October 17, 1977
Alabama Stole The Show
Closing seconds. USC scores and needs a two-point conversion for the win. Everything is going according to a time-honored script, but the Trojan line blows it
Joe Jares
It seems as if over the years USC has had a patent on last-second, come-from-behind, frighten-the-bejeezus-out-of-its-fans sorcery. Given that fact, coupled with the proximity of the Trojan campus to Hollywood, the assumption may be made that football game plans are prepared by the school's cinema department, not the coaching staff.
The plot line goes back at least to the Howard Jones era, to 1931, when John Baker kicked a nick-of-time field goal to beat Notre Dame 16-14. But more recently the script has usually called for a handsome leading man of a quarterback to fling a desperation pass to some whippet of a receiver in the end zone just before the director yells, "Cut!" In this manner USC has won numerous national titles, Rose Bowls and almost as much TV exposure as Paul Lynde.
So, predictably, there the Trojans were last Saturday afternoon in the Los Angeles Coliseum trailing Alabama by one point with 35 seconds to go. Perfect. They had just driven to a touchdown and were going to try for a two-point conversion. (A school with such ride-to-the-rescue alumni as John Wayne, Ward Bond and that fellow in the Hertz commercials would go for a tie?) All USC Quarterback Rob Hertel had to do was throw for the two points and race to the sideline to kiss either a pompon girl or the Trojan horse.
Hertel took the snap, rolled to his right for the expected play-action pass but managed only a feeble toss (which was intercepted) as he was being buried under an Alabama sophomore named Wayne Hamilton (Leesburg High School, Okahumpka, Florida), who had blasted by two blockers. The Crimson Tide ran out the clock to win 21-20, knock USC off its No. 1 perch in both wire-service polls and snip the Trojans' win streak at 15.
While USC was staging a comeback behind Hertel, who completed 16 of 23 passes for 230 yards in the second half, Hamilton was making a comeback of his own. Recently he had found himself in Coach Bear Bryant's doghouse, which has often operated at capacity in the Bear's 20 seasons at Tuscaloosa. "I just wasn't playing up to the potential he feels I have, I guess," said Hamilton. "I didn't start against Vanderbilt after being the regular defensive end in the opener against Ole Miss and the next week against Nebraska. After he told me I wasn't starting, I just did a little soul-searching and decided I didn't want any of that sitting on the bench and not playing a lot." A star was reborn.
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