A tale of two Rodneys

By Scott Bair
Daily Bruin Reporter

Five years ago, Rodney Lee was a celebrity. He wasn’t the
star of a hit mid-’90s sitcom and didn’t sing in a boy
band, but on Nov. 23, 1996, his name was in every Southland
newspaper.

Rodney Lee was a football player for the UCLA Bruins. The wide
receiver walked onto the team during his first year and played
without a scholarship for his first three years. In the beginning
of his fourth season at UCLA, new head coach Bob Toledo gave him a
scholarship for all of his hard work. Lee went through ten games
without a single reception. He made his first during the final game
of 1996, which occurred on Nov. 22 against USC.

Lee’s reception will go down as one of the finest moments
in one of the greatest contests in the 71-year history of the
Battle of Los Angeles. The UCLA season was all but doomed for a 4-7
finish when the final quarter began. The Bruins were down by 17
points with six minutes to play.

Kicker Bjorn Merten booted a field goal to cut the USC lead to
14 at 38-24. The comeback became a reality when quarterback Cade
McNown led the Bruins down the field. He converted a fourth down
and five to diving tight end Mike Grieb to keep the Bruin drive
alive. After that catch, McNown got hot, converting three
consecutive passes to bring the Bruins to the Trojan 1-yard line,
where UCLA scored seven more points to make it 38-31.

The Bruin defense allowed a first down with less than two
minutes remaining. The Trojans were on the way to snapping the
five-year Bruin winning streak. But on the next play, destiny
struck again. Danjuan Magee stripped USC tailback and the Bruins
recovered the ball and returned it to their own 44-yard line.

That’s where Lee stepped in. He brought the Bruins into
scoring range by making a 23-yard diving catch from McNown. He
streaked down the right sideline and dove to the right to make his
first collegiate reception, one that set up the game-tying
touchdown.

Lee, who is now working as a Beverly Hills-based attorney, said
that he never expected to have the ball thrown in his
direction.

“I hadn’t expected the ball to be in the air, but
when I looked over my shoulder, I saw it,” Lee said.
“My eyes got wide, and I fully extended.”

Toledo hasn’t forgotten the impact his role player made,
stepping up at a critical moment.

“He made a great diving catch at a time when we needed it
the most,” Toledo said. “For a guy like Rodney to go
out and make a catch under that kind of pressure was crucial to us
winning the game. I know that I’ll never forget
it.”

Backup Trojan quarterback Matt Koffler then connected with
wideout Chris Miller on a 39-yard deep route to put the Trojans in
field goal range with less than 30 seconds on the clock. USC set up
to try a game-winning field goal.

“When I got them to the side and said “˜We need to
block the field goal,’ I had 11 maniacs who said they wanted
to block it,” Toledo said after the game.

They did. The kick was a low liner that the Bruin front line
swatted out of the air to preserve the time and set up the first
overtime in UCLA-USC history.

The two teams exchanged field goals in the first overtime
period. But in the second, UCLA star tailback Skip Hicks finished
off the Trojans once and for all. Hicks made one quick juke at the
line and sprinted to the corner of the end zone to give UCLA its
first lead of the game.

“I told coach that we were going to win and I told him to
give me the ball,” Hicks said after the game. “He gave
it to me and I got into the end zone,”

Toledo remembers Hicks’ determination on that final run
five years later.

“There were a lot of missed tackles on that run,”
Toledo said. “With the determination that Skip had, there was
no way that he would be denied a touchdown.”

The Bruin lead held up, as USC failed in its final attempt to
snatch victory from the Bruins.

“This is the greatest game for everybody in this program
by far,” McNown said after the game.

It was the greatest game for Rodney Lee also. He may not be a
household name, but those who witnessed the 48-41 Bruin victory in
one of the most dramatic comebacks in UCLA-USC history will never
forget his catch.

“It’s one of those opportunities that come only
once, and I wasn’t going to let it pass,” Lee said.
“I still get chills when I watch that game.”

The annual contest between UCLA and USC has made more than its
fair share of celebrities in the 71 contests, but in 1987, 11 years
prior to the 1996 classic, national celebrities headlined the
game.

The 1987 contest featured USC’s Rodney Peete and
UCLA’s Troy Aikman, two of the most highly touted college
quarterbacks in the country. The quarterback competition was the
center of media focus leading up to the game.

Aikman threw for 171 yards on 11 completions but had three
costly interceptions in the game. Peete won the quarterback contest
decisively, throwing for 304 yards and two touchdowns in the
Trojans 17-10 come-from-behind victory over the Bruins.

Despite Peete’s impressive offensive statistics, the best
play that he made came on defense.

UCLA was leading 10-0 with four seconds remaining in the first
half. Peete was driving his team down the field for a touchdown
when he had a ball deflected into the waiting hands of UCLA
defensive back Eric Turner in the UCLA end zone. The speedy Turner
took off for what looked to be a sure 100-yard interception return
for a touchdown ““ one that would have put the game virtually
out of reach.

As Turner took off down the field, he could sense someone
creeping up behind him. It was Peete, gaining on his every step.
The race was on, and the mobile Peete won. Well into Bruin
territory, Peete made a diving, probably game-saving tackle of
Turner.

“That was a very big play,” then-UCLA head coach
Terry Donahue said after the game. “That was a real momentum
turn for us.”

Had Peete not made the tackle, UCLA would lengthened its lead to
17-0 at the half. But in the end, Peete’s tackle stood out as
the defining play of the game.

The Trojans engineered a second half comeback that was only
possible because of Peete’s first half tackle. USC went on to
shock the Bruin over 15 years ago, but the famous tackle still
remains fresh in the minds of the rivalry game.

While Rodney Peete went on to the NFL and Rodney Lee dropped
into football obscurity, both will forever be immortalized in the
history of UCLA-USC football lore. The feats of the Bruin and
Trojan Rodneys prove that no matter what the record of the team or
stature of the player, anything and everything can happen when UCLA
plays USC.