn’t it be great if CRN were able to bring home a NC or two with Chow and Walker’s help. That might push him over the top.

Although, I don’t believe any football coach anywhere is going to last 20 years at the same place. At least not once Paterno and Bowden walk away from the game.

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. John Wooden

by MexiBruin on Jun 22, 2008 7:46 PM PDT up 0 recs