McElroy Won’t Let Victory Go to His Head

Jim McElroy spent much of the first half on the sideline Saturday, a towel draped over his head to hide tears from television’s prying eye.

He was angry. He was frustrated. He was confused. Mainly, his head hurt.

He spent halftime doing the same sort of things he did in kindergarten, and he spent part of the third quarter in the Oregon end zone, providing the touchdown reception that gave UCLA a 27-24 lead en route to its 39-31 victory over Oregon.

“The long pass to McElroy was key, but I am a firm believer that one play doesn’t make the game,” Coach Bob Toledo said.

One play almost made McElroy’s game, and it wasn’t the reception.

On third down five from the Oregon 17, UCLA quarterback Cade McNown faded back and found McElroy open . . . but only barely so. McElroy gathered in the pass, but before he could do much with it, Eric Edwards pounded him.

“I guess I banged my head on the turf,” said McElroy, who finished the game with three catches for 72 yards. “I kind of lost where I was. I didn’t know where I was. . . . I didn’t know how I got to Oregon or why I was here, for a while.”

He was there to provide a deep threat against the defensive Ducks, and without him, UCLA’s offense shrank.

And suffered. And was behind, 21-10, in the first quarter and 24-20 at halftime.

“After a while, I started to slowly think about the plays we ran that first series and I started coming back,” McElroy said.

“They were giving me things to repeat, and I couldn’t comprehend them at the time. I didn’t know what was going on.

“Getting close to the end of the first quarter, I started to remember things. They started asking me what I did during the day, and I remembered playing video games and breakfast and that I had watched a couple of games on TV.”

He beat the team into the locker room.

“Right before halftime, they brought me in for this little test and I guess I passed it because I got back in the game,” he said.

While coaches were making adjustments, and Toledo was thinking of something inspiring to say, McElroy was speaking quietly: “December, November, October . . .”

He repeated some words he was told, and some numbers.

McElroy was judged capable of returning to the field for the third quarter. “They asked me how I was, and I told them I wasn’t sure, but that I really wanted to be out there,” he said. “I guess they were glad.”

He guessed right.

“He’s our main deep threat, and we didn’t know how long we were going to have him, so we wanted to use him right away,” said Al Borges, the Bruin offensive coordinator.

The play involves sending McElroy up the middle of the field and Danny Farmer toward the left sideline. McElroy’s job is to draw as many defenders as he can away from Farmer, making Farmer’s job of catching the ball easier.

Instead, McElroy found himself virtually alone and gathered in a 40-yard scoring pass from McNown.

McElroy added a 30-yard reception on a screen pass and even returned a punt four yards. He impressed everybody.

“Jim came back after having some kind of concussion, and I don’t know how to describe his performance except that it was really, really amazing how he came back in after getting his bell rung so hard,” McNown said.