'Game' Still Largely Defines Beban

Despite losing to O.J. and USC, Gary Beban won UCLA's only Heisman Trophy in 1967

Nov. 28, 2007

By Adam Caparell

CSTV.com


	ADAM CAPARELL Adam is CSTV.com's football editor and national football writer. E-mail here!

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Gary Beban had stared in a prominent USC-UCLA game prior to the 1967 edition of the Los Angeles rivalry, but never had he played in one like this.

It was No. 1 vs. No. 4, the Bruins vs. the Trojans. And not only was a shot at the Rose Bowl and the national title on the line, but so was the Heisman Trophy as its two leading candidates squared off; Beban, the Bruins' senior quarterback, and O.J. Simpson, the Trojans' junior running back.

"I think that anybody who gets a chance to reflect on that game, realizing the city championship, the Rose Bowl, the national championship and literally the Heisman Trophy was on the line, saw a pretty exciting afternoon," Beban said.

What the 90,000-plus fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum saw was more than just an exciting afternoon. They saw The Game of the Century.

Two of the top 10 teams in the nation battled for four quarters, in front of a national television audience, and in the end it was USC who emerged as the narrow victors, beating UCLA 21-20, thanks to a Simpson run and a blocked extra point.

But it was Beban who, despite playing through bruised ribs, threw for over 300 yards that afternoon and looked to have UCLA in position to win it all after he connected on a touchdown pass with Dave Nuttall early in the fourth quarter to gave the Bruins the lead. He then had to watch helplessly as kicker Zenon Andrusyshyn missed the extra point. UCLA was only up six and Beban knew that wasn't going to be enough.

"We knew they were going to score, the offense knew they were going to score when we missed the extra point on our third touchdown," Beban said. "So we knew were going to have to get in there again. And our kicker wasn't having a good day so we had plenty of time. We had 10 minutes to score and we just couldn't do it."

The game changed for good in USC's favor when Simpson reeled off one the great runs in college football history.

From the I-formation, Simpson took the ball from quarterback Toby Page, burst through the left side of the offensive line, made three Bruins defenders miss as they toppled each other over, raced down the USC sideline and back across the field at the 35 yard line, out-running everyone to the end zone.

USC did what UCLA couldn't, tacking on the extra point, and the Trojans had themselves a one-point lead they would not relinquish.

"I think we look back, we were fortunate. If you have to play the game, and if it is a tough game and it is a lot of hard work, sweat and tears, you want to play in something like that," Beban said. "And for all intents and purposes, we can say we played in a national championship game because that is what that Saturday afternoon was."

That 1967 season was the last year the final Associated Press poll was published before the bowl games. And the final poll of the year declared a national champion. With the upset of the No. 1 Bruins, the Trojans were crowned national champs.

But the scintillating Simpson performance and loss to the Trojans didn't deter Beban's Heisman hopes.

Despite Simpson stealing the show that Saturday in the season's most important and most thrilling game where he ran for two touchdowns and 177 yards, it was Beban who would later go on to win the award, beating Simpson by 246 points.

Beban was the fifth quarterback to win the Heisman in the 1960s, playing during a decade mostly dominated by the quarterback. It was the Bruins' wide-open style of play that Beban credits with allowing him the chance to win the Heisman. That and some pretty good coaching.

UCLA had brought in Tommy Prothro from Oregon State to run the team beginning in the 1965 season and Prothro brought with him a style of play that suited Beban's abilities.

"He brought from Oregon State the same type of rollout quarterback that Terry Baker had played and won, won the trophy [in 1962]," Beban said. "I think most people forget that Tommy is one of the few coaches to coach two Heisman winners from different schools. And my quarterback coach, Pepper Rogers, did the same thing. He coached Steve Spurrier and then myself. So I was very fortunate to be in the crossfire of some real talented coaches who played wide open games."

Beban and the Bruins did not play Midwestern style football. They threw the ball. Woody Hayes would not have approved.

"We didn't have conservative plans. We didn't have the `three yards and a cloud of dust,'" Beban said. "I always snickered at the Norte Dame-Michigan State tie [in 1966], how they could tie for going for a national championship makes me chuckle, but given the way the UCLA-USC game was played with wide-open games, long runs, big passes, unfortunately one big interception. So Tommy had a wide-open game. We had onside kicks, we had all kinds of things going on."

And they almost had a national championship, only to watch their rivals take it away, led by Simpson, the 1968 Heisman Trophy winner. And because of their respective performances in The Game of the Century - or one of its many incarnations, considering roughly eight lay claim to the title - many always associate Beban with Simpson.

Both would go on to great success after college, Simpson in the NFL and broadcasting after his playing days were over, Beban in real estate. But it was Simpson, of course, who would go on to become one of the most polarizing figures in America, thanks to the murder charges and subsequent acquittal surrounding the death of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

"I am linked with O.J. on the ballgame and I always will be," Beban said. "And those components made it a great college football game on that Saturday afternoon. But after that, we went very different ways."

And both, of course, are members of one of the most exclusive fraternities in sports, being Heisman Trophy winners. Of the two, only Beban is still an active and openly welcome member, but one with as legendary a career as any other winner before or after, thanks in large part to that game. Even if he lost.