A trip off old block

Every year, about this time, a right hand tingles.

“As I get older, I can feel more and more of that ball,” George Achica says.

Every year, about this time, a right foot feels nothing.

“I went numb when it happened, and I still don’t really remember too much about it,” Norm Johnson says.

Twenty-five years later, the winner of one of the most dramatic duels in USC-UCLA football history seems clear.

Achica blocks Johnson’s game-winning field-goal attempt in the final seconds, USC knocks UCLA out of the Rose Bowl, Achica remembers it forever, Johnson can’t forget it soon enough.

Typical rivalry story, right?

Except the power of USC-UCLA dismantles typical. It denounces cliche and defies definition.

The overwhelming color of USC-UCLA is not red or blue, but gray, denoting a quarter-century’s worth of surprises that do not end with the game.

George Achica’s tingle? It was paralyzing.

Even though he was only a junior, nothing in his ensuing football career could match the excitement of that moment. He said he never cared as much or worked as hard. He spent three years in the United States Football League but never played an NFL down.

Norm Johnson’s numbness? It was empowering.

He learned to handle defeat. He learned to walk away from wreckage. He waded dejectedly through the cluttered Coliseum celebration toward a triumphant 18-year NFL career.

For one man, the jubilant beginning was an ending.

For the other man, the sad ending was only a start.

To this day, the two men have never spoken. But they will forever share an understanding.

Says Achica: “What happens because of that game, it’s crazy.”

Says Johnson: “Yeah. Crazy.”

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The rest of their lives began in a single moment.

The calendar read Nov. 21, 1981. The Coliseum clock read :04.

UCLA trailed USC by a point, but the Bruins could achieve victory and a berth in the Rose Bowl with a 46-yard field goal.

Johnson, a strong-legged but nondescript kicker, had made 14 of 20 field goals during the season, including one 49-yarder.

He wasn’t an All-American, he wasn’t All Pac-10, he was just a guy with a job.

“I was just a kicker,” he says.

Standing on the USC sidelines was his polar opposite, the rollicking, 6-foot-5, 260-pound Achica.

He was one of the best defensive linemen in the country, a Lombardi Award runner-up, a future All-American, a guy with a wife and a child and a sense of responsibility.

He had been benched late in this game because of a bruised right shoulder, but he begged for one more chance.

“Put me in!” he screamed at USC defensive line guru Marv Goux. “I’ll get something! Trust me! Trust me!”

Goux trusted him, even called a formation for him, setting him up to blow through a gap and leap in the air and pray for a tip.

Which is exactly what happened.

“I jumped, I hit it, it was the greatest moment of my career,” Achica says.

Then, it was one of the most embarrassing moments, as he ran directly toward the sidelines and jumped into Coach John Robinson’s arms.

One problem. The game had not ended. Players were still rolling around trying to grab the blocked ball.

“So I’ve got my arms around Coach Robinson and he’s like, ‘Uh, George, they’re still playing out there,’ ” Achica recalls.

About that time, the whistle finally blew, the Trojans had saved a 22-21 victory, and a celebration ensued, one that still gives Achica chills.

“Standing there with the fans screaming and the Trojan band playing and knowing that I had just blocked a kick to keep our rivals out of the Rose Bowl, it was feeling I can’t describe, but I’ll never forget it,” Achica says.

He eventually tried to offer Johnson best wishes.

Says Achica: “He was walking off in the other direction, I could never get to him.”

Says Johnson: “All around me, everyone was devastated. That’s all I remember. Devastation.”

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Today, George Achica knows exactly where to find his helmet and uniform from that game.

They are on a stand in his closet, dirt still on the metal, memories still in the shirt.

“What they represent is very important to me,” he says.

Today, Norm Johnson has no idea where to find his stuff.

“I think they’re at my dad’s house in Garden Grove, but I’m not real sure,” he says. “That was a long time ago.”

