One of my worst football memories ever — Crazily, it still pains me to think of it
Allen Wallace — I’ve said here before how tough it was for me to endure the Beban Bomb game defeat in 1965, 20-16. My first SC game in person at the jam-packed historic L.A. Coliseum and I’m 13 years old with my best friend, Duffy Duffield, sitting next to me…
You’d think that after 58 years, it might be just another brutal Trojan loss. There have been a few.
But I somehow ran across this snippet from an SI article by John Underwood, suddenly reminding me of that whole Trojan/Bruin torture scene again. The words Underwood wrote perfectly set up exactly what happened on the 20th of November, nearly 60 years ago.
Underwood — “With four minutes to play, USC had a 16-6 lead. Solid. It might just as well have been 60-6. UCLA had not gained a dime’s worth since Mel Farr broke for 49 yards and a momentary 6-0 Bruin lead in the first quarter. For the next 40 minutes the Uclans were held to one first down. They ran exactly seven offensive plays in the second quarter and, backs to the wall, punted three times on third down. In the third they ran only 11 plays, and Gary Beban had two passes intercepted.
“But there was something John McKay had said a week before the game that was to prove omniscient. Speaking only half in jest, he said, ‘It takes us eight minutes to go 60 yards. UCLA goes 60 yards in one clip.’”
Here’s the proof of McKay’s keen insight, and his post-game honesty as well.
“That was my toughest loss by 700 miles,” McKay said after the game. “But they beat us . . . outsmarted us, I guess.”
Sports Illustrated
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