Rivals Are Trying to Snare an Old Prize

The Drum had changed residences by the time Dick Cooper rejoined the Occidental football team for his junior and senior years, after a tour of duty with the Marines in World War II.

Occidental had toppled archrival Pomona in the inaugural “Drum Game” in 1941, only to have the Sagehens win back the coveted relic a year later before the schools halted play for two seasons because of the war.

Among Cooper’s chief complaints about his military experience wasn’t the conditions he faced in the Philippines or Northern China, but that he had to room with Hap Cowger, a Pomona halfback, for 15 weeks during an officer’s training program.

“That was long enough,” quipped Cooper, 83, a former all-conference lineman.

When Occidental and Pomona renewed their rivalry in 1945, the Drum tradition was still fledgling, but the series between the small liberal-arts colleges seemed as old as the buckskin drum itself.

The rivalry dates to 1895 and is the longest-running in Southern California. Today’s renewal at Occidental will be game No. 109. On the West Coast, only Stanford-California (1892) and Oregon-Oregon State (1894) are older.

USC-UCLA? Not even close. The Trojans and Bruins started playing each other in 1929 and have met a paltry-by-comparison 75 times.

Only three games into the series, the Occidental-Pomona rivalry became so contentious that a forfeit was necessitated. According to an account of the 1901 game from the Pomona archives, Occidental players, already incensed over an injury to right halfback Dean Cromwell, refused to continue the game when officials disallowed a newfangled ploy called ... the lateral.

The Tigers were eventually placated and the game resumed, the account stated, with Pomona winning, 6-0. Both schools officially recognize the game as a forfeit victory for Pomona.

In 1941, the alumni associations of Occidental and Pomona decided their rivalry needed a symbol, so the Drum tradition was born.

“You want to find something to shoot for,” said Allan Donohue, a junior defensive lineman for Pomona-Pitzer, the adjoining colleges that have combined to field a football team since the 1970s. “You see the big Division I programs like SC and Notre Dame. So it’s nice to have your own rivalry and call something your own.”

Occidental holds a 57-48-3 advantage in the series between the NCAA Division III teams, and in recent years has beaten Pomona-Pitzer like a Drum. The Tigers won 16 consecutive games from 1981 to 1994 and have prevailed in five of the last six.

“I’ve never had the Drum, which is a little irritating,” said Pomona-Pitzer’s interim coach, Bernard Walker, who is in his third season on the coaching staff.

The Sagehens, who have 37 players to Occidental’s 77, will be huge underdogs against the two-time defending Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion Tigers. Winners of a school-record 22 consecutive regular-season games, Occidental is 5-0 overall, 3-0 in the conference, and is averaging 42.4 points, third-best in the nation.

Pomona-Pitzer (2-3, 1-2) harbors hopes of a repeat of 2003, when it upset an undefeated Occidental team. Several Sagehens seniors, who were freshmen that year, conceded this week that they didn’t grasp the significance of the Drum until they had to surrender it to the Tigers the following year.

“It was tough because we had to give it to them on their field, their crowd going crazy,” Pomona-Pitzer quarterback Cody Peterson recalled. “You really walk away from the game feeling like you have nothing after you came with the Drum.”

The Drum, which lists scores of nearly every game since 1941, has resided at Occidental the last two years in a trophy case alongside other athletic memorabilia. Coach Dale Widolff typically places the Drum in the locker room the week of the rivalry game as a reminder of what’s at stake.

Today, the Drum will remain in the locker room until halftime, when it will be brought to the Tigers’ sideline.

“Before the game, you’re sitting there looking at it and seeing scores from 1948 and you’re like, ‘Wow, this is actually a big deal,’ ” said Occidental senior defensive end Robert Theofanis.

The Tigers are hoping to retain the Drum so they can keep it next to the Shoes, a bronzed pair of shoes mounted on a wooden pedestal that is the symbol of their rivalry with Whittier, which also dates to 1895 but spans only 96 meetings. Pomona-Pitzer would like to put the Drum next to the Pipe, the emblem of its long-running rivalry with neighbor Claremont-Mudd.

