Bad Vibes

If you want to find real animosity between L.A.’s cross-town rivals this week, you don’t have to look at the Bruin and Trojan football teams facing off Saturday.

Look at the marching bands.

Since more than $30,000 in musical instruments were stolen from the UCLA band while members played a flag football game at USC last weekend, the ever-present tension between the musicians has been ready to snap.

“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” said UCLA sophomore Katie Green. “This is definitely more than a playful rivalry.”

Most of her band’s equipment was found on the patio of an apartment complex near USC the following day--but with a tenor saxophone case defaced. A sticker written in Hebrew had been ripped off and another that said “Stop Hate” was partially torn. In black marker, someone had written the word “Jew.”

USC campus police say they don’t know if the crime was committed by a student. But UCLA band members are suspicious about their aggressive rivals, who often taunt them.

“It’s surprising that a person going to a university in Los Angeles could show this kind of hatred,” said the sax’s owner, UCLA sophomore Robert Hurwitz.

USC authorities are still looking for suspects and promised to help replace some of the instruments and uniforms still missing.

The school’s associate band director, Tony Fox, said he has held meetings with his band about the incident and does not believe that any members were involved in the theft.

“The kids are just devastated, because they know they’re getting a bad rap for this,” he said.

But some USC band members are unapologetic about their attitudes. While they deny involvement in the theft, they agree that they are far more “in-your-face” than UCLA.

“We run an intense program here, and arrogance is part of the image we exude,” said senior Jason Mangan, the band manager. “We definitely taunt them more than they taunt us. We’re very hard core, and we think they’re big whiners.”

UCLA band officials say the theft is one more incident in a long line of off-color taunts, obscenities and even crimes perpetrated against them by students of the private university.

According to the UCLA band’s assistant director, Jennifer Judkins, a saxophone was stolen two years ago after a basketball game with USC and never recovered.

On Wednesday, a columnist for USC’s Daily Trojan newspaper penned an off-color parody about the UCLA band that called members, among other things, whiny and envious.

And during games, the USC band repeatedly plays the notes F, A and G in a crude taunt to its rivals.

“They have been like that for a long time,” Judkins said. “There is a pattern here.”

Mangan, the USC band manager and a tenor sax player, said that the school’s student affairs office has cracked down on his band in recent years and that members have toned down their behavior.

“The cussing is gone, the beer is gone,” he said. As for the offensive musical notes--which he conceded they played at last weekend’s flag football game--he said it was just an inside joke that was not meant to be homophobic.

USC faculty said they don’t believe that there is bad blood between the bands, beyond the usual rivalry. Fox, the associate band director, said the taunting is mutual and just part of the ongoing give and take.

“From time to time, kids in the band do stupid things,” he said. “Yes, they do play F, A, G, and we stop them when they do it.”

He said the Bruin band does its share of taunting too. Band members have made obscene finger gestures, he said, and USC musicians take abuse from UCLA fans as well.

“People are always waving dollar bills at us like we bought our education,” he said.

USC Assistant Vice President Cynthia Cherey said she did not know of the taunts between the bands. She said she saw the article in the Daily Trojan and did not like it, but added that faculty would not censor the student-run newspaper.

She said that last weekend’s theft does not reflect the “rivalry that is a proud tradition between these academic institutions.”

The incident occurred some time after 7 p.m. Sunday at the annual Band Bowl, which matched the two bands in a game of flag football as a prelude to this weekend’s big game between the teams. About 350 people associated with the bands came out to Cromwell Field at USC to watch, bundled up against the cold air.

During the game, someone broke the lock of a truck carrying UCLA equipment and took drums, trombones, saxophones and other instruments. One UCLA parent told Judkins that she saw young men wearing USC sweatshirts milling around the van and holding instrument cases. That has many of the Westwood students more than suspicious that their rivals were involved.

Later in the evening, UCLA lost the game, 24-19.

The next day, most of the instruments were found on the apartment complex patio. About $5,000 in equipment was still missing, including four snare drums, six band uniforms and several trombones.

UCLA officials were scrambling to make up for the loss in time for Saturday’s game at the Rose Bowl. They say they are prepared now, but still very angry at their cross-town counterparts.

“This was a really big deal for us,” said Steve Kaufman, 21. “This was a poor attempt at a prank that went way too far.”