One play remained. Rivalry revelry was assured.
UCLA was bludgeoning USC on the Rose Bowl 1 / 4 of a century in the past.
Forward by three scores, taking a knee or working up the center would have been the humane factor to do, even in opposition to these horrible Trojans.
Cade McNown leaned into the huddle and relayed the play. Because the clock ticked beneath 20 seconds, the Bruins quarterback stepped behind heart and took the snap. He faked a pitch and took off within the different path, nobody there to guard him.
It was a unadorned bootleg, and a timeless kick within the rear.
“I imply, I nonetheless f— hate Cade McNown,” former USC fullback Petros Papadakis stated this week with a hearty chuckle.
UCLA quarterback Cade McNown arms off to working again Skip Hicks throughout first-half motion in opposition to USC on Nov. 22, 1997, on the Coliseum.
(Kevork Djansezian / Related Press)
Nobody on the Trojans’ sideline discovered any humor in it on that heat afternoon in November 1998. Scrunching his face in disgust, USC coach Paul Hackett yelled for somebody to wallop that barbaric Bruin. Security Rashard Prepare dinner lastly complied, bringing McNown down on the finish of a 23-yard run that accomplished UCLA’s 34-17 victory in unsavory trend.
One other celebration could have been aggrieved. The school soccer gods appeared to zap the unbeaten Bruins with a thunderbolt of distress based mostly on what would occur in the course of the subsequent 25 years.
The loss to unranked Miami within the “Hurricane Bowl” … the loss to Wisconsin within the Rose Bowl sport … the unraveling of the crew underneath coach Bob Toledo … the dreadful Karl Dorrell and Rick Neuheisel eras … the early promise underneath Jim Mora that pale … Chip Kelly by no means replicating a shred of his mighty Oregon success.
It’s been a blur of disappointment since McNown ran wild. The Bruins haven’t received one other convention championship. They’ve by no means been again to the Rose Bowl sport.
Some would possibly name it a horrible confluence of misfortune. Others may say UCLA fell underneath the Curse of Cade.
“Just like the Curse of the Bambino?” McNown stated with a chuckle when knowledgeable of the premise.
Sports activities curses are as provable as an afterlife, a enjoyable manner for followers and media to elucidate a baffling sequence of occasions. The promoting of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1918 inflicted the Curse of the Bambino on the Boston Pink Sox for practically a century. It required former Bruin outfielder Dave Roberts’ pivotal stolen base in opposition to the Yankees within the 2004 American League Championship Collection to assist snap the Pink Sox’s 86-year World Collection championship drought.
The Curse of the Billy Goat, solid by a tavern proprietor on the Chicago Cubs in 1945 for the ejection of his pet goat from Wrigley Discipline, was adopted by a long time of futility earlier than the Cubs received the World Collection in 2016.
There was even a curse crossover when Pink Sox first baseman Invoice Buckner, a former Cub, bungled a routine floor ball in the course of the 1986 World Collection whereas sporting a Cubs batting glove underneath his leather-based glove.
The Curse of Cade, if one believes in such a factor, began an instantaneous downward spiral for the Bruins from the glory of that rivalry sport 1 / 4 of a century in the past. UCLA’s DeShaun Foster had starred as a freshman that day, scoring 4 touchdowns to indicate the varsity throughout city that had recruited him to play defensive again that he was one of the best working again on the sector.
UCLA quarterback Cade McNown arms off to working again Skip Hicks throughout a 1997 sport in opposition to rival USC.
(Los Angeles Occasions )
After the ultimate play (and indignity), McNown leaped into the arms of guard Andy Meyers and flung the ball into the air, celebrating a file eighth consecutive victory over the Trojans.
It was additionally UCLA’s school-record twentieth consecutive victory going again to the 1997 season, clinching a second consecutive Pac-10 title. The Bruins had been No. 2 within the Bowl Championship Collection rankings, probably needing solely a victory over Miami two weeks later to play Tennessee for the nationwide championship within the Fiesta Bowl.
They didn’t get it. Or a lot of the rest worthwhile since.
“After Cade did that and so they beat us and the followers had been chanting ‘Eight extra years!’ and all that,” stated Papadakis, now a soccer analyst and radio host, “they misplaced to Miami and that was the tip of their profitable streak after which they misplaced to Wisconsin within the Rose Bowl after which it by no means recovered itself.”
Watching McNown run deep into the USC secondary after fooling the Trojans, ABC analyst Gary Danielson criticized the quarterback on the published.
“I ponder if he didn’t try this on his personal,” Danielson stated, “as a result of I’ll inform you what … I feel that was a little bit of a bush play, to inform you the reality. The sport was over, and Cade McNown rubbed it in. … That one can be remembered by the Trojan gamers sooner or later.”
McNown stated he didn’t go rogue, the play having been referred to as by Toledo. The quarterback deliberately didn’t clue in most of his teammates concerning the name.
“I didn’t simply do it myself,” McNown stated, “though if you do a very good quarterback maintain, you’ll solely inform the working again since you need the crew blocking for that working again. The one motive you inform the working again is since you don’t need him to go, ‘The place’s the ball?’ or attempt to take it out of your arms. So you actually promote the run the alternative manner if you don’t even inform your linemen. So it seems as if I used to be making the decision — I used to be not.”
