A ROSE BOWL FOR AGES : USC Won National Title, but ’63 Game Belongs to Guy Named VanderKelen

He played quarterback in the National Football League, works in radio and is a successful marketing executive for a family restaurant chain in Minneapolis.

But while Ron VanderKelen has been content to go on with his life, most people he meets insist on taking him back 25 years, to a New Year’s Day and a Rose Bowl revered as much for its loser as its winner.

On that day, USC won its first national championship in 30 years and completed an undefeated 11-0 season under Coach John McKay in his first of eight Rose Bowl appearances. The Trojans, in the first Rose Bowl meeting ever between the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked teams in the nation, beat Wisconsin, 42-37.

In so doing, however, they also managed to make a hero of VanderKelen, the Badger quarterback who had never taken a snap from center until his senior season but nearly pulled off the greatest comeback in Rose Bowl history with a 23-point fourth quarter.

How often is he reminded of that game?

“It comes up almost all the time, and has for the last 24 years,” VanderKelen said with a chuckle. “To me, the game must have had a tremendous impact, that people still do remember.”

Memories are made of this: VanderKelen completed 33 of 48 passes for 401 yards, Rose Bowl records for completions, attempts and yardage that still stand. And, after USC had opened a 42-14 lead six seconds into the fourth quarter, he directed Wisconsin to three touchdowns (the Badgers also had a safety). The Badgers would have had a fourth touchdown if USC’s Willie Brown hadn’t intercepted a pass in the end zone.

“Most anybody--unless they were from USC--would have said that if we had the football and there were 45 seconds to go, Wisconsin probably would score,” VanderKelen said.

“When the gun went off and the game was over, most of us just stood there in shock. We felt like it can’t be over yet, we’ve got a chance to win.”

That sentiment obviously was shared by many observers.

“I had a temper tantrum after the game,” said Brown, who went on to coach with McKay at both USC and Tampa Bay in the NFL and now owns seven fast-food restaurant franchises in the Los Angeles area.

“I know we had a big lead, but we stopped them. We got in the locker room, and we’re happy and excited, we had won the national championship.

“But then a lot of sportswriters and press came in, talking about the wonderful Wisconsin team. I said, ‘Wait a minute, what the hell, I thought we won the damn game. They didn’t.’ ”

What Wisconsin won, however, was instant admiration. VanderKelen, who hadn’t even been drafted by an NFL team--the draft was held early to counter the influence of the fledgling American Football League--was surrounded by pro scouts as he came off the field.

Wisconsin Coach Milt Bruhn, who is now retired and living in Madison, recalled how he went over to rescue VanderKelen from the scouts, but then couldn’t get back into the Wisconsin locker room.

“The scribes were all waiting for me for 10 or 15 minutes,” Bruhn said. “We had passes, but I’d torn mine off. Finally, a team doctor spotted me and got me in.”

McKay took note of VanderKelen’s instant celebrity.

“What a fine coach I am,” he said. “Wisconsin’s Milt Bruhn had VanderKelen for four years, and all he got was a college education. I had him only four quarters, and got him $60,000.”

For three quarters, USC had dominated. Trojan quarterback Pete Beathard threw only a dozen passes in the game, but four of them went for touchdowns, a record that was matched 21 years later by UCLA’s Rick Neuheisel against Illinois.

Beathard’s first touchdown throw came on a surprise tackle-eligible play to Pat Butcher. He then hooked up with wide receiver Hal Bedsole for touchdown plays of 57 and 23 yards in the third quarter, and his 13-yard pass to Fred Hill six seconds into the final quarter gave the Trojans a seemingly secure 28-point cushion.

Bedsole’s touchdowns weren’t all that aggravated the Badgers. Twice, he was called for personal fouls, and was involved in a scuffle at the Wisconsin bench in which Bruhn was said to have struck the USC end.

“I was blamed for it until I saw Bedsole at an All-American dinner in New York and told him it wasn’t me, it was one of my assistants,” Bruhn said. “He apologized to me.

“But he had a tendency to run into the bench area after a play.”

Beathard, who now is in real estate development in Las Vegas, thinks the Trojans may have gotten too comfortable.

“You know, I don’t think we were aware of what was happening,” Beathard said. “We had a nice lead going into the fourth quarter, and we became a little complacent.

“Our situation that year was that we dominated. We were never in a situation where we had to worry about somebody throwing the ball every down.”

The Trojans, however, were about to have an anxiety attack. Bruhn said Wisconsin’s secondary coach, Fred Jacoby, who is now commissioner of the Southwest Conference, came into the dressing room at halftime and told Bruhn that the Trojans were vulnerable to the play-action pass.

“It froze their linebackers,” Bruhn said. “We could throw to one of our two wide men, depending on what the linebackers did. We threw to the right end in the flat or the left end coming across. We had people open every play.”

One of Wisconsin’s wide receivers was All-American split end Pat Richter, who caught a record 11 passes for 163 yards.

