COMMENTARY : Huskies Celebrate More Than Centennial : Football: Gardena sophomore says the 31-0 victory over USC leaves Washington with bragging rights and inside track to the Rose Bowl.
These are the times that free men’s souls.
Old men. Young men. Huskies men.
They had heard about what it was like to beat USC, these Washington players, but until Saturday on a sizzling-hot plastic field in absurdly unseasonable weather, none of them actually had experienced it. Even the fifth-year seniors in that postgame locker room had only talked about beating the Trojans and their guy who gets dolled up in a gladiator’s skirt, and their band that plays one verse from the song “Conquest” over and over again.
Every other time these Huskies had heard that song, it carried the sound of defeat into their heads. This time, it was a death knell for USC and left-handed quarterback Todd Marinovich, who came ranked at the very top of a California prep recruiting class two years ago along with another left-hander named Mark Brunell.
This was the day they said Marinovich would have several of, and now he has had one. This also was the day a lot of people in the Northwest have been saying Brunell, the Washington quarterback, was incapable of.
On a day for the celebration of 100 years of Huskies football, the surprise was that Washington’s defense could make the Trojans impotent and that Brunell would choose this moment for his coming-out party.
Most of all, it was a day for the Huskies to experience the kick of thoroughly beating USC, 31-0. With it came a cleansing rush of emotion that so enraptured Washington Coach Don James that he did something immediately after the game his wife, Carol, never had seen him do.
“I didn’t know what he was doing at first,” Carol said. “He went back behind the bench, and I thought he was going up into the crowd.”
Instead, James got as close as he could to the crowd and reached out for them, all the way back to the tunnel that leads up to the conference and locker rooms. When he got there, he was hit by a wave of emotion. Players ran to him, hugged him, pounded him on the back, slapped his hands and danced around him.
Minutes later, after the screaming died down and they let the players out, James was still wiping away the tears when the press came in the room.
Said he had something in his eye.
He wasn’t sure what it was, but it might have been the blinding light of watching USC players leave the field scoreless.
“I can’t explain what it means to me, I can’t put it in words and I wish I could,” said sophomore Darius Turner, who scored two touchdowns and experienced a kind of redemption for a choice he made three years ago to leave Gardena and come north.
On Saturday morning, Turner’s parents flew up for the game on a flight that included Marv Marinovich, the father of Todd. Turner’s mother and father reported that the father of the quarterback was a proud papa who came to the hinterlands anticipating a USC victory.
“This is great for a number of reasons,” Turner said. “It gives us that inside track on the Rose Bowl, it shows us what we need to do to beat good teams, and me being from L.A. and all, well, it means I can go back home with a little bit of bragging rights, you know?
“I’ve heard about beating these guys and I’ve definitely planned on it. Now, I’m a part of a team that’s done it, and that’s what I came here to do. I didn’t think I could ever feel this good. It’s unbelievable. It was a great feeling beating UCLA last year in the Rose Bowl (during the regular season), but this tops that.”
This was what they had in mind when they planned a 100-year celebration of Huskies football around this game in particular.
“We had Hugh McElhenny and Nesby Glasgow come in and talk to us (Friday) night,” said running back Greg Lewis. “They were sharing some Husky tradition, telling us what it’s like to beat SC.
“We were doing this for the Huskies of the last 100 years.”
It hasn’t been that long, but for all the ones who suited up Saturday and got their first taste of a victory over USC, it was worth it, for crying out loud.