13-9

The story of why I chose to attend UCLA instead of another school is an interesting one, but it's one I'm going to save. Come the end of the year, I'm sure I'll have some nostalgia posts to make, and that's a good one for then. BUT, there is one aspect of it that is relevant right now - one of the factors that pushed me toward UCLA was the fact that they had a football program, and a big sports rivalry.

And, as superficial of a reason it may be, this reason was validated on December 2, 2006, when the UCLA Bruins defeated the (then #2) USC Trojans. The final score was 13-9.

Here's a highlight-reel recap of the victory (in poor quality, sadly):



I remember watching as USC had the ball, driving downfield for what could have been a game-winning score. I remember standing ON my seat, 70 rows up, cheering with a mixture of both excitement that we were so close to winning, and fear that we were about to see it slip away.

Then, John David Booty drops back, and fires a pass to his left. It's tipped in the air by a UCLA linebacker, who then turns around and dives for it, intercepting the pass, and sealing the UCLA victory.

The stands exploded with cheers, UCLA players were running all over the place, everybody hugging and yelling and high-fiving. There was a sense of pride that washed through that stadium, and we all knew we'd witnessed something amazing.

And now, 3 years later, we have that moment again. The disparity between our teams is less than it was then, though we're still the underdogs. UCLA has all the momentum going in. And I'm going to be there, like I was 3 years ago. I'll be wearing my Bruin Blue, yelling and cheering for our team. And when we win, and that wave of euphoria washes over the small contingency of UCLA fans in attendance, I'll be proud to say that I witnessed it. Proud to be a Bruin.

GO BRUINS! BEAT $C!