Memory Lane: 1986 Rose Bowl Highlights Between Iowa and UCLA
by Nestor on Aug 3, 2010 6:02 AM PDT
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PrintI have been looking for highlights of past UCLA big bowl games on YouTube. Specifically, really wanted to see highlights of the Rose Bowls between UCLA and Michigan and UCLA and Illinois from back in the 80s. Well haven't found anything yet. But I did stumble into the highlights from the 1986 Rose Bowl against Iowa.
Iowa came in as the favorites in that game with a 10-1 record (as they were ranked number 1 for number of weeks that season with one loss coming against tOSU). Bruins came in with a record of 8-2-1 (with their losses coming against Washington, Southern Cal, and tie with eventual Sugar Bowl/SEC champion Tennessee). So everyone thought Iowa was going to blow up the Bruins. Didn't really work out that way. Here are the highlights from a turnover riddled first half when Bruins took the lead thanks to freshman RB Eric Ball:
And the second when Bruins sealed the deal:
It's a matter of time we get back to those days. I have to say I miss those road jerseys. It will be cool when we bring those old school colors backs this season. Thanks to gohawkeyes529 for putting up those videos.
Similarly, if anyone finds them, wouldn't mind seeing highlights from the 1998 Cotton Bowl (against Texas A&M), the Fiesta Bowl win in 1985 against defending national champions Miami. It's always fun to take this kind of trip through the memory lane.
GO BRUINS.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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Ronnie Harmon vs. Eric Who
The convention wisdom going into the game was UCLA was in trouble. Gaston Green was hurt and he was the star of the team. We were starting his backup, Eric Ball, who had not done much all year besides watch Green. For Iowa, Ronnie Harmon was a very good back and a great receiver out of the backfield. The matchup was not close. This was Iowa’s game to win and hopefully UCLA would make a game of it.
However, Ball was incredible scoring 4 TDs and Harmon, as you can see from the clips, was terrible. (Personally, I think it is a combination of us figuring out that he could be stripped of the ball easily AND his choking under pressure.)
I was there and it was a great day and game. I will also add that Terry D. deserves credit because UCLA was always loose and ready for the big games under TD. It did not matter to the team that Green was hurt.
Terry D
He had a nice run during that 8 game bowl winning streak (but I would add number of those teams had underachieving years given the unreal talent stockpiled in Westwood). Moreover, he went out on a really disappointing note with a listless Aloha Bowl loss against Kansas and of course the let down against Wisconsin (still remember our unfocused effort in the first half).
Donahue was an above average coach but that is about it. My expectation wrt CRN is performing at a higher level within next 2-3 years.
I don't disagree, with one caveat
Donahue also had an annoying habit of playing the non-conference games as sort of pre-season. This killed us long term in the rankings. He also was worn out his last few years and should have left sooner.
However, when we had two weeks or more to prepare we were very good under Donahue. Homer Smith (his Norm Chow) could come up with a creative game plan that also made a difference in those bowl games, like this one. You can dismiss that as underachieving in other games, but I watched those games and I think it was also coaching.
If I make a ROUGH analogy to today it would be to CBH a bit. CBH with time is great. It is those games two days later that have been tough. It is not the same but again with two weeks or more (as were all the bowl games), TD usually had us ready and very well prepared.
Lastly, I was also at the Wisconsin game. It was the most demoralizing environment I have ever been in. I was sitting in a UCLA section and there was one other couple in the ENTIRE section that was not dressed in red. It was a complete Wisconisn home game and they were absolute crazy. You got the feeling this was the greatest moment in the lives of the Wisconsin fans and that the UCLA fans were happy to sell their tickets to these hicks and watch the game from home. (I got offered $800 at the game for my tickets.)
I think that had to effect the players. It was a road game in our home stadium which is worse than a road game.
I got offered around $1000 right when I was picking up my tickets at CTO
It was also the time we were buying books for Winter Quarter. I kept thinking no way UCLA students/alums would give up a chance to see us win the Rose Bowl.
Also, note there was a let down on our part collectively when Ohio State choked against Michigan the same day we beat Southern Cal. Everyone was geared up for a UCLA-Ohio State Rose Bowl and then Wisconsin came in. At the time Barry Alvarez’s program was just getting established. So we weren’t really into it. So the blame was on Donahue and all of us for not getting the team fired up and focused.
I was at the game and right after Cook forgot to spike the ball, my buddies and I (surrounded by Badger fans) were trying to get the heck out. But we were stuck in Tunnel 6 … as everyone was celebrating the fireworks.
FWIW Wisconsin fans (read “coeds” .. lol) were great sport. We had a great time tailgaiting with them before the game and there were all very classy even after our loss.
