LIFE AFTER THE HEISMAN TROPHY : Forget the Statue, Beban Remembers Loss to USC

His Heisman Trophy, the only one ever won by a UCLA player, sits on a den table in his home in Northbrook, Ill., providing the competitor with a daily reminder of what he was not able to accomplish in a season when he was awarded college football’s most coveted statuette.

Gary Beban capped a brilliant career in 1967, leading UCLA to the top of the wire-service polls with 2 weeks left in the season.

But in one of the most significant and memorable games in the schools’ long and often bitter rivalry, he and the Bruins came up short against USC, losing in a game that determined the national championship, 21-20.

It didn’t matter to Beban that he passed for 301 yards and 2 touchdowns against the Trojans. Or that the game was lost by the Bruin kicker, Zenon Andrusyshyn, who missed a conversion attempt after the Bruins’ third touchdown and earlier missed a field-goal attempt and had two other field-goal tries blocked, his low-trajectory kicks “crashing into the knees of USC linemen,” according to one tongue-in-cheek account.

After USC scored its last touchdown, “We still had (10) minutes to score,” Beban said.

On the day 2 weeks later when it was announced that he had won the Heisman Trophy in a close and controversial vote over USC’s O.J. Simpson, Beban told reporters: “I wasn’t thinking of the trophy at all. All of us still feel the disappointment of the 1-point loss.”

And as he awaits induction next month into the National Football Foundation’s College Hall of Fame at Larchmont, N.Y., Beban still hasn’t forgotten the pain.

“It’s a game that never goes away,” said Beban, who will be honored Saturday before UCLA’s game against Stanford at the Rose Bowl. “I’m not going to say it keeps me up at night, but it’s a game that comes back for all of us.

“You can be watching, for instance, Texas and Arkansas playing in a big game, and you’ll think about the big game you played in. It’s a game for me that comes back more than the Rose Bowl win (over top-ranked Michigan State in 1966) or when we beat USC in ‘65, which was a dramatic win.

“We brought it to the edge (in 1967) and we didn’t make it.”

Winning the Heisman Trophy, he said, did not ease the sting.

“There’s one thing you can’t change and that’s the score of a ballgame,” he said. “You can set a record and it’s going to get broken. And there’s always another award (winner) the year after. But 21-20 can’t change anymore than (USC’s) Mike Garrett can change (UCLA’s 20-16 victory in) 1965.”

Wayne Gretzky hadn’t even entered the first grade in Brantford, Canada, when Beban came to be known as the Great One.

Penn State’s second-year coach, Joe Paterno, a loser to UCLA in each of his first 2 seasons at State College, Pa., compared the 6-foot, 180-pound quarterback to Roger Staubach.

Beban’s own coach, Tommy Prothro, was quoted in the Bruins’ 1967 media guide as saying: “It is inconceivable that anyone could be of more value to a football team than Gary Beban is to ours. . . . Truly, he’s the great one.”

In 3 seasons, the native of Redwood City, Calif., ran and passed for 60 touchdowns, including both touchdowns in the Bruins’ stunning 14-12 upset of Michigan State in the 1966 Rose Bowl, which was UCLA’s first victory in the New Year’s Day game.

He was 23-5-2 as the Bruins’ starting quarterback.

His performance against USC in 1967 was considered all the more remarkable because he played the game with cracked ribs, having been speared--a cheap shot, he said--the previous week in a 48-0 rout of Washington.

A week after the loss to USC, the disheartened Bruins lost to Syracuse, 32-14, as the aching Beban, his injury making it painful for him to even breathe, endured the worst game of his career, accounting for only 8 yards, losing 2 fumbles and throwing an interception.

“That last game would have been easier to forfeit than to play,” he said this week.

Still, Beban won the Heisman.

At that time, he said, the contenders weren’t as closely scrutinized as they are today, but Beban felt the pressure nonetheless.

“I don’t remember weekly charts on how the prospects were doing, like you see today,” he said. “But, quite honestly, I didn’t look at the sports page very often, particularly in my senior year.

“I knew if we won or lost, and I knew what I did right or wrong.”

Beban was a second-round draft choice of the Rams, but when he and Ram management were unable to come to terms on a contract, he was traded to the Washington Redskins, on the day he married his college sweetheart--June 14, 1968.

He and his wife, the former Kathy Hanson, moved East, but Beban never made it in professional football. Moved to wide receiver, he provided only a footnote in Redskin history: In 1968, he caught a 12-yard pass against the Philadelphia Eagles.

“In front of Irv Cross,” Beban said. “And I’ve never let him forget it. He doesn’t remember, though, which gets me upset.”

Beban later tried out with the Denver Broncos, but when he went to work in Chicago 18 years ago for Coldwell Banker, his playing career, for the most part, was over.

Beban, 42, has been as successful off the field as he was at UCLA.

He is president of Coldwell Banker’s commercial real estate division. Living about 30 miles outside Chicago, he and his wife have two sons, Paul, 18, and Mark, 12, neither of whom plays football.

A frequent visitor to Los Angeles on business trips, he is involved in fund raising for his alma mater.

And, of course, not all the memories of his time at UCLA are painful. In fact, Beban even described the experience of the fateful loss to USC as special.

“I played in the Rose Bowl and played in some great games against Tennessee and against Syracuse when they had (Floyd) Little and (Larry) Csonka, but the game was the ’67 USC game because of what it meant and the chance to play for No. 1,” he said. “Even though we lost, it is still a very special moment because a lot of folks don’t even get a chance to play in that kind of game. I think we should just be grateful for that.”

Beban watched with interest this season as Troy Aikman took UCLA to No. 1 for the first time since 1967.

The Bruins have since lost and fallen in the polls, but a victory this week would set up a showdown with USC Nov. 19 for the conference championship.

“They’ve got to get past Stanford, but if they do, it’s back to memory lane,” said Beban, who phoned Aikman before the season to wish him luck. “I know what Troy’s going to go through. It’s an exciting time and I hope he can enjoy it because it’s very special.

“I’m hopeful that he’s able to get the Bruins into a game that brings the season down to one Saturday afternoon. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to do that.”

If Aikman is able to pull it off, he may also be able to bring another Heisman Trophy through Westwood.

“I’m hoping he can join me,” Beban said. “I’d be anxious to be joined by a friend.”

Beban is willing to bet, though, that winning the Heisman Trophy is not Aikman’s No. 1 priority.

“I’ve got a feeling that if you asked him if he’d rather beat USC and go to the Rose Bowl, or win the trophy, you’d probably get a vote for the game and the bowl,” Beban said.

Let there be no doubt as to how Beban would vote.