Bruins to keep revived tradition alive by wearing home jerseys at Coliseum
Former quarterback Mark Sanchez and the Trojans lost a time-out as a result of wearing their home jerseys during last season’s rivalry game at the Rose Bowl.
By Ravi Doshi
Nov. 24, 2009 10:33 p.m.
The last time the UCLA Bruins wore their home jerseys in the Coliseum, Rick Neuheisel was a young walk-on quarterback on a young Bruin team.
The year was 1981, and that season marked the final time UCLA and USC would share the historic Los Angeles stadium as their home field.
With the start of the 1982 season, the Bruins began playing home games at the Rose Bowl, and with the move came the end of the tradition of both teams wearing their home jerseys for the rivalry game.
For 26 years, the tradition lay forgotten, with both teams wearing their home jerseys only at their respective home stadiums.
But, last year, with Neuheisel’s return to Westwood, came the return of the tradition.
At the start of the 2008 rivalry game, the Trojans marched into the Rose Bowl wearing their familiar cardinal and gold home jerseys.
The move cost the Trojan team a time-out for NCAA rules violations, but with Neuheisel reciprocating the Trojans’ gesture toward history by immediately calling a time-out of his own, the teams were again even, and the tradition was reborn.
“I’m really excited that that’s what we’ve gone back to, and I think Pete (Carroll) feels the same,” said Neuheisel.
This year, it is the Bruins’ turn to march into the opposing team’s stadium, but this year, for the first time in 27 years, they will do so wearing “true blue” and gold.
Wearing their home jerseys to the Coliseum this year will cost the Bruins a time-out before they even step out onto the field for NCAA rules violations. However, to keep the tradition alive, USC coach Pete Carroll has agreed to call a time-out at the start of the game like the Bruins did last year.
“When I grew up, the Ohio State-Michigan game was in the morning, and the USC-UCLA game was in the evening, and that was what you watched. The colors just jumped off the screen ““ and that was in the days before HD,” Neuheisel said. “I think it’s a great tradition.”
But while the jerseys are a fine gesture toward history and tradition, for the players on the field, they are secondary to the game itself.
“To me it doesn’t really matter … what I’m wearing. It’s great to be putting our home jerseys on, but then again, I don’t really care. I just want to go out there and hit somebody,” said senior linebacker Reggie Carter.
For Carter and his teammates, they are not there to revel in the symbolism of the jerseys they are wearing, but, as senior wide receiver Terrence Austin put it, “to take the city back.”
