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Bruins Give Donahue a Nice Christmas Gift : UCLA Extends Bowl Win Streak to Six, 20-16

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Times Staff Writer

It didn’t take away the sting of missing out on the Rose Bowl, and it sure wasn’t a show of strength, but the 20-16 victory that UCLA scratched out over Florida in the Aloha Bowl Christmas Day before a national television audience and a gathering of 24,839 kept the Bruins’ bowl streak alive.

UCLA became only the fifth team ever to win six straight bowl games, matching Georgia Tech (1951-’56), Nebraska (1969-’74), USC (1974-’79) and Alabama (1975-’80). And UCLA Coach Terry Donahue joined Georgia’s Bobby Dodd and Alabama’s Bear Bryant as the only coaches to win six straight bowl games.

“When I looked up and saw that Kerwin Bell’s last pass wasn’t going to go and our players charged out onto the field, I had a great feeling of accomplishment and a great appreciation for the players who have done this,” Donahue said. “People might not understand that, but when you win six straight to tie a national record and you do it with three Rose Bowls, a Fiesta Bowl, a Freedom Bowl and an Aloha Bowl--that’s tough in the ‘80s. That’s tough any time.

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“I think it makes our bowl tradition obvious. We’re the only team with this kind of a streak going now. It means a great deal to me, personally. Especially when it ties someone like Bobby Dodd. He was a great friend of one of my mentors, Pepper Rodgers.

“It’s quite an honor . . .

“It also means we finished the season with 10 wins and we’ll be ranked in the top 10 again. It means we’ll be able to hold our heads high.”

UCLA finished the season with a record of 10-2. Florida finished 6-6.

The Bruins were playing without their star running back, Gaston Green, who was out with a pulled thigh muscle. They were also without tight end Charles Arbuckle and fullback Mel Farr.

But when Donahue says, “We were severely wounded following the last game we lost,” he was talking about the Bruins’ bruised spirits after losing to USC.

When UCLA cornerback Darryl Henley says, “We didn’t want to be here,” he’s not commenting on the great state of Hawaii but the fact that they had planned all season to be in the Rose Bowl. It wasn’t easy to get up for this game.

So when the Bruins found themselves in a slugfest with a bunch of desperate Gators, there was a danger of letdown.

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“This was a very hard win,” Donahue said. “I didn’t think we played particularly well, but we played hard. . . . To come out of the tank and play like that after the disappointment of losing to USC I think shows a lot about the character of this team.

“It was a battle of wills and our team was able to win it.”

Florida won the battle of statistics, gaining 373 total yards while holding UCLA to 221. Florida also ran more plays and had more first downs.

The Gators’ star running back, Emmitt Smith, was able to pick up 128 yards against a Bruin defense that gave up an average of just 85.1 yards over the regular season.

Florida was able to shut down the Bruin running game, which sorely missed Green. Green’s replacement, Eric Ball, was held to 49 yards as UCLA finished with 48 net yards rushing. Ball said, “I commend their defensive line. We wanted to pound it up inside but we never were able to get our running game established.”

In a game that went down to the last pass there were some strange twists. Also, UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman kept coming up with key third-down plays.

The Bruins were trailing, 10-3, when Aikman put together a last-minute 81-yard drive. Tailback Brian Brown’s one-yard touchdown tied the game just before the half ended. The big third-down play on that drive was a 15-yard pass that senior tight end Joe Pickert knocked down with one hand and then grabbed for a first down.

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Joe Pickert was one example of the unlikely heroes in this game. Pickert has been injured most of the season and had caught only seven passes going into the game. With Arbuckle out, Corwin Anthony was called into action. When he sprained his ankle, Pickert came in.

Donahue said, “He showed a great deal of courage playing on a terrible knee. He’s had an operation and is wearing brace, but when we needed him, he went in and made just an unbelievable catch.”

And then there was Danny Thompson who, given a rare chance to play, made the catch of the game while lying on his back in the end zone. That was after David Keating, another name you don’t hear too often, had blocked a punt that was recovered by Randy Beverley at the Florida 18. Another 13-yard pass from Aikman to Pickert put the Bruins on the 5 and Aikman aimed a pass at Thompson.

Aikman and Thompson made eye contact, but when Thompson cut back to the ball, he fell flat on his back. The pass was tipped by Gator defensive back Kerry Watkins and fell straight down--into the hands of Thompson.

As Aikman says, “That’s the way the ball bounces sometimes.”

The lucky bounce gave the Bruins a 17-10 lead.

A big defensive play by Alan Dial led to the Bruins’ next score. Dial, a strong safety, came rushing in from Bell’s blind side to hit him and knock the ball loose. Chance Johnson recovered it on the Florida 15 and--despite Aikman being sacked (he was sacked five times)--the Bruins scored on Alfredo Velasco’s second field goal of the day.

Florida came back with a touchdown drive that was helped by a personal foul against the Bruins. That play began with the Gators facing a second-and-25 and ended with the Gators on the UCLA 45 with a first down. But after Bell had passed to Anthony Williams for a 14-yard touchdown, Robert McGinty’s extra-point kick thudded into the players in front of him, leaving the Gators four points down, 20-16, instead of within a field goal of a tie.

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On the Bruins’ final drive, Donahue made a gutty call that kept the ball out of the Gators’ hands a precious minute longer. With 4:04 left in the game the Bruins had a fourth-and-one on the Florida 45. A punt would have given the Gators time for a nice drive. Instead, Donahue sent Ball through the middle for a two-yard gain that kept the ball in the Bruins’ hands for four more plays.

Florida’s last drive began with 2:28 left. And Bell, who finished the day with 188 yards, completing 19 of 38 passes, moved the team to the Bruin 20 with five seconds to play.

It all came down to that last pass to wide receiver Darrell Woulard. Bell aimed for the back corner of the end zone on the right side. UCLA’s Henley broke for the ball and, as Donahue said, it looked like Henley would be the only one with a shot at catching it. But at the last second Woulard came into the picture and he, too, went up for the ball.

They came down together, out of bounds, as the final seconds ticked off the clock. The ball was in Henley’s hands.

“I caught that ball! I caught that ball!” Henley told his teammates as they rushed him. And then he told reporters and anyone else who would listen. The sweat and the adrenaline were pouring.

For Bell, it was the end to a long and frustrating season. Bell said, “I’m upset because I missed some people that were wide open. It’s not the kind of game I wanted. We had a tough schedule and it’s been a tough year.

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“UCLA showed that they were a rated team, but we felt that we had the game under control, but we just lost it.”

Or, as David Richards so correctly put it as he stood on the field wearing a lei of real flowers and holding his reeking shoulder pads and jersey: “We came here to win this game and we did that. Just barely. By the skin of our teeth.”

But that made it six bowl wins in a row.

Aloha Bowl Notes UCLA wide receiver Flipper Anderson made four catches in the Aloha Bowl for a total of 48 this season, tying the Bruins’ season record for receptions. He also added 52 receiving yards to his total, making him the school’s all-time leading receiver with a career total of 2,023. . . . During the time that USC was winning its six straight bowl victories, the Trojans were coached by both John McKay and John Robinson. . . . This is the third season in which UCLA has won 10 games. The first time was in 1946. The last two are 1982 and this season. . . . UCLA’s player of the game was Troy Aikman. Florida’s player of the game was Emmitt Smith.

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