Departure to El Paso Is Set for Dec. 26

The Bruins begin practice today for the Dec. 29 Sun Bowl against Wisconsin. UCLA will juggle workouts and final examinations over the next three weeks, then take Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off and fly to El Paso on Dec. 26.

While the UCLA players may be excited about playing in the Sun Bowl after failing to secure a bowl bid last season, Bruin fans are not expected to follow their team to El Paso in droves. As a condition of accepting the Sun Bowl bid, the Bruins and Badgers each agreed to buy 8,000 tickets, most priced at $35.

UCLA officials do not anticipate selling half that many. The Pacific 10 Conference will subsidize the cost of up to 4,000 unsold tickets, assistant commissioner Jim Muldoon said, with the Bruins covering the rest out of their $1 million bowl payout.

The Bruins have two starters from El Paso, fullback Ed Ieremia-Stansbury and linebacker Tony White.

“I don’t know if we’ll have a lot of people travel from L.A.,” White said. “But we’ll have a lot of people who support UCLA football back home, because Ed and I go home and tell everybody how great it is here.”