The Rivalry Within a Rivalry : Robinson Holds a 5-3 Advantage Over Donahue, but UCLA Coach Has Won Three of Their Last Four Matchups

Once, they were rookie head coaches, thrown together into one of college football’s great rivalries.

Eighteen years after their first meeting, UCLA’s Terry Donahue still looks like the preppy guy who on that 1976 November afternoon battled USC’s John Robinson for the first time.

Robinson leads in the Robinson-Donahue series, 5-3, but Donahue, 50, can claim the same waistline he had in ’76.

Robinson, 59, has taken on the appearance and manner of a courtly, affable bank president.

In Robinson’s first term at USC, 1976-1982, his teams were 5-2 against Donahue’s. In the first USC-UCLA game of his second term, which began last season, UCLA won, 27-21.

In fact, since Robinson won the first four Robinson-Donahue matchups, Donahue has won three of the last four and two in a row.

Robinson, at 40, became a head coach about three months before Donahue.

When John McKay announced during the 1975 season that he was moving on to the NFL, Robinson, an assistant with the Oakland Raiders, was named to replace him.

Donahue was 31 when he was promoted to head coach at UCLA in February of 1976. He replaced Dick Vermeil, who had left to coach the Philadelphia Eagles.

A look at the eight Robinson-Donahue games in the USC-UCLA series:

1976--USC 24, UCLA 14

There were few bigger games in the series than the first Robinson-Donahue meeting. UCLA was 9-0-1 and had scored 35 or more points seven times. USC was 8-1, having lost only its opener, to Missouri, 46-25.

UCLA was ranked second nationally, USC third.

In the first quarter, USC cornerback Dennis Thurman--now on Robinson’s staff--picked a second-quarter fumble by Theotis Brown out of the air and returned in 47 yards for a touchdown. The Trojans never looked back, building a 24-0 lead.

1977--USC 29, UCLA 27

A controversial pass-interference call on UCLA defensive back Johnny Lynn in the final minute set up USC for a game-winning field goal--with two seconds left--by Frank Jordan.

UCLA had an early 10-0 lead, but USC scored 26 unanswered points. The Bruins went ahead with less than three minutes left on an 80-yard drive with a fourth-down touchdown from USC’s one. That gave the Bruins a 27-26 lead, but Jordan’s kick knocked them out of the Rose Bowl.

1978--USC 17, UCLA 10

The Trojans carved a 17-0 halftime lead, then stuffed UCLA’s vaunted running game in the second half. The Bruins went into the game averaging 264 yards rushing but finished with 62.

Meanwhile, USC’s junior tailback, Charles White, ran for 145 yards and the Trojans went on to beat Notre Dame, then Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

1979--USC 49, UCLA 14

In the most lopsided game of the series since 1950, the fourth-ranked, 9-0-1 Trojans were merciless against a 5-5 UCLA team.

This one was over after two quarters. USC had a 35-0 halftime lead.

White, who was about to become USC’s third Heisman Trophy winner, led a Trojan assault that accounted for 27 first downs and 539 net yards. White scored four touchdowns and gained 194 yards.

1980--UCLA 20, USC 17

In the 50th USC-UCLA game, Robinson’s four-game winning streak against Donahue ended in improbable fashion.

UCLA had the ball on its 42-yard line when quarterback Jay Schroeder threw deep to his tailback, Freeman McNeil. Trojan cornerback Jeff Fisher leaped high to defend on the play . . . and deflected the ball into the hands of McNeil, who then sped past a startled Dennis Smith on a 58-yard touchdown play with 2:07 left.

“The Winning Tip,” a headline writer called it.

1981--USC 22, UCLA 21

USC assistant coach Marv Goux had observed in game films that a UCLA guard stepped slightly to the outside on placement kicks. So the Trojans had nose guard George Achica shooting the gap on key kicks.

Sure enough, UCLA was lining up for a game-winning, 39-yard field goal with four seconds left. Achica’s block saved USC and kept UCLA from the Rose Bowl.

Marcus Allen, soon to win the Heisman Trophy, had 40 carries and 219 yards.

1982--UCLA 20, USC 19

Zeros on the clock and one team ahead by a point--a typical game-ending situation, it seemed, for USC-UCLA.

Not typical was the site. For the first time since the series began in 1929, the schools were not playing in the Coliseum, but in the Rose Bowl, UCLA’s new home field.

USC had driven 66 yards to a fourth-down touchdown as time ran out. Trojan quarterback Scott Tinsley, searching in vain for an open receiver in the end zone on the two-point conversion try, was sacked by Karl Morgan.

1993--UCLA 27, USC 21

No one would have dared predict the finish of this one. Junior USC quarterback Rob Johnson, who had just set a Pacific 10 single-season record for the lowest interception rate--he had thrown only four in 369 passes--would lose a Rose Bowl-decider on an interception.

USC had a first down at UCLA’s three with 1:16 to go and trailed, 27-21. Two runs gained a yard. Then UCLA’s Marvin Goodwin came up with the theft when Johnson threw to tight end Tyler Cashman in the end zone.