Last January, Achica was watching cable television when a replay of the game appeared. He gathered his two grown sons around him and they watched it together.

His youngest son Richard, 20, had no idea how it ended. When he saw the block for the first time, he said, “Dad, that was really cool.”

Achica says his eyes welled up with tears.

“I think then, maybe, they realized how special this game is,” he recalls.

Johnson, meanwhile, has never watched an instant of the game.

“When I left the field, my UCLA career was over, and the ending wasn’t great, so I never had any reason to watch it,” he says.

Then, for Achica, a funny thing happened on the way to jubilation,

And, for Johnson, a funny thing happened on the way to despair.

Achica played one more season at USC, then left his greatest football days behind him.

“You know, it never got any better for me than that one moment,” he says. “A blocked kick to keep UCLA out of the Rose Bowl, how could it get any better?”

He took $500,000 and played three years in obscurity with the USFL’s Los Angeles Express. Then, given a shot with the Indianapolis Colts, he spent a season on the bench. After a training-camp stint with the San Francisco 49ers the next summer, he retired.

“I hate to say it, but the passion just went away,” Achica says. “My mind just wasn’t into it. To go from a family like USC to a business like the NFL, it was too hard for me.”

He sighs. “What I felt after blocking that kick, it was impossible to match.”

Today he has returned to the San Jose neighborhood where he grew up, living with his wife and sons in his mother-in-law’s former house, working as a successful regional safety manager for a construction company.

“I’ve got a great life,” he says. “And I’ve got a great play that I’ll take to my grave.”

For Johnson, a senior at the time of the kick, the ending was the beginning.

He immediately signed with the Seattle Seahawks, beginning a stellar 18-year career spanning four teams and one Super Bowl appearance, with the Pittsburgh Steelers after the 1995 season.

He finished his career in 1999 as the league’s all-time fourth-leading scorer. He is now a successful Seattle-area real estate agent.

The damage from that blocked kick was minimal. The lessons were huge.

“It isn’t like I missed it, so that helped,” he said. “But also, as a kicker, I knew I had to learn to move on. A big part of my job was forgetting. And this was one I had to forget.”

His first year in Seattle was odd, he said, because he was known as the man who put the Washington Huskies in the Rose Bowl.

“People were on me all year, thanking me for helping UCLA lose and sending the Huskies to the bowl,” he says. “But I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t care what you say, I’m in the NFL.’ ”

Twenty-five years later, this Saturday, when the power of USC-UCLA fills Los Angeles for the 76th time, there undoubtedly will be another moment of such drama. It might not occur in the final seconds, it might not decide the game, but it will be there.

And while somebody will win, and somebody will lose, the only thing for certain, the only thing that counts, is that everyone will be changed.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

UCLA-USC game information

Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. UCLA vs. USC game is sold out. Rose Bowl officials advise fans to arrive by 10 a.m. and strongly discourage those who don’t have tickets from coming to the game.

Getting to the game

Transportation

Because Rose Bowl parking is limited, spectators are urged to use public transit or free shuttle services in Pasadena.

Gold Line

For Metro Rail passengers, the Memorial Park station is a three-block walk from the Parsons parking lot’s free shuttle stop. The stadium’s shuttle stop is near Gates B and C. (See map.)

Limited parking/shuttle service

Rose Bowl parking lots open at dawn. The cost is $10 for cars, which will be parked five deep in some areas.

Park and shuttle rides are available at the Parsons parking lot, 100 W. Walnut (shown on map) at $6 per car. Fans driving to the game are advised to approach the stadium from the Northwest. From the Foothill (210) Freeway take Berkshire Place, Arroyo Boulevard/Windsor Avenue or Lincoln Avenue exits.

The free stadium shuttle runs continuously from four hours prior to kickoff to one hour after the game.

For updated information go to rosebowlstadium.com Pasadena

Sources: Tournament of Roses, Rose Bowl Operating Co.