Rose Bowl reflections...

Rose Bowl fans will cherish keepsakes from the game, maybe game programs, hotdog wrappers, ticket stubs or those goofy-looking fake eyeglasses held over from new year celebrations. Except for fans who love to hate the University of Texas Longhorns, the 2006 Rose Bowl game was perhaps the most exciting collegiate game ever played on the national stage.

For once, the hype wasn’t equal to the game itself as the underdog ‘Horns scored 15 points in the final 243 seconds en route to a 41-38 win over the University of Southern California….

The event was a classic. Coaches/players/analysts said the right things, 30 TV cameras captured the action from all angles and even the game officials, on balance, did excellent work.

Human error crept in a time or two, but then, doesn’t it always? Despite stem to stern analysis of the granddaddy of all bowl games, please consider three observations that may not heretofore have been made--yet….

To nitpick such a classy spectacle is of dubious value, but a half-time gaffe by the gargantuan Trojan band, albeit spanning little more than a second, was offensive to the max. It was classless and coarse, devoid of any redeeming value.

I’m sure fans at the game join the rest of us in wondering if we really saw what we think we saw….

Yes, it was unmistakable. At one point in the performance, band personnel grabbed their crotches. (It is such shenanigans as this that causes university presidents’ hair to turn gray--or turn loose.)

I don’t buy the puny reasoning that the band members all needed to scratch at once. Their gyrations occurred during a Michael Jackson song. Could it be that he also suggested moves for the choreography?

This faux pas doesn’t rise to the level of a Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl, but it could cause TV folks to introduce 10second delays for, of all things, college band half-time shows….

To start things off, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a Texan by birth, seemed a bit awkward in her role as coin-tosser. Grand Marshal of the extravaganza, the court’s first female jurist smiled weakly when her toss came up “Texas.”

She seemed relieved that the coin she tossed behaved as tossed coins do. Just as peewee footballers pray that their passes will spiral, her hope may have been that the coin would rotate. Maybe this was a “first” for her, and NOT the way many Supreme Court cases are decided after all….

At game’s end, even the awards presentation was exciting. Seconds before Coach Mack Brown accepted the crystal glass trophy, the table it was perched on shook. He steadied it, and the glass football which is emblematic of the National Championship was presented without incident.

Had he not provided the steady hand, headlines might have screamed: “UT COACH FUMBLES TROPHY!” Who knows why the table trembled? Perhaps there was a slight earthquake; more likely, someone accidentally kicked it….

In several Texas cities, stores with UT T-shirts, caps, pennants and other memorabilia with “National Champions” emblazoned thereon, opened three hours early, some at 6:00 a.m. One has Waterford replicas of the trophy.

Lest you think they had to arise early to make the openings, guess again. Many of them who had partied the night away stopped by for the UT stuff on their way to bed….

Fans lock away special games in memory vaults, revisiting these special moments the rest of their lives.

Rose Bowl fans will cherish keepsakes from the game, maybe game programs, hotdog wrappers, ticket stubs or those goofy-looking fake eyeglasses held over from new year celebrations.

I am reminded of a certain woman who’s always on the look-out for historic items. She swears that she “stole” the ax George Washington used to chop down the cherry tree, buying it at a flea market for $10. “Oh, the ax has had three new heads and four new handles,” she confesses….

UT fans maintain that the game was the very best ever played--period. And they may be right. What is a lead pipe cinch is that this year’s Orange Bowl, coupled with the Rose Bowl, gave fans the two finest games ever played in a 24hour period.

The teams--Texas, Southern California, Penn State and Florida State--gave us top performances. These teams finished 1-2-3-23, respectively in the final poll, but their coaches--Brown, Pete Carroll, Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden are all NUMBER ONE. To these men I say THANKS. Thanks for the memories….

Dr. Newbury is a speaker and author whose weekly column appears in 125 newspapers in

six states. He speaks more than 100 times

annually for church, educational, business and professional groups, and welcomes comments

and inquiries. Call him at 817-4473872 or send email to: newbury@speakerdoc. com His website: www.speakerdoc.com