Tooting Their Own Horns

The Seven-10 Grill and Sports Bar is tucked into the back of a bowling alley on the outskirts of downtown, the perfect place for local USC fans to hide.

Not that they can hide. Here in Longhorn country, anything that resembles cardinal and gold draws as much attention as a slice of cheese in a room full of mice, what with USC and Texas preparing to play in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4 with the national championship at stake.

But the bowling alley bar is more low key than the popular Sixth Street entertainment district, so that’s where Austin-area USC fans have gathered on Saturdays to cheer the Trojans during a season in which USC has been ranked No. 1 and Texas No. 2 since it started.

“We have to sneak around and hide out and have our gatherings in small places,” joked Greg Burt, a USC alumnus living in Austin.

The Austin chapter of the USC Alumni Assn. has about 180 members, according to Timothy Wall, chapter president. Anywhere from a dozen to 50 of them have gathered to watch their team on game days the last few years.

Sometime this season -- probably about the time the preseason rankings came out with USC No. 1 and Texas No. 2 -- the Trojans became public enemy No. 1. Last season, when USC played Oklahoma, an old Texas rival, in the BCS title game, many Longhorn fans rooted for the Trojans.

The Rose Bowl is the talk of the town. From restaurants to hotel lobbies to gas stations to banks, everyone seems to have Rose Bowl fever. Texas hasn’t played a game with national-title implications since 1983 and hasn’t won a national title since 1970 -- a long time for a proud program. USC is the defending national champion.

“It’s incredible how much hype this game is getting here,” Burt said. “They’ve been dying to win for so long and we have something they want, so that makes it even worse on us.”

Still, Trojan fans proudly wear their colors. They fly USC flags in their yards, decorate their cars with bumper stickers and license plate frames. And yes, they plan to gather at the Seven-10 on Jan. 4, when they will decorate their area with USC banners and cheer their team in the Rose Bowl.

“People just kind of look at us funny,” Wall said. “Pretty much anyplace you go down here has a built-in Texas following, but that’s OK. If there’s nothing but Trojans around, it’s not so much fun when we win.”

About 200 miles north, in Dallas, Ray Martinez is planning a “Let’s Mess With Texas” Rose Bowl viewing party. The North Texas chapter is one of the USC Alumni Assn.’s largest with about 1,500 members.

That chapter has rented a screening room at the Studio Movie Grill -- a movie theater-restaurant -- and Martinez expects 150 or more Trojan fans to show up.

Dallas, Martinez said, is a city with split allegiances, half the people being Oklahoma fans and half Texas fans. Because USC defeated Oklahoma last January and plays Texas this January, being a Trojan fan there can be lonely.

Texas fans have been taunting and talking all season, he said. They sometimes get confused, he added, rooting against USC each week, yet all the while contending that they want a shot at the national champions.

Texas took over the top spot in the BCS rankings for one week in October, and Martinez says he still hasn’t heard the end of it from Texas fans.

“I thought UCLA and Notre Dame fans were bad,” he said. “But these guys are so vocal. They have the aura that everything is bigger and better. I don’t think they really know what is going on outside of Texas.”

Martinez recently played golf at a Dallas-area club with his USC golf bag. A marshal brought a boom box to the first tee and as Martinez was about to hit his first shot, the marshal blasted the Texas fight song.

Martinez said he smacked his tee shot down the middle of the fairway.

“I told him, ‘That might intimidate someone from Texas, but we don’t stand down to anyone,’ ” Martinez said.

C.J. Adame, assistant general manager at the Seven-10 Grill and Sports Bar, says it’s all in good fun, that his bar is known as the unofficial headquarters for several non-Texas teams.

Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Louisiana State fans also gather there on Saturdays. Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tennessee Titans and Green Bay Packers watch NFL games there on Sundays.

“Not everyone in Austin roots for the Longhorns and Cowboys and Texans,” said Adame, a Longhorn fan.

There are three 100-inch and nine smaller flat plasma television screens in an area that can accommodate about 300 viewers. USC fans generally arrive early to ensure getting an area in front of one of the large screens.

Because they have been loyal customers -- “I think we’re the only USC bar in town,” Adame said -- the USC fans have priority seating for the Rose Bowl.

“Whoever has the biggest following gets the big screens,” he said.

But no self-respecting sports bar in Austin would refrain from showing the local team, especially since several Longhorn players are known to frequent the adjacent Showplace Lanes bowling alley.

“Of course, if Texas is playing, they always get the main screen,” Adame said. “But USC fans are welcome. As long as their money is green, we’ll take it.”

The USC alumni associations in Texas are rife with family conflicts. Some members are married to Texas alums. Others have children attending Texas. Burt attended USC as an undergrad and got his master’s at Texas.

But he said there was no temptation to try fitting in with the locals.

“I still root for USC, no matter what,” he said.

He paused for a moment, and then corrected himself.

“Unless UCLA was playing Texas,” he said. “Then I’d root for Texas.”