The game within the game
Fans on a mission, tailgaters are already setting up for Bruins-Trojans annual showdown
By Dan O'Heron 11/25/2009
Tailgate parties around the UCLA vs. USC football game Saturday at the Coliseum won’t take a backseat to any outdoor event in the West this year, save NASCAR.
With the stadium’s 93,607 seats sold out and thousands of other fans without tickets converging here just for the tailgate partying, cops will have to lay out spike strips on Figueroa Street to keep the crowd down.
The $25 Coliseum parking lot fee won’t stop intrepid tailgaters, nor will the $40 charged by adjacent businesses and residences for use of their driveways. It doesn’t matter that both USC and UCLA have had disappointing seasons, that graduating high school nerds can look forward to playing right away at either school; that both teams may only be Ti-dee Bowl-eligible — as always, it’s still the biggest game of the year.
As the legendary UCLA football coach Red Sanders once put it: “Beating USC is not a matter of life and death. It’s more important than that.”
Irrepressibly, the scene will become a virtual Mardi Gras of foods and drinks, truck stops and tank tops. Tank tops? I hope not. This attire and more grotesque drapery — men in obscenely lettered T-shirts that hadn’t been cleaned more than once; women with tattoos flirting from the rear of their lo-rise jeans — would signal the return of Raider fans. Harmless? Remember how they once blitzed the Coliseum with unwarrantable annoyances like rioting.
Saturday’s fans will be more sophisticated; if drinking, they’ll only have to be careful about handling telescoping roasting forks, spring-loaded flip spatulas and lighter fluid. From streets wide and narrow, there’ll be mobile homes towing super- grills and little cars with glove-box-size hibachis. There’ll be Ford F150 Party Trucks — custom-designed for tailgating with grill, sink, blender, beer taps and a flip-down DVD player — with black-belt barbecue masters at the wheel. And USC’s far-right Republican alumni will arrive in Cadillac Escalades while moon-roofed liberal Bruin grads come in BMW X3s.
As a fierce independent, caddying an Igloo ice chest full of beer, I’ll be bumming a ride with a friend in a rusty old Chevy Landfill pickup. But supplied with our bounteous spread of goodies from South Pasadena’s Bristol Farms (606 Fair Oaks Ave., 626/441-5450), we’ll not be outdone even by those who’ve come in limos with live bands and white-hatted caterers.
Our basket will be brimming with two USDA Prime top sirloins ($12.99 a pound) — very lean and perfectly healthful for barbecuing as they avoid carcinogens by keeping fat off the grill. But if a friend from out of town joins us and volunteers to buy the meat, I’ll suggest Snake River Kobe beef rib-eye ($55.99/lb.). We’ll add a chunk of aged, sharply flavored pecorino Romano cheese at $12.49, plus a heart of palms salad, $7.99/lb., ginger sesame chicken tenders, $8.99/lb., and an $11.59 pecan pie.
For good measure we’ll toss in some oil-cured Moroccan olives and Cajun andouille sausages. Spicy and heavy-smoked, these links are especially good when served cold. Later, at the game, they will blend nicely with our flasks of whiskey. (They don’t sell alcohol in the Coliseum — but with today’s loose clothing …)
If you’ve come ill-prepared for tailgating, the USC Hospitality group will come to your rescue. If you’ve come in fine style, they’ll enhance the experience. The group plans and presides over special events and operates on a daily basis some 29 food establishments on campus — including fast food places like Baja Fresh, Wahoo’s and Jamba Juice, a host of American and ethnic restaurants, and, for snooties, Wolfgang Puck’s and Literatea. Off campus, at the Radisson Hotel, they host three more restaurants. Taking time off, tailgaters can have fun gadding about the campus.
“Our mission,” said USC Hospitality director, Kris Klinger, “is to create the best USC experience for students, faculty, alumni, honored guests and everyday visitors.”
The other day I visited Hospitality’s McKay’s Restaurant Bar & Lounge (at the Radisson, 3540 S. Figueroa St., 213/743-4111).
I thought it would be a sports bar beer joint where I’d be standing in the shadows of over-brewed USC defensive linemen about to fall asleep, as they did at the Stanford game.
It was my misplay. More than clean and looked-after, McKay’s has a modern design, replete with warm, dark woods, a stone fireplace, footstools, couches with pillows and an etched glass panel separating the dining room from the lounge. Its menu would both serve the university president with filet mignon and perk up a tired Trojan lineman with pulled pork.
At the bar, a Trojan fan was telling me about the history of the series and the glories of his team. As a Bruin fan from way back, I could not go there gladly: The scorecard reads: USC 43 wins, 28 losses and 7 ties; 11-1 national championships; 7-1 Heisman Trophy winners, and 7-1 in Coach Pete Carroll’s recent victories over my Bruins.
Dryly, I responded with my best defense/offense: “At least we’re not named after a product.”
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