| SEATTLE (Sept. 18, 2004) — If you weren’t wearing your Arabian goggles, then you may have missed Maurice Drew’s outrageous five touchdowns in UCLA’s big 36-31 win against Washington. Upsilon alumni Jim Ballard, Rob Ward, Steve Lantz, Rich Marcus, Jay Ross and Tim O’Hara’s sister Kerry roadtripped to the great Northwest to watch a great team from the Southwest. The mighty Bruins showed guts and glory and came back from a 14-point deficit and won their 7th of eight games against the Huskies. Drew rushed for 322 yards, a UCLA record, and probably is still having a barbecue in the Washington endzone. The Bruin fans could barely count all of Drew’s touchdowns on one hand – what would Alfred Hernandez have done! How many mo’ touchdowns could Mo have had! The weather was chilly, but Jay’s flask of “Old Crow” (a bargain at $11 per bottle) kept the brothers warm, along with Joe Bruin trying to get it on with Kerry. Aside from Kerry nearly getting in a fight with Cory Paus at a bar after the game, the trip went off with a hitch. It’s usually not smart to ask a 6-foot-4 former college athlete why he never took us to the bigtime. That usually hurts the brothers’ chances with his fake-blonde hot UNLV-age sister. The brothers chatted with Cory until Casey, who starts at QB for the Huskies, came over in his grunge/hippie outfit and told Cory that their mom wanted to go now. The brothers also partied with Bill Weathers, a former Twins outfielder who insists Minnesota played the Dodgers in the 1969 World Series (it was 1965), and a commercial halibut fisherman who chugged cups of Jack-and-Jack-and-Jack and fantasized about Screech on “Saved by the Bell” in the old days. (Jim concurred.) After 14 hours of partying on Saturday, the bartender Destiny joined the brothers at The Dutchess bar. Despite much attempt at persuasion, she was not interested in learning firsthand about the benefits of the shocker. Rich Marcus tried to get cunning with his Irish lassie friend Evelyn, but Kerry ruined it for him by passing out on his chest. Many discussions of showtunes and Cole Porter’s contribution to music were debated by Rob Ward and others, as were the benefits of reacharounds. The brothers went to the Mariners-A’s game on Friday night and cheered Bruin legends Eric Byrnes and Adam Melhuse of Oakland to victory. Jay and Rich snacked on fried clams and freeloaded by sneaking down to the $55 good seats with $5 scalper tickets. There were only two failures during the whole trip. Rob Silvestri (a UCLA Sammy who Jim met at USD law school) passed out at the last bar at 1:50 a.m. — a la Matt Sumrow at the Lake Havasu Arby’s back in the early 1990s — after 14 hours of partying, and Jim disrupted the Salt Lake City Airport plumbing system during a layover. Next year, we’re going to Stanford, and in 2006, to Notre Dame, so get on the Bruin express and party on! |
