Twenty years ago, USC’s Johnnie Morton kept eye on the prize against UCLA

It started with a wink.

Johnnie Morton’s subtle signal to USC quarterback Todd Marinovich indicated that all systems were go on a pass pattern that would finally put the Trojans over the top in their 1990 showdown against UCLA.

The Trojans and Bruins had slugged it out all afternoon at the Rose Bowl, neither able to shake the other in one of the most engrossing battles in the rivalry’s storied history.

The teams had already combined for 80 points, more than had ever been scored in a USC-UCLA game. They’d scored five touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

But USC wasn’t finished.

And with 26 seconds to play, after a quick march downfield, the Trojans were 23 yards from the UCLA goal line.

It was then that Morton, a freshman wide receiver from South Torrance High, batted an eye toward Marinovich.

“I just felt like I was going to make a play,” Morton says of his expectant gesture. “I just felt confident. I was like, ‘Just throw it in there and I’ll get it.’ ”

Moments later, Morton and the ball arrived simultaneously in the far left corner of the end zone, his leaping catch giving the Trojans a heart-pounding 45-42 victory.

“He knew it was coming to him,” Marinovich told reporters afterward. “The defensive back [Dion Lambert] knew it too. He shook his head [as if to say], ‘No, you’re not going to get it.’ But we know what happened.”

Two decades on, a respectable NFL career and a regrettable mixed-martial-arts dalliance behind him, the 39-year-old Morton sits in a Santa Monica coffeehouse not far from his Century City home and recalls vividly his first USC-UCLA game.

“It was almost like basketball, that game,” he says between sips of an iced green-tea concoction. “Like boom-boom-boom.”

His winning catch was, in a way, an encore performance.

Morton believed he’d already scored the decisive touchdown a few minutes earlier, when he took away a pass from Lambert in the end zone to give the Trojans a 38-35 lead.

Landing awkwardly, Morton says that he suffered a shoulder injury on the play, but that the pain was of little concern.

“I was sitting there quiet by myself,” he says of his return to the sideline, “and I’m like, ‘I’m the man, I’m the man. I caught the winning touchdown pass against UCLA!’ Girls that had never seen me before would probably see me. I was like, ‘Yeah!’

“And then I see UCLA [score] and I’m like, ‘Hero to zero.’ ”

When he capitalized again on his second chance, Morton says, the confidence boost launched his career.

He established a still-standing school record of 1,520 yards receiving as a senior, earning All-America honors, and was picked by the Detroit Lions in the first round of the 1994 NFL draft.

In 12 seasons with the Lions, Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, he caught 624 passes, 43 for touchdowns.

Retirement, however, left him restless and fidgety.

“I thought I was going to kill myself, I was so bored,” Morton says. “I used to sit there and think, ‘I’m wasting air. I’m breathing for no reason. I’m just wasting a life.’ ”

One day, while whiling away the hours in an Orange County cafe, Morton says he was approached by a fight manager who asked if he’d like to give mixed martial arts a try.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, why not?’ ” he says.

On June 2, 2007, less than two years after his NFL swan song, Morton made his MMA debut at the Coliseum . . . and was knocked out 38 seconds into the first round by Bernard Ackah.

To make matters worse, it was later revealed that Morton had tested positive for elevated levels of the steroid epitestosterone in a pre-fight drug screening.

Suspended indefinitely by the California State Athletic Commission, Morton has not fought since.

Nor does he plan to.

He says he’d been prescribed testosterone by his doctor.

“It’s not like I committed a crime or something,” he says, “but it bothered me that no one knew the truth. But I felt like, if I brought it up then, it looks like you’re making an excuse.”

The embarrassing experience behind him, the budding entrepreneur turned his attention to business ventures.

Older brother of Chad Morton, a former USC and NFL running back and kick returner, he owns two ice cream shops and recently partnered with former USC teammate George Felactu to launch a product called Overboard, a hangover recovery drink.

“I’m trying to follow in the footsteps of Magic Johnson,” Morton says, noting that the former Lakers great has informally advised him. “Ever since I got a grasp of who he was as a businessman, I said, ‘I want to be like that.’ ”

Not a drinker himself, Morton says he hatched the idea for a hangover recovery drink while playing in the NFL.

“When I was with the Chiefs,” he says, “I’d see guys stumbling into practice and I’m like, ‘What happened?’ It looked like a train hit them. And I was like, ‘It’s too bad there’s nothing they can take, like a supplement or something, to recover.’ ”

The recipe for the drink, Morton says, was his own.

He hopes it can do for his business career what catching a winning pass against UCLA did for his football career.

jerome.crowe@latimes.com