Letters to the sports desk

Offering anything for an ‘SC ticket UCLA
is my life. Every morning, I wake up and I do the 8-clap. I
introduce myself as “Scott Resnick, UCLA ’05.”
When I go to the gym, I am never seen without a UCLA shirt. I live
and breathe UCLA. Last week I played touch football and I made sure
I was on the blue team. And during the game I fell and skinned my
knee and I bled blue and yellow. I skipped lectures to camp out for
basketball. Last year, I even drove 1,000 miles in 36 hours to go
to the first round of the NCAA Tournament the week before finals.
Tell me that is not devotion! Well, recently our football team
exploded into a powerhouse. We win games; I get excited. I lead the
8-clap, and I get looks. Why? Because I live over 2,000 miles away
from the Promised Land and travel all over North America for my
job. Even so, I make sure not to miss a moment of UCLA football. I
sat in a smoky bar in Virginia to watch the Bruins beat Cal. While
in Canada, I yelled at the locals and told them how I felt about
hockey so I could see us steamroll over Oregon State. I ran down
the streets of Lincoln, Nebraska at midnight to watch us rally
against Washington. I screamed at a table of Cardinal fans in
Indiana to watch the unbelievable comeback against Stanford. One
thing makes me sad ““ I can’t get tickets. I took a week
off of work so I could sit with my brethren in the end zone of the
Coliseum and the bandwagon beat me to the punch. Someone else is
sitting in my seat, and you know who you are! Some fourth-year,
whose only experience with UCLA athletics over the past four years
was the time he accidentally walked into the L.A. Tennis Center and
saw 20 seconds of a match. He is painting his face blue and yellow
(and he only knows the colors because he asked his roommate) and is
holding my ticket. I am going to tell everyone right now ““ I
will do anything for a ticket to “The Game,” and
believe me, I have tried a lot up to this point. So, Mr. Bandwagon
Fan, I know you are reading this: Can I please have your ticket?
Scott Resnick Class of ’05

Team has already topped expectations Even
considering all the negative vibes we’ve gotten all week and
the thought that we’re probably not going to the Rose Bowl,
we’re 8-1! Who would have thought that we would be 8-1 so far
this year? Nobody! This is the season critics predicted Karl
Dorrell would be fired because he would fail to win nine games. He
has eight now. This is the season we thought we needed a new
quarterback in Ben Olson because Drew couldn’t get the job
done last year. Drew Olson has topped the UCLA touchdown passing
record in a game with six passes, and with one more touchdown pass,
he’ll have broken the record for most touchdown passes in a
season. He’s also on the Heisman watch list. Maurice Drew is
also on that list. Nobody thought any of this was possible before
the season. But you know what? It did. While the Arizona game does
leave a sour taste in our mouths, we should not judge this team by
one game alone. We should be proud of what our football team has
accomplished this year. We should look at the potential this team
has proven time and time again. Great teams will overcome their
failures and bounce back from their losses. Go to the Rose Bowl
this weekend. Wear your blue shirts. Believe in this team. The
football team will prove they are great, and they will beat Arizona
State and they will beat ‘SC. Eason Wang Graduate
student, mechanical engineering

Bringing the Bruins into the classroom I read the column
“Cheers needed for more sports” (Nov. 9), and wanted to
say thank you! I am a public school teacher in Orange County. I
proudly display my UCLA paraphernalia in my classroom. I even have
a flag I put outside daily. To help promote colleges, I even give
bonus points on quiz days to any students displaying the UCLA logo.
You have given me more info for my bonus trivia questions as well.
I thought you might enjoy that there are those of us who recognize
that UCLA is so much more than football or basketball! My students
have enjoyed the fact that UCLA lost to Arizona, but it was so nice
to have so many positives to point out. Thanks for your mention of
Billy Martin. Billy has been a friend of mine since I was a student
at UCLA 20 years ago. I rarely see him mentioned. Thanks again for
stating the obvious: There is so much more to UCLA than either
football or basketball! Sarah Linehan Armstrong, Class of
’86

Stop whimpering, finish season strong Not with a bang, but with
a whimper. Not with a close, tough, hard-fought loss against a
great opponent, but with a humiliating debacle in the desert so
impressively bad that people in the sports bar where I was watching
the game were laughing out loud at the Bruins’ play. The
funny thing is, we could all see this coming. While the
skin-of-our-teeth finishes were exciting, you just knew that at
some point, the magic would run out, and the flat, inept
performances would catch up with our team. But there is a silver
lining in Saturday’s embarrassment. In crashing to earth so
hard and so fast, let’s hope our team has finally learned
““ the hard way ““ that being a great team requires a
much higher level of preparation, focus and commitment than it has
shown so far. Let’s finish this special season strong ““
starting with a rebound against Arizona State and finishing with a
historic win over USC! Bryan Peebler Class of
’93