It’s Two Big

Saturday’s college football day-night deluxe won’t be the first time USC and UCLA have played critical nonconference games in the Southland on the same day.

Perhaps you’ve forgotten Oct. 9, 1920, the afternoon the Trojans dusted Caltech, 46-7, at Bovard Field, while the second-year cub team over at UCLA was getting waxed by Occidental at Moore Field, 21-0.

That was five years before USC “Super Fan” Giles Pellerin began his ongoing streak of 775 consecutive USC games attended, and nine years before UCLA joined USC as a Coliseum co-tenant.

Saturday’s won’t even be the most unusual doubleheader. Three times when USC and UCLA shared the same field from 1929 through 1981, the schools played day-night games at the Coliseum. The last was 1942, when UCLA defeated Idaho, 40-13, in the opener and USC polished off Montana in the nightcap, 38-0.

Yet, you can argue that Saturday’s UCLA-Tennessee, USC-Florida State daily double is potentially the most exciting single-day college football proposition in Southland history.

One day, two stadiums, two top-10 opponents, enough angles to keep a geometry major happy--and a chance to go to both games.

“What better place do you get an inside view on college football than Sept. 6 in L.A.?” asked former UCLA quarterback Tom Ramsey, now a Pac-10 analyst for Fox Sports West. “Everyone knows where they stand. UCLA’s going to have a very good gauge; after the SC-Florida State game, Southern Cal’s going to have a wonderful idea of how good they are.”

Ramsey is one of many frothing at the prospect of being able to attend both games.

“I don’t think people can take families to both games, that’s a little cost prohibitive,” Ramsey said. “But anyone who is real passionate about football and sports, they’re going to go to both.”

At 12:30 p.m, Tennessee enters theRose Bowl with national championship aspirations and his-to-lose Heisman Trophy candidate Peyton Manning, maybe the best college quarterback since John Elway.

At 5 p.m., Florida State takes on USC at the Coliseum. Story lines? The Seminoles have finished in the top four of the final Associated Press poll for each of the last 10 seasons. Last year, Florida State lost the national title game to rival Florida in the Sugar Bowl and returns with what Coach Bobby Bowden calls his best freshman class.

USC is coming off a 6-6 season in which the Trojans probably had to beat Notre Dame in the season finale to save Coach John Robinson’s job.

Robinson has returned, opening with the most daunting first game imaginable.

Mood swings?

An upset propels USC into the top 10 and maybe the national title picture. A blowout sets an ugly tone for the season.

“You say, ‘Ah, these are two nonconference games,’ ” Ramsey said. “These games don’t count in Pac-10 standings, but you need six [wins] to go to a bowl game. For UCLA, this game is imperative.”

Not counting the annual cross-town affair, Saturday will mark the 23nd time the schools have played in L.A. on the same day since UCLA moved from the Coliseum to the Rose Bowl in 1982. Most of the others were conference games.

The Southland has never hosted two nonconference teams so highly ranked.

The only day comparable was Sept. 23, 1989, when No. 12 USC defeated No. 20 Ohio State at the Coliseum while No. 5 Michigan beat No. 23 UCLA at the Rose Bowl.

“I cannot recall a single day like this,” former USC and Ram quarterback Pat Haden said. “Man, it’s a heck of a day.”

Haden’s regret is that his weekend job as a NFL analyst for TNT won’t allow him to attend either game, although he says his two teenage sons are going to both games.

How did Saturday’s doubleheader come to pass?

Television, of course. Florida State and Tennessee have actually been on the local schools’ schedules for years.

Originally, though, USC was supposed to play Washington State at the Coliseum on Sept. 6 and Florida State on Sept. 13. But, a few years ago, ABC asked USC and Florida State to switch to Sept. 6 so the game could be paired with UCLA-Tennessee as part of television doubleheader.

USC plays Washington State at home next week.

With no professional football teams in L.A., Saturday is as big as it gets.

Of course, calling anything the “biggest” makes longtime Southland sports historians cringe.

Bud Furillo, the former Los Angeles Examiner sports editor now in his sixth decade of chronicling Southern California sports, rattled off half a dozen stupendous collegiate football days in Los Angeles:

* The 1967 UCLA-USC game, in which the No. 4 Trojans beat the No. 1 Bruins, 21-20, on O.J. Simpson’s famous run.

* The 1988 game in which No. 1 Notre Dame beat No. 2 USC before 93,829 at the Coliseum.

* The 1947 game in which No. 1 Notre Dame defeated No. 3 USC before a record Coliseum crowd of 104,953.

* Nov. 20, 1954, when No. 2 UCLA defeated No. 7 USC, 34-0, and finished 9-0 under Red Sanders, winning the Bruins’ only national championship.

* Nov. 30, 1974, when USC rallied from a 24-0 deficit to beat Notre Dame, 55-24.