Wisconsin fans were good
I should not call them hicks. They were good people, I was just trying to say what some UCLA fans (alumni section) may have thought that.
I don’t blame Donahue as I am not sure how a coach can tell a team that we are playing in our home stadium but all our fans sold their tickets. I think it had to hurt moral, especially the shock in the first half. I guess he could have prepared the team better but I still have never seen anything like it and it was hard to imagine in abstract. As you said “I kept thinking no way UCLA students/alums would give up a chance to see us win the Rose Bowl.” I knew it would be bad but never dreamed it would be that bad.
So, I give Donahue a bit of a pass for this one. Maybe I am wrong but in the context of the time it was a shock and I do think the fans cost us the game (or put another way the Wisconsin fans won it..)
Well the fans didn't fumble the ball 5 times
After the game Donahue also went on to back stab Rick Neuheisel by picking Bob Toledo as his OC (when Smith left the program). I have written long posts on Donahue (“Typhoid Terry”). He also played a huge role in the malaise of our program which we are still trying to dig out of.
Wisconsin
The Sea of Red. It was a road game. I was living with Mike Flanagan, Grady Stretz and George Kase at the time. Needless to say they were less than thrilled with the result or the turnout by UCLA fans.
One of the UCLA players told me after the game
“When we entered the Rose Bowl, the crowd was loud. When Wisconsin entered the Rose Bowl, it was deafening.”
by bornagainbruin on Aug 3, 2010 12:04 PM PDT up reply actions
Also, don't forget that we were playing a backup QB
Starting QB David Norrie got injured during practice that week, and Matt Stevens wound up starting the game. Ironic in that the Rose Bowl program had a misprint and showed Stevens’ picture as the starting QB with Norrie’s name in the caption.
I concur with you about how well TD prepared his teams for bowl games during that winning streak. During that time, Bobby Bowden was the only other coach with a comparable post-season record. But, the Bruins in those days had a habit of dropping at least one of their big non-conference matchups in September, losing the Pac-10 opener, and having to play catch up.
Still though, I’d rather lose in September than in November.
Also, the importance of backup running backs
For years UCLA has had two good RBs on the team. This game showed the importance of that. It is my biggest concern for this year. Eric Ball scored 4 TDs and was a future pro and he was the backup! We need to get back to that.
You're worried about having a couple of good running backs?
We have like 5. I do get your point – none of them are established and all are fairly young – but depth at running back is the furthest thing from my mind. :)
My seats at that game
My buddy and I were sitting straight behind the goal posts. Generally, not the best seats in the house, except during that game, we saw these enormous holes open up, and the Eric Ball would coming steaming on through.
Bob O. (Signholder #3)
BTW, set up your DVRs for the 1988 UCLA-Nebraska game
ESPNU is showing the 1988 UCLA-Nebraska game (the famous 28-point first quarter outburst against the favored Huskers) on Saturday at 11pm and Sunday at 4:30pm. Both showings are preceded by the 1983 UCLA-BYU game.
I was at that UCLA-Nebraska game
That sea of red over on the other side of the Rose Bowl got quiet very fast. Even we were stunned by that start.. My big memory of that game was how Nebraska finally scored, on one of the biggest referee screw-ups this side of Melsby’s “fumble.”. Aikman threw an interception on a low pass, the defender dived, hit the ground, ROLLED OVER, and then stood up holding the ball over his head. No whistle. The referee standing right there, watching this guy roll on the ground like a Greco-Roman wrestler, didn’t blow a whistle. The Bruins were heading off the field before the defender realized after a couple of seconds that, hey, I can just start running, which he did, for a Pick 6, with maybe 3 Bruins still left on the field chasing him. That was some of the loudest booing I’ve ever heard on a football field. Fortunately that only made the score 28-7, so it was more funny than infuriating. I looked at the nearest Nebraska fans, and they looked back, sheepishly, and shrugged their shoulders.
What was infuriating was that those 1987 -1988 teams were NC-caliber, probably the most talent on paper that we’ve ever had. They just had no heart, and they had Donahue constantly playing not to lose, instead of playing to win. A big waste of potential. I’m still not a big Troy Aikman fan, and it was colored by how badly he choked against WSU and SC in 1987.
by Cade McAdverb on Aug 3, 2010 10:49 AM PDT up reply actions
Rosenbach (Washington State)
Totally agrees with you on this:
What was infuriating was that those 1987 -1988 teams were NC-caliber, probably the most talent on paper that we’ve ever had. They just had no heart, and they had Donahue constantly playing not to lose, instead of playing to win. A big waste of potential. I’m still not a big Troy Aikman fan, and it was colored by how badly he choked against WSU and SC in 1987.
