As the Smoke Clears, He Stands Tall : UCLA: But despite a Bruin record 409 yards passing, freshman Tommy Maddox can’t enjoy his performance.

When it was finally over, when the emotions of 98,088 spectators in the Rose Bowl and perhaps millions more watching on network television had been drained and sapped and squeezed of every last drop, UCLA’s Tommy-gun was suddenly the loneliest pistol in the West.

Tommy Maddox stood, alone, on the 20-yard line, north end, right hash mark.

Around him, in the stands, those dressed in the Cardinal and Gold of the University of Southern California wept with joy and hugged each other. They had faced Wyatt Earp and somehow dodged his last bullet. The 19-year-old kid from Texas filled them full of holes and still, somehow, they managed to drag themselves off the dusty main street at High Noon and live to tell about it.

In the end, when USC had beaten Maddox’s UCLA Bruins, 45-42, in a college football game for the ages, the young quarterback who had been a focal point all day was lost in the crowd of celebrants and mourners on the field. He tried to bring his team back, one more time, from 61 yards away with 11 seconds to do it. His final effort, the Hail Mary pass, had fallen to the turf and the clock showed :00. This game, which had everything else, would not have a Doug Flutie ending.

So Maddox stood there for a while, probably as long as a minute or so. Finally, in a gesture of sportsmanship, teammate Jim Bonds found his way through the melee on the field and went directly to Maddox. He extended his hand to Maddox, said something as they shook hands, and headed off with him toward the locker room.

Bonds, of course, had the starting job as UCLA’s quarterback until Maddox came along.

And now that Maddox has come along, like something few at UCLA have seen since Bob Waterfield and Gary Beban, Bonds’ job for his senior year with the Bruins might include much of these kinds of things--handshakes and moral support.

On this day, Maddox rode nearly as high in the saddle as any quarterback in the country, and probably on the same level as his counterpart, Todd Marinovich, who threw the winning touchdown pass with 16 seconds to play.

Maddox passed for a school record 409 yards, including three touchdowns. He ran for another.

But in the end, he was left trying to explain why the other team had gotten the last draw on his Bruins.

“We just kept fighting and fighting,” he said. “But they had the ball last (for all but the final 16 seconds).

“The 409 yards are nice, and I’m sure you are supposed to take lots of pride in those things. Maybe when I’m older, and I think back about this, I’ll feel better. Right now, the loss just overshadows that.”

Maddox said that, even when he got the ball with only 11 seconds to play (the kickoff return used up five) he thought he could get his team all the way down for another score.

“I thought maybe they’d back off a lot and we’d have one more shot,” he said.

His first pass, to wide receiver Scott Miller, barely went past Miller’s outstretched hands and, had it been caught, might have moved the Bruins into field-goal range. Maddox’s second pass, the Hail Mary, had plenty of wing but little prayer.

He was asked afterward what Coach Terry Donahue told the team after the game.

“There are no words he could say,” Maddox said. “This game was one of those things you get into sports for. Right now, they (USC) are over there on their highest high, and we are here, in our lowest low.

“There’s just nothing you can say.”

Perhaps Miller, the main target of the Texan’s bullets with eight catches for 175 yards and two touchdowns, said it best: “This was the most exciting game, start to end, I’ve ever been involved in. And then to lose, well, it’s just too much to deal with.”

That’s especially so for Miller, since this was his last collegiate game.

But, barring injury or the NFL money wagon driving up in the night, it certainly was not Maddox’s.

“I always look at the positive aspects of things,” Maddox said. “And I’ll try to do that in this, too. I’ll try to make this help next year. It’s hard right now, but this will heal.”

For those who saw Saturday’s game, the memory will be two-fold: of a thrilling USC victory, and of a tall, slim teen-ager with a quick draw.