By Ben
BolchBy Ben
Bolch
Natives are restless about NU's Rose run
PASADENA, Calif. - Northwestern may be coming here, heading west like a band of gold diggers, and the locals are as excited as if the Wildcats were a fresh shipment of alfalfa sprouts and Evian.
On Sunday thousands of sun-drenched Californians - with thinner, sexier legs and darker tans than your average Wildcat fan - milled about the Old Tyme Flea Market, held just outside the Rose Bowl two Sundays a month.
When asked about the possibility of NU making its first trip to Pasadena since 1949 (when the granddaddy of all NU coaches, Bob Voigts, helped his team sneak past California),a lot of marketgoers lit up as if they had just spotted a Picasso for a buck.
"I think it would just be the greatest," said Mark Petrak, who lives in Seattle but was visiting Los Angeles for the weekend. "People have been kicking around NU forever."
And punching them. And pummeling them.
But as few people on the West Coast seemed to realize, one more NU win and an Ohio State loss to or tie with either Indiana (yeah, right) or Michigan (as if), and the Cats are headed west to play USC on Jan. 1.
"I wish NU was coming myself," said Richard E. Evans of Arcadia, Calif. Evans, wearing a USC hat, figured he would root against the Cats, though. "I just think they've done a fantastic job and their coach should be Coach of the Year," Evans said.
Evans and a sprinkling of college football fans spent part of their day looking at the Chrysler Corporation's Court of Champions, which adorns one part of the stadium wall. It's a collection of bronze plaques with the scores of every Rose Bowl from 1902-95 and blank plaques with soon-to-be scores from 1996-2016.
One man stopped by the plaques to check the last time Iowa had made it. Another wanted to see how many trips USC had made in the last five years. None seemed to notice - or to care - that NU had not played there since women in hula hoops provided halftime entertainment.
"I've been reading about (the Cats)," resident Jerry Colgan said. "They've been a big story out here in the papers. It's always nice to see someone turn it around."
Inside the tree-lined stadium, meanwhile, remnants of the previous day's UCLA-Washington game had yet to be picked up. On the field, tractors noisily stripped the sod so new grass could be planted long before the bowl.
"I'd like to see NU out here," said Fred Hoag, head of concessions at the Rose Bowl for 14 years, as he watched the turf being uprooted. "It's been, what, 40 years since they got to a bowl?"
Forty-six actually, but it made sense to stop counting once the novelty wore off twentysomething years ago.
"More people from California would like to see Northwestern come than Ohio State. Ohio State always comes here," said Harvey Malkim of Glendora, Calif., adding that it would have been nice to see an NU-OSU matchup decide who comes instead of that silly little NU loss to Miami of Ohio in September.
"Would NU beat Ohio State?" Malkim asked almost rhetorically. "I don't think so."
Neither do I.
I guess I'll just have to check out Orlando next weekend.
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