WORLD CUP USA ‘94: SEMIFINALS : Spotlight : HE’S SURE GLAD THEY DON’T VOTE

Way back on June 18, on the second day of the World Cup and weeks before the United States became a soccer country, they held a venue opening ceremony at the Rose Bowl before the Colombia-Romania game.

Doing the dignitary duties--”We welcome you to our fine city and state, and we give you the key to Pasadena and blah, blah, blah”--was California Gov. Pete Wilson.

But as he walked toward the center of the field, shortly his name was announced, Wilson knew something was amiss.

There was a crowd of about 90,000 on hand and 89,452 were booing and hissing.

Among Wilson’s major programs has been his quest to tighten state borders against illegal immigration, and suddenly, here he was, in a stadium filled with Latinos, there to root Colombia on against Romania.

Nobody heard his speech.

When he finished what he had to say, he walked back toward the sidelines and, for some unexplained reason, decided to wave to the crowd. A large percentage of the crowd decided to wave back, with their middle fingers.