Bonfire And Rally Held On Campus (and other UCLA briefs)

UCLA’s students held their annual Beat SC Bonfire and Rally on Monday night on the UCLA campus, which featured performances by various musical groups and the UCLA Band and Spirit Squad, as well as a special video of Bruins doing the eight clap at different locations around the world.

After coach Rick Neuheisel and some of the Bruin football players spoke, the bonfire, which was a tradition on campus dating back to the 1930s but was discontinued for a while before it was brought back in 1990, was lit, which not only got the UCLA faithful excited and pumped for the game at the Coliseum this Saturday night, but also provided warmth as temperature got quite chilly in Westwood.

Here’s a link to the Bonfire/Rally from uclabruins.com and YouTube:

UCLA Hosts Beat SC Bonfire on YouTube

Other football stuff…

It’s no secret that this rivalry has been one sided in the 21st century, USC having won 11 out of the past 12 meetings with the exception of that epic 13-9 Bruin win in 2006.

Sean Sheller is the only UCLA football player on the roster who has experienced beating the Trojans, as he was on the scout team in ’06. “That was pretty fun…I felt a part of that victory.” Sheller told the Los Angeles Times’ Chris Foster.

Putting it another way: No other Bruin has seen the Victory Bell painted blue, and they dearly want to change that.

Said wide receiver Nelson Rosario to the Times’ Foster: “We need to win. We haven’t beaten them since I have been here. That’s our main goal.”

And meanwhile, in basketball…

Bruin Nation will be happy to know that their basketball team will not go winless this season, as Ben Howland’s team soundly whipped Division II Chaminade at the Maui Invitational at Lahaina, Hawaii, 92-60.

Yes, the win was over a small Division II school, but the way things are going in this early part of this season, any win is good.

Especially since UCLA only had a two point lead at halftime.

Lazeric Jones led everybody with 19 points and seven assists, and three other Bruins had double figures in points: Travis Wear with 11, Tyler Lamb with 15,  and Jerime Anderson with 18.

Wear lead the Bruins on the boards with eight rebounds.

Reeves Nelson sat out the first half because he missed the plane to Hawaii. He played 11 minutes in the second half.

The blowout was so total that Tyler Trapani, the great grandson of the late great coach John Wooden, got to enter the game in the last minute. He even got a couple of rebounds.

The Bruins will next play at the Lahaina Civic Center tonight at 6:30 p.m. local time.