Tale Of The City

Feeling a little left out on rivalry weekend? Are there inadequacy issues because UCLA vs. USC didn’t merit a spot on national television--or even regional TV--and the best it could merit was Fox Sports Net 2 joining “in progress”?

I’m with you. I’ve always felt that the UCLA-USC game didn’t get the full recognition it deserved, that the depth of the rivalry was never appreciated around the country. Someone in Chicago once asked me if people in L.A. rooted for both teams. I tried to explain that it was physically impossible, that there are choices everyone must make in life--Democrat or Republican, cloth or leather upholstery, UCLA or USC. The fact that the question even comes up shows the low esteem in which the rivalry is held.

Come, let’s alleviate the pain and seek validation. We turn to none other than the voice of college football, someone who’s seen boys get to crackin’ from here to Tuscaloosa, for reassurance that the Trojans and Bruins are worthy adversaries, that their intracity battle really deserves mention alongside the other traditional showdowns.

“I think the most ferocious, the deepest feeling is Alabama-Auburn,” Keith Jackson said. “It’s tough stuff.

“USC-Notre Dame is one of the few intersectional rivalries that really carries on with great deep feelings, because of the population centers and the attention paid to it. [Next] would be Michigan-Ohio State. Right behind that would come USC-UCLA.”

And that’s just about the best anyone can ask. That’s ahead of Nebraska-Oklahoma, Texas-Texas A&M;, Florida-Georgia, and plenty of other rumbles where the two sides plain don’t like each other.

Jackson even calls the 1967 UCLA-USC matchup “one of the greatest football games I ever saw in my life.”

For those who don’t recall, it was that “21-20 thing,” when the Trojans knocked off the top-ranked Bruins.

“USC won the game, won the national championship, went to the Rose Bowl, [UCLA quarterback] Gary Beban won the Heisman trophy,” Jackson said. “That’s about as good as you can get it. That’s pretty good stuff.”

It was the “highest-quality college football game I’ve ever seen because of all the things that were on the shelf,” Jackson said. “I’d be hard-pressed to come up with another one.”

There can be no disputing that Alabama-Auburn is No. 1, the rivalry royale.

You have to realize that things are a little different in Alabama. I was in Birmingham in March 1995 to cover the NCAA basketball tournament and noticed a timer running continuously in the corner of the screen during the local news. It turned out to be a stopwatch counting down the hours, minutes and seconds until Alabama started spring football practice.

I covered an Auburn-Alabama football game in 1994. I arrived at Legion Field, stepped out of the car and heard a thunderous “Roll Tide, roll Tide . . .” chant coming from the stadium. This was more than two hours before kickoff. And it came after a week of hearing “Roll Tide!” and “War Eagle!” (the Auburn rally cry) at every imaginable hour back at the hotel.

An Auburn player once described the feud this way: “When you walk onto that field, they’re not booing because you’re the other team. They’re booing because they hate you.”

Passion is the main ingredient to a great rivalry, especially when that passion is fueled by animosity. What makes those games so great, to use Jackson’s unique words, is that “there are guys around that hate you from 100 years ago, so they beat you.”

You can’t go wrong with Michigan-Ohio State. You’ve got those cool Wolverine helmets, “The Victors” and the Buckeye band spelling out script Ohio, all adding up for a classic matchup even before the game starts.

But I’d argue that UCLA-USC ranks ahead of USC-Notre Dame because the Bruins and Trojans have to share the same conference and the same town. When the Trojans lose to Notre Dame, they don’t have to spend the rest of the year bumping into Irish players at their favorite hangouts. There’s never a spot in the Rose Bowl at stake.

When two schools are separated by only 13 miles, there’s no choice but to become enemies. There’s so much intermingling, within offices and even families. You can’t go anywhere without seeing one of the schools represented by a cap, a sweatshirt, or the ultimate form of California expression: the personalized license plate. The DMV Web site lists almost 1,000 plates containing “UCLA” and nearly 2,500 plates with the easier-to-fit “USC.”

So the odds are pretty good that a USC alum will have to endure watching the last parking spot snatched by a car with “UCLADY” license plates, or a Bruin gets cut off by the someone identified as a “USCGRAD.” And the only way for anybody to get in the last word in an argument is to mention who won the most recent football game.

“You know what’s the best thing about it?” Jackson said. “It gets the Bruins and the Trojan faithful off their hands. It’s the only game where they clap. It’s the only game where they stand up and cheer. It’s the only game where they really, truly get excited.”

Jackson sounded fired up to call his first “Civil War,” Oregon vs. Oregon State, today at Corvallis. The game will be shown across the country, even in New York. When Jackson met with the Oregon State players Thursday night, he told Beaver running back Ken Simonton, “Broadway’s watching you, baby.”

That’s OK. When the red lights on the television cameras finally do come on for UCLA vs. USC, they’ll be watching on Sunset and on Figueroa and on Olympic. They’ll know exactly what they’re getting.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: ja.adande@latimes.com.