* What about 1981, and No. 1 USC defeating No. 2 Oklahoma before 85,691? Or the Todd Marinovich-Tommy Maddox shootout in 1990?

Yet, even Furillo was hard-pressed to find a day like Saturday.

“It’s going to be great,” said Furillo, who now has a sports talk show on radio in Palm Springs.

Such a day would be hard to duplicate elsewhere, since L.A. is the only city with two major college programs in such close proximity.

Stanford and California could logistically stage such a doubleheader, although getting from Palo Alto to Berkeley does involve a bridge crossing.

With both of Saturday’s games televised nationally, Los Angeles will no doubt again come under fire as a sports town.

The fan watching in Knoxville or Tallahassee will wonder how it is possible that neither the Coliseum nor the Rose Bowl will be filled to capacity:

No wonder you lost the Rams and Raiders.

Yes, it’s true. USC officials are estimating a crowd of 70,000 for the Florida State game, while the UCLA-Tennessee game at the Rose Bowl will be lucky to draw 60,000.

USC officials said midweek that about 6,000 tickets were sold to Florida State. Tennessee purchased roughly the same number for the UCLA game.

Ramsey predicted more than a week ago that neither game would be a sellout.

“You know why?” Ramsey said. “Because Sept. 6 is going to be a great beach day. I’ll go out on a limb, Sept. 6 is going to be a beautiful day. The beach will be packed.”

So what does this say about L.A. as a sports town?

It says, basically, that L.A. is not Charlotte.

It says that L.A. does not support its teams unconditionally, that it does not allow stadium-deal proposals to be jammed down its throat.

It says that, in L.A., there are numerous and wondrous other things to do on a sunny September Saturday.

Angelenos prefer to see their stadiums as being half full, not half empty.

“I don’t think we’re bad fans at all,” said Haden, born and raised in the Southland. “It’s a very discriminating population.”

Actually, with the Dodgers also at home Saturday against the Florida Marlins, as many as 180,000 fans could be attending local sporting events, enough to almost fill Tennessee’s Neyland stadium twice.

Yet, L.A. is fickle. Gone are the glory days of the 1950s, when the Rams, UCLA and and USC were kings and often drew crowds of 100,000 at the Coliseum. The arrival of the Dodgers, Lakers, Angels, Kings, Mighty Ducks and Raiders diluted the market.

The televising of home games has further reduced attendance.

Winning became a component in attendance figures, as Al Davis found out.

That Saturday’s games won’t be sellouts is no doubt influenced by the fact that UCLA and USC are coming off nonwinning seasons.

“I think there’s going to be a fear from both home crowds that their team is going to lose,” Haden said.

But a bad sports town?

“This is a great sports town,” Furillo argued. “Nothing’s different. If you win in L.A., you’re going to draw. It is Hollywood. Let something happen where it’s an ‘in’ thing. Let the Trojans start winning again. Just go back to ’88 against Notre Dame. You saw all the people there when they were playing for the national championship.”

Still, Haden sees Saturday in L.A. as a sporting comet, a flash in the sky that will soon fade.

“I’ve grown up here, going to games as a kid with my father, and only on rare occasions do you find people really get worked up for a game,” Haden said. “Talking about games on Tuesday, getting to the game early, getting to the park early to barbecue.

“It’s a rare occasion.”

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Going Gaga in La-La Land

Arguably, the 10 best college football days in the Southland:

* 1. Dec. 6, 1947: No. 1 Notre Dame beats No. 3 USC, 38-7. Coliseum crowd: 104,953.

* 2. Nov. 30, 1974: No. 6 USC defeats No. 5 Notre Dame, 55-24. Coliseum crowd: 83,552.

* 3. Nov. 26, 1988: No. 1 Notre Dame beats No. 2 USC, 27-10. Coliseum crowd: 93,829.

* 4. Nov. 20, 1954: No. 2 UCLA beats No. 7 USC, 34-0, to win only national title. Coliseum crowd: 102,548.

* 5. Nov. 18, 1967: No. 4 USC beats No. 1 UCLA, 21-20. Coliseum crowd: 90,772

* 6. Jan. 1, 1969: No. 1 Ohio State beats No. 2 USC, 27-16. Rose Bowl crowd: 102,063.

* 7. Nov. 17, 1990: No. 19 USC beats UCLA, 45-42. Rose Bowl crowd: 98,088.

* 8. Sept. 26, 1981: No. 1 USC defeats No. 2 Oklahoma, 28-24. Coliseum crowd: 85,691.

* 9. Jan. 1, 1963: No. 1 USC beats No. 2 Wisconsin, 42-37, to win national title. Rose Bowl crowd: 98,698.

*10. Sept. 23, 1989: No. 12 USC beats No. 20 Ohio State, 42-3. Coliseum crowd: 69,876; No. 5 Michigan beats No. 23 UCLA, 24-23. Rose Bowl crowd: 71,797.