Daluiso Has a Memory to Cherish

Brad Daluiso did the traditional New Year’s Day thing Tuesday, sitting in front of the television holding the remote control clicker in one hand and the sports page in the other. He came home to El Cajon for the holidays, though he wished he had spent part of this week somewhere else.

But after Washington’s 46-34 victory over Iowa in the Rose Bowl, Daluiso had cause to reflect on what might have been if UCLA had avoided one of three last-second losses during the regular season. Whom might his Bruins have dealt a solid New Year’s ringing to this year if they had finished 6-5 instead of 5-6?

And why, even at 5-6, didn’t some bowl committee stop to realize UCLA, despite its 4-4 Pacific 10 finish, is not a risk. Not unless they considered the Bruins’ NCAA record string of seven straight bowl victories a reach.

With those thoughts swirling in his head, Daluiso, UCLA’s place kicker, could easily have blown off the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. He could have pulled out his favorite home video, labeled “Nov. 10: Washington,” popped it in the VCR and fast-forwarded to the final scene.

There, in front of 71,925 howling fans at Husky Stadium stood Daluiso, a solo figure, his jersey wet from rain and its sleeves whipping in the wind, lurching toward his crouched holder. With 10 seconds left in the game and watch as No. 82 takes one step, kicks and beats No. 2 Washington, 25-22, with a 43-yard field goal.

The Bruins, 21-point underdogs, pulled off the upset of the 1990 Pac-10 season. And on the first day of 1991, Daluiso, a former Valhalla High soccer player who had never kicked a field goal before the season, still was stunned it was he who had pulled the trigger.

“I do pinch myself,” he said. “I look at the clippings and the game films and I can’t believe I’m out there in front 70,000 people and millions of people watching TV. That blows me away.”

When Daluiso got back to his Westwood apartment that night he found 16 messages, including one from a friend who did a play-by-play of the kick on his answering machine as it happened. There was also a message from his roommate and childhood friend, Scott Fassett, a former Valhalla midfielder who later became a yell leader at USC.

That kick was the high point of a most unusual odyssey for Daluiso, who was a senior forward on the first of three consecutive San Diego Section champion Norseman teams in 1986. Midway through, he suffered a season-ending injury to his right shin. He wound up the next year, admittedly, an unfocused freshman (“I didn’t go to class; just hung around the house”) at San Diego State.

It wasn’t until two years later at Grossmont College that he was attracted to kicking. He took lessons and became a regular at kicking camps, but was relegated to the role of kick-off man his sophomore year at Grossmont and his junior season at UCLA. But in 1990, as a non-scholarship senior, Daluiso was called on by Coach Terry Donohue to put some points on the board.

He made 13 of 19 field-goal attempts, including a season-long 48-yarder against Oregon State, and was 32-for-33 in PAT kicks. He gave the Bruins a last-second victory not just in Washington but Sept. 15 at the Rose Bowl, when he drilled a 21-yarder to beat Stanford, 32-31.

As disappointed as he was that UCLA was not playig in a postseason bowl, he still can cherish his kick, which whistled through the cold rain and the swirling wind and beat the Pac-10 champions. Daluiso hit it so sweetly he said he never felt the ball touch his toe and for several hours later that day he didn’t feel the ground.

“I can’t compare that feeling to anything,” he said. “It was like nothing I ever experienced. It was just euphoria.”

SID-announcer for hire: Before KSDO radio ended its broadcasts of U.S. International University’s men’s basketball games, Scott Finders, the school’s sports information director, was doubling as a color commentator on road broadcasts. This was not by accident. As journalism major at SDSU, Finders hosted a sports talk show on campus radio station KCR.

He produces news telecasts on Channel 39 as an intern in his spare time. Finders said he hopes his future is as a TV sports anchor

“I want to be the next Chris Berman,” he said. But before KSDO pulled the plug, Finders found himself tugging on play-by-play man Jerry Gross’ jacket for air time while scrambling to keep stats.