UCLA Retains Four Seasons of Incentive

USC, with a 3-7 record and a five-game losing streak, its longest since 1957, will try to salvage part of the season by beating UCLA Saturday at the Coliseum.

As for the Bruins, who are 7-3 and have a date Dec. 31 with Illinois in the John Hancock Bowl game at El Paso, Tex., there is also a motivating factor, especially for Coach Terry Donahue and his seniors.

The Bruins haven’t beaten the Trojans since 1986, tying, 10-10, in 1989.

Asked if he has a sense of urgency in view of the losing streak, UCLA Coach Terry Donahue said:

“Yes. Any time you’re involved in this rivalry as many years as I’ve been, you come to appreciate how good the winning is and know the pain of losing.

“Certainly the fact that we haven’t won since 1986 is a motivating factor for me personally. I’d like to hope that our team would be capable of not going another year without beating Southern Cal. Our seniors would certainly like to win that game before they leave.”

In 1989 the roles were reversed. UCLA was struggling with a 3-7 record, and USC was 8-2 and headed for the Rose Bowl. Yet the Bruins managed to tie, missing a winning field goal when the ball hit the crossbar.

“It’s a cliche, but I think it’s true, that in rivalry games you can throw out the records because the emotion of the game overcomes the season the teams have played,” Donahue said.

“In our particular situation we came into the game in 1989 as a 17-point underdog and there was no question in my mind that we were going to play a heck of a lot better than that.”

By that reckoning, Donahue believes that UCLA won’t play the team that lost to Memphis State, Arizona and Arizona State, among others.

“There is no question in mind my that on Saturday we’ll get the Southern Cal team that beat Penn State, that lost only 14-3 to Washington, and a team that got shafted back at Notre Dame (a questionable Irish touchdown), and beat Oregon more handily than we did,” Donahue said.

“And it probably helps us a little bit experiencing that (a 3-7 record) ourselves. When I talk to our team, I think they’ll pay attention.”

Donahue has been associated with the USC game as a player, assistant coach and head coach since 1964, except for a four-year period when he was an assistant coach at Kansas.

“In 1965, the first year that I played in the game, I can remember very vividly USC being led by Mike Garrett, and they had a lot of good football players,” Donahue said.

“I can remember being on the sidelines with my defensive linemen friends and Garrett was running wild. I can remember that the toughest guy on our team, John Richardson, was bleeding from the face. He’s bleeding and I’m playing over (USC tackles) Jim Vellone and Ron Yary (an All-American) and thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing?’ ”

Still, the Bruins won, 20-16, in a dramatic comeback and the moment is still with Donahue.

“I can remember the mob scene on the field and people yelling, ‘We’re going to the Rose Bowl.’ Memories like that you never forget.

“Conversely, it’s hard to describe the pain that you go through when (a coach loses) because of all the criticism that is heaped on you,” he said.

“If we win the game Saturday, all the talk shows and letters to the editors will berate Larry Smith and, if they win, I will be berated.”

Donahue laughed when he recalled how Bruin fans and alumni react during the week of the USC game.

“They don’t walk up and say, ‘You haven’t beaten USC since 1986.’ They say, ‘How are you going to do in the big one?’ They don’t personalize it. They make it generic.

“The game is significant. It’s important to the city, the alums, fans, players and coaches. And it’s no less important to me. It’s probably more important to me than all of those other groups combined.”