Occidental senior quarterback Andy Collins grew up in Zillah, Wash., enthralled by the Apple Cup rivalry involving Washington and Washington State. He then got a brief taste of the Civil War rivalry involving Oregon and Oregon State as a redshirt freshman quarterback for the Ducks.

But, as famous football alums such as politician Jack Kemp and former NFL coach Jim Mora mill about the Occidental campus during the week of the Pomona-Pitzer game, all Collins hears about now is the Drum.

“It was definitely a big deal to everybody who played here,” Collins said, “and probably even more so once you leave and come back.”

Occidental and Pomona-Pitzer are separated by 31 miles and, as the Pomona players like to insinuate, more than a few points on the average SAT score. But they are both strong academic institutions that vie for many of the same recruits.

Donohue, the Pomona-Pitzer defensive lineman, played at Occidental as a freshman before becoming a Sagehen.

And then there’s Adam Rossi, who will be feeling a little out of place today. A defensive end for the Tigers from 2002 to ‘05, Rossi will bring with him a ring players were given in 2004 for reaching the Elite Eight of the Division III playoffs and a watch they were awarded last year for winning the SCIAC title.

But Rossi won’t be mingling with other proud Occidental alumni before the game. Instead, he’ll be in the Pomona-Pitzer locker room.

“I will be fulfilling my coaching duties first and foremost,” said Rossi, the Sagehens defensive line coach. “It will be a little awkward.”

Earlier this week, Rossi called Collins, his former roommate for two years, to wish him luck.

Not that he’s going soft or anything.

“It doesn’t mean I’m not going to make sure my D-line doesn’t knock him on the ground a couple of times,” Rossi said.

Should Pomona-Pitzer pull the upset, protocol would dictate that the Occidental captains hand over the Drum to their Sagehens counterparts at midfield. But sportsmanship sometimes gets lost amid the celebratory scrum. Rossi said he’d heard stories of players running over to the losers’ sideline and simply grabbing the Drum.

Once safely in their possession, players tap the Drum lightly with their hands as they would a bongo drum.

“The Drum’s old and it’s kind of cracked on one side, so we try not to bang it too hard,” Rossi said. “You don’t want to be known as the guy who broke the Drum.”

Or worse, one who never held it.

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ben.bolch@latimes.com

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Edge to Tigers

Today’s 1 p.m. game involving Occidental and Pomona-Pitzer marks the 109th meeting between the schools. Occidental holds a 57-48-3 advantage in the series, which dates to 1895. But Occidental has dominated since 1981, winning 21 of 27 games, with the teams playing twice in 1985 and 1990:

*--* 1981 Occidental 37, Pomona-Pitzer 23 1982 Occidental 42, Pomona-Pitzer 10 1983 Occidental 41, Pomona-Pitzer 7 1984 Occidental 13, Pomona-Pitzer 8 1985 Occidental 37, Pomona-Pitzer 23 Occidental 43, Pomona-Pitzer 0 1986 Occidental 37, Pomona-Pitzer 7 1987 Occidental 20, Pomona-Pitzer 14 1988 Occidental 70, Pomona-Pitzer 16 1989 Occidental 24, Pomona-Pitzer 14 1990 Occidental 38, Pomona-Pitzer 11 Occidental 42, Pomona-Pitzer 10 1991 Occidental 31, Pomona-Pitzer 9 1992 Occidental 34, Pomona-Pitzer 20 1993 Occidental 51, Pomona-Pitzer 21 1994 Occidental 31, Pomona-Pitzer 18 1995 Pomona-Pitzer 37, Occidental 21 1996 Pomona-Pitzer 35, Occidental 7 1997 Pomona-Pitzer 45, Occidental 28 1998 Pomona-Pitzer 28, Occidental 13 1999 Pomona-Pitzer 28, Occidental 0 2000 Occidental 27, Pomona-Pitzer 15 2001 Occidental 38, Pomona-Pitzer 9 2002 Occidental 24, Pomona-Pitzer 21 2003 Pomona-Pitzer 28, Occidental 14 2004 Occidental 27, Pomona-Pitzer 16 2005 Occidental 41, Pomona-Pitzer 34

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* For complete year-by-year results, go to www.latimes.com/sportsextra

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