Toledo confirmed as a lot this week, saying he simply wished to maintain the clock shifting.
“It was simply a type of issues,” stated the long-retired coach, now 77. “I had a intestine feeling, like I did on a whole lot of trick or particular performs, and I advised him, ‘Name the sweep play however maintain it.’ So it seemed so reasonable to ‘SC that all of them chased the ball and he was in a position to run round proper finish.”
McNown additionally disputed the notion that he was rubbing it in, saying groups performed onerous to the tip of video games again then.
“Working a wise play and retaining it on the bottom, that’s not the worst factor,” McNown stated. “I might say it was nonetheless within the realm of politeness.”
The published having proven Toledo yukking it up with Hackett earlier than the sport, there was a distinct tenor between the previous neighbors and colleagues — they’d each labored as USC assistants underneath John Robinson within the late Nineteen Seventies — afterward.
“He wasn’t comfortable about it,” Toledo stated of Hackett’s response to the ultimate play, “but it surely was a type of issues.”
Happier days loomed for the Bruins. At 10-0 for the primary time since 1946, they had been off to play Miami in a highway sport that had been initially scheduled for September earlier than Hurricane Georges blew in and UCLA blew off the concept of rescheduling it.
However dealing with the prospect of getting leapfrogged within the BCS standings, UCLA gamers in the end voted to play the Hurricanes on Dec. 5 on the Orange Bowl.
UCLA quarterback Cade McNown tries to brush off defenders throughout a sport in opposition to rival USC in 1997.
(Los Angeles Occasions)
Some would possibly say the Bruins had been cursed earlier than kickoff. A big swath of the crew had wished to put on black wristbands in protest of Proposition 209, a state constitutional modification that prohibited affirmative motion in state applications and college admissions
Toledo advised his gamers no and so they acquiesced by way of a crew vote, resulting in hypothesis that the Bruins had been divided after they took the sector.
“I used to be for the children,” Toledo stated this week, “my solely factor to them was I don’t suppose we must always use this platform to try this. If you wish to try this, do it on campus like an everyday scholar and do what it’s a must to do. I didn’t need to try this with our soccer crew. Whether or not that had something to do with what occurred, who is aware of?”
Unusual happenings abounded within the sport. Observers thought the protection was too distracted by the wristband controversy given its slipshod tackling. Regardless, UCLA appeared to have put away unranked Miami after taking a 38-21 lead late within the third quarter.
The Bruins then fumbled twice, although one by receiver Brad Melsby on the Miami 26 with 3:24 left would have been overturned had prompt replay been in use on the time. Replay additionally would have erased a landing by Miami’s Edgerrin James through which he stepped out of bounds.
“We’d have received in the event that they wouldn’t have referred to as a fumble that wasn’t a fumble,” stated Foser, now UCLA’s working backs coach. “You possibly can’t have your knee down on the bottom and fumble the soccer.”
UCLA was left with a crushing 49-45 defeat, to not point out taunts of “Roooose Bowl … Roooose Bowl” from outdoors their locker room.
The Bruins had been headed residence to play of their residence stadium within the New 12 months’s Day bowl sport staged on their residence area … and it felt like an enormous letdown. They definitely performed prefer it throughout a 38-31 loss to Wisconsin through which the Badgers’ Ron Dayne rolled up 246 dashing yards and 4 touchdowns.
McNown’s time as a Bruin was over. So was UCLA’s second of glory.
The curse caught up with its creator once more shortly after he left campus, the quarterback discovered to have been amongst a bunch of gamers who fraudulently obtained handicapped parking placards. It was a part of a sequence of participant transgressions — together with 4 consecutive losses to USC — that led to Toledo’s dismissal in 2002.
A sequence of successors may do nothing to conquer the curse. The Bruins ultimately reached the Pac-12 title sport twice — shedding each occasions — whereas biking by way of 4 extra coaches amid a largely uninspiring run of Solar, Alamo, Vacation and Las Vegas bowls, by no means once more resembling McNown’s groups.
“The actual fact of the matter is, we did one thing fairly particular these two years,” McNown stated. “You might argue we wolfed up a whole lot of good luck in a brief time frame.”
There’s no disputing it’s been briefly provide ever since. UCLA (6-4 general, 3-4) is sure for an additional mid-tier bowl whatever the consequence of its sport in opposition to USC (7-4, 5-3) on Saturday on the Coliseum, with Kelly probably teaching to save lots of his job.
The Bruins are already looking for one other McNown, who spent 4 seasons within the NFL earlier than happening to work in personal fairness and being inducted into the Faculty Soccer Corridor of Fame in 2020.
In the meantime, time having eroded his bitterness, Papadakis stated his emotions have softened towards these hated rivals who dominated the Trojans 1 / 4 of a century in the past.
Effectively, aside from the one whose hubris could have inadvertently cursed his personal crew.
“Cade was unbelievably good and unbelievably boastful and we hated him and I nonetheless don’t like him,” Papadakis stated. “I acknowledge now that it’s all simply form of human theater that we form of create for ourselves in these moments.”
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