UCLA Marching Band UCLA band members Steve
Romero, Jeff Dandy and Stephen
Kaufman square off against crosstown rival USC during a
previous "Band Bowl."
By Marjorie Hernandez
Daily Bruin Reporter
The culmination of the crosstown rivalry with USC all comes down
to this weekend’s big game. But smaller battles continue to
wage among several Bruin and Trojan groups each year, promoting
school spirit and competition that have spanned decades.
From flag football games to blood drives, competition between
the campuses is in full swing.
“The main event itself is the main source of the
rivalry,” said Gordon Henderson, UCLA marching band director.
“It’s part of the most intense rivalry in the country.
It overflows into everything else.”
For the past 42 years, the UCLA and USC marching bands have
fought for musical bragging rights in the annual flag football
game, “Band Bowl.”
This year, however, the Trojan’s marching band decided to
forfeit due to last November’s Band Bowl incident.
After last year’s flag football game at USC’s
Cromwell Field, about $30,000 to $35,000 of band equipment was
stolen from UCLA’s trucks. Most of the equipment was later
recovered, and the USC band paid for equipment replacements.
“As a result of that incident, USC decided not to play
this year,” Henderson said.
The long-standing tradition of rivalries within rivalries has
also spread to campus publications with the annual Daily Bruin and
Daily Trojan “Blood Bowl.”
But the battle goes beyond the playing field.
According to assistant provost and former Daily Bruin sports
editor John Sandbrook, early one Friday morning before the game in
the ’60s, Daily Trojan staffers replaced The Bruin’s
special ‘SC edition with parody versions of the paper.
Then during the 1971 basketball game in the L.A. Sports Arena,
Sandbrook recalls The Bruin staff distributing fake Daily
Trojans.
“We were quite generous with our descriptions involving
their teams and the USC institutions,” he said.
As true-blue Bruins celebrated Beat ‘SC Week, students
across town celebrated Troy Week with concerts, rallies and
cook-offs.
Greek organizations from both campuses are also getting into the
rivalry spirit, sponsoring BBQs and other games. The UCLA rally
committee and Trojan Pride, the official spirit organization for
USC, will play a flag football “Spirit Bowl” at
USC’s intramural field.
“These cross-town rivalries are a good thing because it
creates a sense of pride between both universities that I think are
the foundations of the memories you have in college,” said
USC Greek Student Assembly president Frank Acevedo.
“If you can remember your alma mater 10 years from now and
remember if your football team won or lost … these are the things
that make it worthwhile, apart from the whole academic
mission,” he continued.
Crosstown competition is not only fun and games, but an
instrument for saving lives.
For the past three years, the “Big Game Blood Drive”
has provided needed blood supply, which runs short every winter.
Six liver transplants within the last few weeks were performed as a
result of blood collected from UCLA students, said Linda Goss,
community liaison for the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center.
This year, Bruins came on top with 894 units of campus blood
donations ““ 443 units more than USC, Goss said.
The blood drive, which accepted donations from alumni, was held
in several hospitals throughout Southern California. Due to the
influx of donations after Sept. 11, it was decided that only campus
donations would be counted for this year’s blood drive
competition, Goss said.
“This is held to show good spirit and not only for the
competition but to help patients,” said registered nurse
Khacho Shahnazarian. “It saves lives, and hopefully this
positive event will be continued. As a whole, the turnout has
been very good.”
With reports from Ellen Kang, Daily Bruin Contributor.