DocJock
Joined: 2/03/05 Posts: 15,584
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Posted Wed, Jul 18 8:17 pm
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In response to doc, my memory was (newenglander)
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From your description of the game, I don't recall Garrett running for 200+ yards or Mel's long TD run.
I was watching the game on TV, and for one reason or another, it's possible I did not see it from the beginning.
I recall Dallas Grider's recovery because it was a turning point, and onside kicks weren't common back then, but Coach Prothro was always ahead of the curve.
Yes, it was Witcher who caught that first pass, and Altenberg hauled in the decider.
What I recall most vividly was that stupid sign in the USC section, and the Trojan throng leaving the stadium thunder struck.
There were some interesting sidelights to that episode in UCLA football history.
Garrett wanted to be admitted to UCLA so badly that when he received his letter of rejection from the Registrar's office, he reportedly broke down and cried.
He wasn't a particularly fast or elusive runner, but one of the strongest to ever grace a football field.
When Tommy Prothro signed on as UCLA's football coach, Times sports writer Braven Dyer wrote something to the effect that he better get used to losing against USC. Dyer was an excellent sports writer in the days the Times still had sports writers, but he was a USC product and a big Trojan honk.
UCLA had all but given up on Mel Farr who spent more time in the infirmary than on the football field prior to the arrival of Prothro. But Tommy Prothro did somethings his predecessor didn't. He built an offensive line and designed plays around his two play makers, Beban and Farr.
Red Sanders was so in awe of Prothro's intellect that during staff meetings, if the entire staff approved of something Sanders wanted to try, but Prothro alone dissented, Red wouldn't do it.
It was a junior high or high school coach who made a quarterback out of Gary Beban. Gary was more interested in basketball at the time, but when the football coach saw him rifle a full court pass on target, he took him aside and told him "You are going to be my quarterback".
Whenever Beban and his mother spoke by telephone, she never asked about his football, only his academics.
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