Smelling Roses

My #17 Cal Bears are in the LA Coliseum right now to take on the #4 USC Trojans. A Cal victory will ensure our first Rose Bowl since 1959. Of the 10 teams in the Pac10 and 11 teams in the Big10, Cal has the longest Rose Bowl drought. Only Arizona hasn't been to the Rose Bowl, but then they weren't even added to the Pac10 until 20 years after Cal's last appearance.

My freshman year was the incredible nix of John Elway's last-minute, bowl berth, Heisman Trophy bid, length-of-the-field drive to beat Cal in his last college game. Of course, Elway made maybe the greatest mistake in the history of football when he called time out then looked at the clock, instead of looking at the clock and then calling time out. His blunder left Stanford with 8 seconds to kick a field goal to win. The would-be game winning kick took only 4 seconds, forcing one last technicality of a kickoff. Of course, 5 laterals and running through the Stanford band later, Cal pulled off the greatest play in football history. As sweet as that memory is, we need a Rose Bowl berth today.