Only One Team Will End Up Sniffing the Flowers

I love the smell of chrysanthemum in the morning. It smells like . . . victory.

When you come to Pasadena, you stop to sniff the roses. Our visitors from Arizona State know what I mean. They are here for a serious purpose, but also to have some fun. Like at their pep rally Monday afternoon in downtown L.A., where they packed Pershing Square. Pep rallies are for bluster, for bragging, for saying stuff you wouldn’t dare say someplace else.

As when their favorite football coach, Bruce Snyder, stood up and said, “Today, we are 11-0. Come Jan. 1, we will be 12-0 and national champions!”

Which made every Sun Devil beam.

Or when everybody’s All-American, offensive lineman Juan Roque, mentioned the Rose Bowl’s ceremonial coin toss, then suddenly blurted, “It doesn’t matter, because we’re going to take that coin and shove it down their throats!”

Which made every Sun Devil glow.

And pretty soon, quarterback Jake “the Snake” Plummer was passing T-shirts to the crowd, like Elvis “the Pelvis” Presley, tossing scarves. And then, the 1987 Rose Bowl quarterback--and player of the game--Jeff Van Raaphorst urged every Arizona State fan coming to the Rose Bowl: “Don’t just sit there! Be loud!” And then, the ASU victory bell began to clang.

At which point, the actual sun broke through the clouds.

Not a bad omen.

Of course, over in Century City, that same day, there gathered 15,000 of Ohio State’s true believers, who weren’t exactly quiet. They came for a “Buckeye Bash,” and enjoyed their world-famous marching band so much, few seemed to notice when an out-of-control automobile crashed through the front of a nearby store. Not necessarily a good omen, but hey, if you’re from OSU, you don’t believe in luck; you believe in Bucks.

I never heard much about Arizona State football growing up, but Ohio State, I heard about. Hopalong Cassady, Les Horvath, Paul Warfield, Jim Marshall, Jack Tatum, Archie Griffin, Chris Spielman, Jim Parker, John Hicks, Jim Lachey, Tom Cousineau, Matt Snell . . . stop me, my fingers are tired. A cavalcade of stars. Good word from my ex-generation: Cavalcade. I knew Ohio State’s players like I knew the back of my hand, usually from turning on the TV on New Year’s Day.

Arizona State, well. . . .

I knew a few of its basketball players, certainly. Byron Scott, Lionel Hollins, “Fat” Lever, “Jumpin’ Joe” Caldwell, my old pal Mark Landsberger. But I couldn’t really rattle off Sun Devil football heroes. I still can’t. I’m pretty sure the actor Nick Nolte got a football scholarship to go there, but played more for Pasadena City College, as I recall.

Arizona State is hardly a regular here. Everyone waits for its New Year’s Day turn to come around, as Oregon did, Wisconsin did, Northwestern did. And now it’s Arizona State’s turn. A football team from the “Valley of the Sun” is now in Pasadena--a village named after old Chippewa tribe word, that means “Valley of the Crown”--to seek the national championship, a worthy crown if I have ever heard of one.

How sweet is this?

Check with the coach, Snyder, who says, “I’ll take stock in the tunnel before the game, believe me. Nothing compares with the moment you hear that announcement, ‘. . . And here come the Sun Devils!’ ”

It is their year. Maybe one in a blue moon. Maybe one of many.

“I really believe, really feel the foundation of a great football program is now in place,” Snyder says. “Knock on wood. I see us just beginning. I know that must sound odd, being 11-0 and No. 2 in the nation, the way we are. But that’s how I feel. I feel we could go on a long-time tear.”

I know back home, many share his sentiments. What a year Arizonans are crossing off the calendar: First a Fiesta Bowl for the national championship at the stadium in Tempe . . . then Super Bowl XXX there a few weeks later . . . then the state’s first presidential election primary (won by Steve Forbes, remember him?) . . . then Arizona’s own Kerri Strug at the Olympics . . . then perhaps Arizona State’s greatest football triumph ever (over the Nebraska Cornhuskers, remember them?).

And now, a Rose Bowl.

Time to sniff the flowers? Sure. OK to sniffle, as well. This is the penultimate New Year’s game between Pacific 10 and Big Ten football champions. The 1998 game will end this floral arrangement, as we know it. After that, other conferences get invitations, with the national championship being decided in Pasadena every fourth year. You know, like a presidential primary.

Don’t cry for us, Pasadena. Nothing will be spoiled. People forget, Harvard has played in a Rose Bowl. So have Duke, Navy, Alabama, Columbia, Tulane, Tennessee, even Southern Methodist.

Arizona State? Enjoy yourselves, while you can.

Ohio State? Well, watch out for Juan Roque and that coin.