A rivalry week into on Thursday? What is this shit?
Yeah, sorry all. Life got a bit in the way of the usual prep this week. While I apologize earnestly and profusely to our resident Bruin, WarlockofWestwood, I would need to be aware of a USC fan online or in real life to feel badly for shorting the Trojans.
AlmaOtter
Ah, I get it. It's an SEO play, isn't it? Dropping the Trojans in the week after Nolan's The Odyssey hits theaters? Clever, AlmaOtter. Clever.
I did not plan this. I don't give a shit about Google search traffic. My movie theater budget and my limited tolerance for 32 oz of Coke Zero and a massive bucket of buttered popcorn was used up the previous weekend on Monsters and Minions with my godkids. I also do not give a fuck about the Trojans and have argued previously that their mascot name is impressively stupid.
AlmaOtter
Is this rivalry a real thing?
Oh, for sure! Despite my evident disdain for the Trojans in the opening blurb, this is a Thing. While we Big Ten long timers might look down on the California folks, this is a legit rivalry. You've got the trifecta: proximity, longevity, and hardware.
They're without a doubt the two Big Ten schools that are closest to each other. I don't pretend to understand LA geography, but hey, they're in the same goddamn city. Familiarity breeds contempt. They've been playing nearly yearly from 1929 to now, just barely missing the Century club at 95 meetings. And most importantly for this weird ornamental tchotchke obsessed conference: they have a trophy! And for the locomotive-heads out there, the trophy's a big fuckin' bell from a Union Pacific train. Good stuff.
Where'd you two come from again?
Ah yes, the original Kevin Warren Special. In 2021, the Pac-12, Big Ten, and ACC set up an alliance to band together in the conference wars to come. And then the Big Ten took the knife first to do in the Pac-12 by welcoming in USC and UCLA in 2022. Pulling the Pac-12's entire LA TV market effectively shattered the conference. You know the story: Oregon and Washington followed suit to the Bee One Gee, others scattered to the poorly-named Atlantic Coast Conference, or the Big XII. Poor Oregon State and Wazzou were stuck with the noble title and a flaming bag full of dog shit.
Nebraska is to the 2010s realignment as USC/UCLA is to the 2020s. In both, our venerable conference moved first, went maximalist, won out, and fucked over everyone else in the process.
You folks got a trophy or some hardware?
Hey, the fun part! Let's dive into the Victory Bell (not the Victreebel, for you fellow millennial-era pokemon fans. Wait, Thumpasaurus. Can you mash those up later in the season?!).
The background, as best as I understand it: an alum donated a big fuckin' bell in 1939 for the cheerleaders to ring for every point that UCLA scored. But two years later, USC fans infiltrated the UCLA fan section, stole the bell, loaded the damn think onto a truck, and kept it hidden in a frat house for over a year. Pranks continued and escalated between the fanbases. Eventually, a truce was signed, the bell was returned, and it became the trophy for the annual crosstown challenge. We love a trophy with apocryphal lore, and that's the good stuff, right there.
Let's get to some numbers. What's the series win-total look like?
Not as lopsided as you'd think, despite USC's blue blood status? USC 52, UCLA 34, with seven ties. There have been significant runs of dominance, like USC's 13/15 to open up the rivalry, or UCLA's dominant unbeaten streak from 1991-1998.