Donahue. Ugh.
I was there too
I had the VCR setup to tape that Nebraska game, but the cable service went dead after the first TD and didn’t return until the replay of Matt Darby’s decleater hit on Dana Brinson. So, I’m looking forward to seeing the TV coverage for the other three TDs from that 1st quarter. That freak show rollover play was just plain weird … stuff you see in Strawberry Canyon for a Cal-Stanford game, not at the Rose Bowl.
As far as that 87-88 squad, I wouldn’t lay it all on Donahue. 20 wins is 20 wins, but of course, it’s those 4 losses that are most irksome. I think the bigger issue was Steve Axman. He made Charles Arbuckle into an All-American by calling all those short TE slant plays, but it was so predictable. (This is also the reason why the NFL scouts were skeptical of Aikman’s arm and range — because Axman hardly ever called for a deep route) Much more so than the previous seasons with Homer Smith. Aikman was one of the best 3rd down QBs I ever saw at the college level, but Axman’s play calling got Aikman into a lot of 3rd down passing situations.
I was also at the WSU game, and IIRC Axman called the same pass play four downs in a row after a 1st and goal at the end of that game. If there was ever a situation where Axman actually should have mixed in a running play, it was that one. But, I think Axman was trying to make Aikman the hero and get him the Heisman, when what we needed was a little bit of smash mouth goal line football with four downs to get four yards.
That 87 SC game was just a debacle all the way around, from the phantom TD to Aikman doubling his season INT total in the 2nd half to the non-call on Rodney Peete’s post-INT face masking to close out the 1st half. That was by far Aikman’s worst game as a Bruin, and rumors abound as to why that happened. I’ll put it to you this way, the night before the game was his 21st birthday and leave it at that.
Iowa Rose Bowl
I was at that game and had an awesome seat. Something like row 5 on the 45 yard line. I think it may have been considered “view obstructed” since it was right behind the Iowa bench, but I could see fine.
I do remember before the game how much was made about how much bigger the Iowa players were vs UCLA. All I remember is that at the end of the game the Iowa players were tired and had given up and our little guys were pushing them 3 yards off the line each play.
I lived next door to Mike Sherrard in Dykstra our freshman year and how skinny he was. He weighed 160 in wet clothes. The story was that he was upset about not getting any playing time and tried to transfer to Chico State and Donahue had to go chase him down and bring him back.
As a side note, I was leaving The Wedge at Newport Beach and this car follows me and the driver says “hey, you going to your car?” since parking is in short supply there and he couldn’t find a place. I looked up and it was Terry D and his whole family. I said “hey, you’re Terry Donahue” he said yes and his whole family cracks up. I guess it’s a good thing to be a winning coach. So I said of course he could have my space just follow me back to my space, (my car with the “UCLA” sticker) and waited for him to pull in as I left. He and his family seemed pretty grateful.
Powder to the People
I also used to see Sherrard around campus
He just looked like a regular student. If not for the letterman’s jacket, and my knowing what he looked like, I never would have guessed that here was UCLA’s all-time leading receiver. Gaston Green was another guy that I would see around the dorms my freshman year and say hi to. Never would have guessed that he was UCLA’s leading rusher just by looking at him.
Your observation about Iowa was a common theme during that era where the Big 10 champ would roll into the Rose Bowl every year as a heavy favorite and then get pummeled by the smaller (but faster, more athletic, and better prepared) Pac 10 teams. The best example was the 84 Rose Bowl, where the Neuheisel-led Bruins were an 18-point dog against Illinois, and wound up routing the Illini 45-9.
By most accounts, Donahue was a standup guy at UCLA and played straight with his players, even if they didn’t like what he had to say. If anything, the guys I knew on the team complained that the program was overly meticulous about compliance and academic issues.
Wow - How I Remember This Game
Being not only a true blue die-hard UCLA fan BUT also a native Iowan (and future student at the U of Iowa), this was quite a time. In previous years, I’d always wondered what it would be like if UCLA and Iowa were to meet in the Rose Bowl. Iowa had quite the season in ‘85 winning the Big 10 (may have been Hayden Fry’s best Iowa team ever). But somehow I knew our Bruins would find a way to win this. I never would have thought, though, that Ronnie Harmon would have contributed so greatly to our success by fumbling four times. To this day, Iowa fans talk about how Ronnie Harmon gave that game away but I have to remind my friends how Eric Ball (and pretty much everybody else on our squad) ran past the Hawks that day.
Thanks for sharing, Nestor!
Los Angeles Rams and the UCLA Bruins!!!!!
by Minnesota Bruinfan on Aug 4, 2010 10:32 AM PDT reply actions
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