Team That ‘Backs In’ at Least Is One That’s Back in the Rose Bowl

In last Sunday’s sports page, Mal Florence, with mal-intention and malevolence befitting a USC partisan, maligned UCLA football by saying that UCLA backed into the Rose Bowl. Going to the Rose Bowl depends on a team’s won-lost record, and not on beating or losing to a crosstown rival.

Suppose UCLA played USC early in the season and lost, and suppose UCLA’s last game was against Oregon State and USC’s last game was with Arizona State. What will Mal Florence say then? I find it hard to understand how a sportswriter of many years can make such a glaringly erroneous statement, unless he does it on purpose.

FRED GREGORY

Glendale