Jan 12, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; A UCLA Bruins logo at the entrance to Pauley Pavilion before the UCLA Bruins defeated Arizona State Sun Devils 87-72. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Fielding-USA TODAY Sports
The UCLA Bruins are taking on the Texas Longhorns this weekend at world famous Jerry World, aka AT&T Stadium. The Bruins and the Longhorns have not had a long history, but it has been storied. Especially their 1997 meeting that included two wins over other Texas teams, culminating with impromptu Texas State Championship against Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl. Here is how it all went down. As UCLA visits the state of Texas where they have been fairly successful (they beat Virginia Tech in Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas last season), we look at one of their more memorable seasons that included Texas-sized whoppings.
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The 1997 season did not start out the way the second year head coach Bob Toledo expected. Despite a win over USC in his first season, UCLA finished 5-6. Improvement is what he had hopes on, especially with quarterback Cade McNown behind center.
The Bruins, in hindsight, lost the rights to the Rose Bowl in their first game. Their season opener against eventual Rose Bowl game selection Washington State saw the Bruins lose at the Palouse 34-37. It got even worse as in week 2, the #3 Tennessee Volunteers escaped from Pasadena against the Bruins, 24-30. Starting 0-2 was the opposite of what Toledo wanted.
But then something spectacular happened in the next 10 games. UCLA did not lose a single one.
The miracle turnaround started when UCLA visited the #11 Texas Longhorns at Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas. It was just their luck having to play two ranked teams in consecutive weeks, but this game ended very differently. Texas suffered their worst loss in the school’s football history.
The Bruins brutalized the Longhorns with five first half touchdowns by McNown and 42 first-half points as UCLA went on to beat Texas 66-3. It is the largest margin of victory between the two schools in their short history, but the most memorable indeed.. It was also the first hurdle against Texas opposition.
The following week, UCLA entered the polls at #24 and had a great first showing as a top 25 team, beating Arizona 40-27, but it was the next game that helped solidify UCLA as an offensive threat.
The week after, the Houston Cougars were annihilated in a fashion similar to their Texas counterparts. Houston lost 66-10 which put the Bruins at 18 in the next week’s polls.
UCLA then went on to beat lowly Oregon, Oregon State, Cal and Stanford, but it was a contest with #13 Washington on the third to last game of the season that notched the Bruins as a legitimate powerhouse in college football. The Bruins once again ran through another Pac-10 Conference opponent as the Huskies went down, 52-28.
Betsided
In the next week, what had worried the Bruin faithful was the annual battle with USC. The Bruins had won six in a row against the Trojans at that point and if there is anything certain about a rivalry game, it is that nothing is certain. USC was 6-5 and looking to not only extend their year into bowl season, but play spoiler against the ultra hot Bruins. It did not happen. The Bruins won their seventh in a row against the Trojans, 31-24, which gave them good standing for the post season.
The only thing is, despite ending in a 7-1 tie in the conference standings with Washington State, the Bruins were bumped from the Rose Bowl. Instead, they headed back to Texas to face #20 Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.
The 1998 Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl Classic was everything a New Year’s Day Bowl should be, although the start scared the living daylights out of the entire Bruin fan base. Texas A&M had a 64-yard interception which set up the first score of the game. The next points the Aggies scored came from sacking McNown in the end zone for a safety and a 74-yard rushing TD. Texas A&M was firing on all cylinders, but UCLA managed to claw their way back in. Connecting for a 22-yard touchdown pass, McNown spotted Jim McElroy who got the Bruins on the board to make it 16-7 at the halftime.
The second half was more of a battle, or should we say a slaughter, with UCLA bursting through to outscore Texas A&M 22-7 and go on to win the game, 29-23.
The Bruins had done it. They were Texas State Champions!
UCLA's 66-3 Romp Over Texas in 1997 Was Staggering: AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The audacity of the final scor... http://nyti.ms/dBIb9G (via NYT)
— College Football (@College_FB) September 21, 2010
Okay, they really were not the Texas State Champions, but many t-shirts around Westwood at the time would have you believing so. It was a cheeky jab at Texas football, because seriously, who messes with Texas? No one, that’s who! But UCLA did in that one magical season. One that they tried to repeat.
It lead to another magical season in 1998 that had the Bruins on path for their first National Championship since 1954. But we all know how that season ended… with pure and utter hatred for Miami and Hurricanes everywhere.