There are many other great rivalries in college football: Michigan & Ohio State, Auburn & Alabama, Florida & Florida St., Harvard & Yale, Army & Navy, Stanford & Cal, and so on and so on and so on. But there are no two strong rivals in college football who share the same city. USC-UCLA is unique in that regard. What makes it so great? Here's what I tell people every year:
The Thrill of Victory: The prize for this game is the Victory Bell. The winner keeps the Victory Bell for a year and paints it their team's colors. Since 1942, the Victory Bell has awarded to the winner of this game. The bell originally rang atop a Southern Pacific locomotive. It was donated to the UCLA student body in 1939 and it was used to proclaim each UCLA touchdown for two seasons. In 1941, six USC fraternity men heisted the truck that was taking the bell back to Westwood, and it was hidden away for more than a year. A series of retaliatory pranks ended with a badly needed truce, in which the student body presidents signed an agreement to make the bell a trophy given to the annual winner of the football game. It now traditionally comes out only for the first three quarters of this game. This year, the Victory Bell is painted cardinal and gold. It has only changed from cardinal and gold to baby blue and gold once in the last two decades.
The Agony of Defeat: Despite the loss to the Ohio State University, Michigan fans can still wear Wolverine gear around Ann Arbor and face little ridicule from Buckeye fans. But the loser of the USC-UCLA game can't wear their colors around town without somebody popping off. Wins in basketball season don't ease the pain. A College World Series title doesn't absolve you. Volleyball? Water polo? Tennis? Track? Fuggedaboudit. The winner of this game can have their fans openly dig their team for the next year. The loser and its fans are losers for the rest of the year, at home and abroad. For eight long years, we were up to our necks in Bruin crap. For seven years, Bruin fans have had to put up with the same from the Trojans. Some Bruins fans are still basking in the glow of their 13-9 upset in 2006, but the Trojans have a new five-year winning streak working. The sting is worse because UCLA and USC fans and players share the same city, the same neighborhoods, the same high school alma maters, even the same households. On this year's teams, the starting safeties - USC's T.J. McDonald and UCLA's Tevin McDonald - are brothers.
The Glory of Pac-10 Pac-12 Titles and Bowl Berths: For most of the last 25 seasons, this game has had an impact on the Pac-10 championship, a BCS bowl bid or a national championship. In 1998, UCLA was atop the BCS standings and finishing off just the 4th perfect 8-0 conference record in Pac-10 history. (They lost to Miami the next week in a hurricane postponed game that was supposed to have been played in September.) In 2002, USC went to the Rose Bowl and won, 52-21, to set the stage for their Orange Bowl-sealing win over Notre Dame the following week. In 2003, the Trojans beat UCLA, 47-22, to clinch the Pac-10 title and set up their move to the top of the polls the following week. In 2004, a 29-24 win at the Rose Bowl sent the Trojans back to the Orange Bowl for the BCS title game. In 2005, a 66-19 victory clinched USC's 30th Rose Bowl appearance. In 2006, UCLA dropped the Trojans from the BCS championship game to the Rose Bowl. In 2007 and 2008, Trojan wins secured their place in the Rose Bowl. This year, the game decides whether USC or UCLA plays in the Pac-12 championship game with a shot at the Rose Bowl.
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