ROSE BOWL SHOWDOWN: UCLA VS. USC : BATTLE FOR A TRIP TO THE ROSE BOWL PROVIDES. . . : A Look Back, a Look Ahead : Last Year’s Hero, John Barnes, Never Tires of Telling His Tale

It was a year ago Saturday when a man and woman were in a convertible, driving through the streets of Pasadena with the top down, looking for gas to get back to Westwood.

It was cold, and the man wore flannels as they pulled into the station. He got out, stood by the pump and another car pulled up. A man got out, walked up and extended a bill. “Five dollars on five,” he said.

Nonplussed momentarily, John Barnes took the bill and walked inside to give it to the clerk.

“Man, that brought me down in a hurry,” he said. “I was a national hero less than two hours before, and now a guy thought I was pumping gas.”

He was a one-game legend who almost became a no-game legend, taking a circuitous route from Mission Viejo to UCLA and then having the kind of day movies are made of: 385 yards passing, three touchdowns, a 38-37 victory over USC.

“It’s a great conversation piece,” he says. “People say, ‘Are you the UCLA quarterback that beat USC?’ and they say it was a great game and a lot of people want to know what went on in the fourth quarter.”

He never gets bored of telling the story. He worked too hard to get to that game to take it in stride. That he was there at all was luck, but his play wasn’t. “You take advantage of luck with preparation,” he says over and over again.

Barnes’s preparation was as unorthodox as the road he took to Westwood. He began to travel it early.

He was dyslexic, and special education was needed to see that he got any education at all. But he could throw a football, perhaps not as well as he thought, and certainly not well enough for a college scholarship, not even well enough to play at Saddleback College.

Not well enough to play at Western Oregon, where coaches wanted to make him a tight end.

Well enough to play at UC Santa Barbara, but that was a Division III program on the way out. Not well enough to merit a scholarship at San Jose State when Santa Barbara dropped football. Or well enough to start at UCLA as a senior walk-on.

Just well enough to beat USC.

“John Barnes thought he could do it. Therefore, he did it,” said Rick Neuheisel, who coaches UCLA’s receivers and was the last walk-on quarterback to start a game for the Bruins before Barnes.

“I don’t think John ever lost faith in himself,” said UCLA Coach Terry Donahue.

The season started with Wayne Cook going down because of an injury in the first game, Rob Walker in the fifth. Barnes’ chance came in the sixth.

“Sixteen plays,” he says. “Sixteen plays, and one of them was an interception that cost us the (Washington State) ballgame.”

Barnes was crushed.

Ryan Fien, then a freshman, got his chance and went down, and Walker returned for the Oregon game, which was finished by Barnes, who threw a touchdown pass and led UCLA to a victory.

Who would start the season’s last game?

“I didn’t know,” Barnes says. “All week, Rob and I traded reps. He would get three, I would get two. I would get three, he would get two. I had a feeling I would start, but Coach Donahue didn’t release it, for reasons of his own.”

Just before the game, Barnes was told the start was his.

A year before, he had sneaked into the Coliseum, sitting in the student section to watch USC and UCLA play, a 22-year-old UC Santa Barbara quarterback, still dreaming the dreams of a boy age 6. What would it be like? How would it feel?

Now he could find out.

“I can still remember the plays. I can remember the conversations with Coach Neuheisel,” Barnes said. “I can remember Coach Donahue coming to the huddle and saying, ‘Let’s make this a drive to go down in UCLA history.’ ”

USC led, 31-17, going into the fourth quarter. Barnes connected with J.J. Stokes on a 29-yard touchdown pass play, Stokes’ second of the game, to make it 31-24 with 12:49 to play. Kevin Williams tied the score on a one-yard run with 7:06 left, ending a drive that included a Barnes-to-Stokes pass play covering 59 yards.

UCLA had the ball on its 10 with 4:41 to play.

“I can remember the nod to J.J. Stokes as vividly as two plus two,” Barnes said.

Neuheisel had guessed that USC had picked up the signal for a post route, a tap on the front of the helmet, and he suggested changing it to a nod. Stokes saw Barnes’ head bob on third and four and wiped his pant leg, acknowledging the play. He took off, running against USC’s Jerald Henry.

Barnes threw. “I can remember getting hit hard, by (Willie) McGinest or somebody, and knocked down,” he says. “And I can remember the crowd. You can tell a lot by listening to a crowd.”

He never saw Stokes’ catch or the rest of the 90-yard play that ended in a 38-31 UCLA lead with 3:08 to play. All Barnes knew is that for one day he was invincible.

Still, USC came back, quarterback Rob Johnson scoring on a sneak to make it 38-37. The Trojans would go for two points and a victory.

“Barnes and I stood on the sidelines and I whispered to him, ‘John, you want him to make this,’ ” Neuheisel said. “He says, ‘I do?’ I said, ‘Yes, because then we get to come back in 41 seconds and get us a field goal and then you’re really a hero.’ ”

Johnson’s pass toward Yonnie Jackson was knocked away by Bruin linebacker Nkosi Littleton.

Barnes was a hero, as was Stokes, who had played second-fiddle to Sean LaChapelle among UCLA receivers all season. Stokes finished the game with 263 yards and three touchdowns to begin his own chapter of Bruin lore, one that is still being written.

“My entire street had come to the game, and I stayed around later to talk with everybody,” Barnes said. “The bus left, and I was going back to Westwood with my girlfriend for the parties.”

Certainly, he was an A-list guest that night. But first he had to handle $5 worth of gas for a man who had no idea who he was.

The months since have been full. Still at UCLA, he is due to graduate with a degree in sociology in December, and he spends time in the athletic department’s marketing section, designing ads for newspapers and programs and working with season-ticket operations to pay for his education.

There was a call a few days ago from a club football team in Italy, interested in employing a bona fide hero as its quarterback. No thanks.

“I really think that I want to see what is there for me in the business community,” he said. “I wanted to play at a higher level, but I guess it’s time for reality to take over. Maybe if the World League had kept going. . . . “

He has spoken to groups, and a week ago met with another UCLA quarterback hero of days gone by, Mark Harmon, to ask how to get started in acting.

“I didn’t know who to call,” Barnes said, “so I asked (offensive coordinator Homer) Smith if he had any ideas. He said I should call Mark Harmon. I got hold of his agent, and he told me Mark was busy, that he was making a picture and maybe he would get with me.

“I thought ‘Well, that’s that.’ But then Mark called and said, ‘Let’s have lunch,’ and asked me where I wanted to go. I suggested a place, and when I went there, it was closed. Then he came up and said, ‘Are you John Barnes?’ and we went to another place and talked three hours about UCLA football and acting. It was awesome.”

Barnes has collaborated with TV newsman Larry Atterbury on a screenplay that begins with the parents of a young man being told he has no place in higher education and ends with you know what.

Three production companies have been approached and two more are being tried.

He is perhaps late, beaten out by “Rudy,” the story of Rudy Ruettiger, a Notre Dame walk-on who played 16 seconds and got a sack against Navy.

“I saw ‘Rudy’ and he was just thankful to make the team” Barnes said. “I wanted to make the team and play, and I did. I played the cross-town rival in the biggest game of the year.”

And won.