“We had one specific pass that we called the ‘70,’ ” Bruhn said. “Richter would signal in to VanderKelen what kind of cut he was going to make, while the other receivers ran the same pattern every play.

“Pat would look at the secondary, then would give VanderKelen a hand signal. We picked up that idea from (Vince) Lombardi.”

There was another reason why VanderKelen was able to pick the Trojans apart--USC had just about run out of defensive linemen. Tackle Gary Kirner had cut the ring finger of his left hand in a luggage rack a few days before the game. He played, but ineffectively.

“I couldn’t hold on to anyone,” Kirner said afterward. “It was my worst game.”

Co-captain Marv Marinovich was ejected from the game in the first half because of a personal foul, and his backup, Mike Gale, was on the sidelines with his neck in a cast.

“VanderKelen had all day and half of tomorrow to throw the ball,” Brown said. “They got on a roll, and we couldn’t rush him.”

Much of the final quarter was played in near-darkness. The game had started almost 20 minutes late--Bruhn said the Rose Bowl queen and her court were caught in traffic--and lasted more than three hours.

“The game lasted only slightly less long than the War of 1812,” wrote columnist Jim Murray. “The official timer needed a calendar.”

And, Murray added: “No one is quite sure what happened in the fourth quarter because the Rose Bowl’s idea of lighting is two guys holding a cigar lighter at either end of the field.”

Eventually, the Rose Bowl installed new lights. But on that day, VanderKelen could have completed a pass in a mine shaft.

“On the field, you didn’t notice the darkness quite as much,” VanderKelen said. “And it was to our advantage that we were wearing white uniforms. Most of our passes were only 25-30 yards downfield, too.”

VanderKelen completed 8 of 10 passes on a drive that ended with Lou Holland running 13 yards for a touchdown, and the Badgers scored again when USC fullback Ben Wilson fumbled on the first play after the kickoff.

“I told Ben, ‘Go in there and tell the quarterback to run you up the middle three straight times. And Ben, for God’s sake, don’t fumble,’ ” McKay wrote in a book he co-authored with Jim Perry.

When Wilson came off the field, McKay shouted: ‘Ben, I told you not to fumble.’ ”

Said Wilson: “I didn’t hear you, coach.”

Five plays after the fumble, Wisconsin scored, and when they got the ball back, VanderKelen led a drive that put the Badgers on the USC four-yard line. That’s when Brown stepped up and made the play that probably saved the Trojans.

Brown, the free safety and a former CIF player of the year at Long Beach Poly, played on offense, too.

“I was McKay’s first tailback,” he said with a laugh. “I’m the one that’s not famous.”

Brown’s moment of glory, however, was about to come.

“It may have been dark,” he said, “but I had no trouble seeing that ball I intercepted.

“It wasn’t a difficult interception. I read his eyes and may have anticipated well, but hell, it was an easy catch.”

Now it can be told: VanderKelen said the intended receiver ran the wrong pattern.

“It was a play action pass and I rolled out to my right,” VanderKelen said. “I told the receiver, the tight end, to go down and out.

“I threw the ball before he broke, but for some strange reason, he decided to go inside.”

The name of the tight end?

“I could tell you, but I’m not going to,” VanderKelen said.

With less than three minutes to go, USC snapped the ball out of the end zone on a punt for a safety, and Wisconsin drew to within 42-30. The Badgers took over again after a free kick and with 1:19 to go, Richter took a 19-yard scoring pass from VanderKelen.

An onside kick failed, however, and the Trojans ran out the clock.

At about 5 a.m. the next morning, the phone rang in VanderKelen’s hotel room.

“My roommate picked it up and said, ‘It’s Vince Lombardi,’ ” VanderKelen said.

“Now, I was from Green Bay and a Packer worshiper, so I knew he was joking. But it was him, and I was dumbfounded. I didn’t know what to say.

“He said, ‘I want to congratulate you on your game, and when you get back from your all-star game in Hawaii, we’re interested in signing you as a free agent for the Packers.”

The Packers did, indeed, talk to VanderKelen later, but he eventually signed with the Minnesota Vikings, where he played five seasons.

Only once, VanderKelen said, has he watched a film of the ’63 game.

“About 10 years ago, my wife decided to have a party,” VanderKelen said. “We had about 50 people over, had something to eat, and everybody went home.”

Brown said the game may have been the first sign that the Rose Bowl was about to tilt the Pac-10’s way after years of Big Ten domination.

“At that time, the Big Ten had a sort of arrogance, even an intimidation,” Brown said.

“All during the week before the game, these guys (Wisconsin players) were walking around, saying, ‘Why do we have to play these guys (USC)?”’ Brown said.

In the end, they found out. But in the process, a nation discovered Ron VanderKelen.

“Over the years, when you travel around, this has to be the most remembered Rose Bowl,” Beathard said.

“To this day, I hear, ‘God, that ’63 Rose Bowl.’

“People keep talking about it. I guess it must have been more exciting than we thought.”