They're Only No. 2

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Lights are burning late at No. 15963 Valleywood Road in Sherman Oaks, Calif. From the study, overlooking a kidney-shaped swimming pool, comes the whir of a movie projector. Hunched over the L-shaped desk, his size-50 jacket slung carelessly on the floor, a bespectacled bear of a man scribbles furiously on a note pad. It is some time between midnight and 4 a.m., the hours that James Thompson Prothro Jr. calls his "thinking hours." It could be chess that Tommy Prothro is thinking about: he is a tournament champion. Or bridge: he collects master points. Or business: he is heir to a Memphis real estate fortune, owns two soft-drink bottling plants in Oregon. But right now he is trying to decide whether to counteract a strong-side blitz with a sweep or a Sprint-H. Football is Tommy's favorite hobby--and it also happens to be his profession. At 46, Prothro is head coach of the U.C.L.A. Bruins, who last week were the No. 2-ranked col lege team in the U.S.

They were underrated at that, as far as Missouri's Coach Dan Devine was concerned. Dan's scouts had watched U.C.L.A. demolish Pittsburgh (57-14) and Syracuse (31-12) on successive Saturdays, and he was ready to concede that "U.C.L.A. is the best team in the country" --better than No. 1-ranked Michigan State--even before Missouri played the Bruins last week. Devine's Tigers were undefeated, they had sharpened their claws on Minnesota (24-0) and Illinois (21-14) of the Big Ten. They were 14-point underdogs at Los Angeles, and while they did better than that, they didn't do enough. Missouri made only five first downs to U.C.L.A.'s 19, gained a total of 135 yds. to U.C.L.A.'s 407. The Bruins fumbled the ball away on Missouri's goal line, had another touchdown nullified by a penalty, presented the Tigers with six free points on a blocked punt. It was quite a struggle until Quarterback Gary Beban engineered a 56-yd. scoring drive in the third quarter. After that, Halfback Mel Farr scooted for two TDs, and the Bruins won the game 24-15.

"He'll Learn." Victories, easy or hard, are not exactly traditional for the Bruins. For a decade, U.C.L.A. has operated in the shadow of its smaller (18,-600 students to 27,500) cross-town rival, Southern California. When Prothro quit a secure job (63 victories, 37 defeats in ten years) as head coach at Oregon State and moved to U.C.L.A. last year, he inherited a team that had won only ten of its last 30 games. "Tommy did not come to U.C.L.A. to lose," commented a Los Angeles sportswriter, "but he'll learn."

At first, sophisticated Angelenos were horrified by Tommy's rumpled appearance and taciturnity ("I am," he admitted, "the oratorical equivalent of a blocked punt"). But they quickly fell in love with his peculiar, devil-take-the-hindmost brand of football. "We'll try to do the unexpected," he promised, "the things nobody would dream that we'd be stupid enough to try."

He was a man of his word. Tommy ordered his boys to kick on third down, pass on fourth. He drilled them endlessly in the techniques of the quick kick and the "squib punt"--kicked ever so gently--that is almost impossible to field, because it travels only 30 yds. in the air, hits the ground and rolls around crazily. He was even accused of rigging microphones in his players' helmets, so that he could direct the action from the bench. And then he introduced Quarterback Beban, a spectacular sophomore who ran for 590 yds., passed for 1,483, and sparked the Bruins to a 7-2-1 season, including two of 1965's most stunning upsets--a 20-16 victory over archrival U.S.C., followed by a 14-12 Rose Bowl triumph over previously unbeaten Michigan State.

The Beef Gang. This year, Beban is an inch taller (at 6 ft. 1 in.), 12 Ibs. heavier (at 195 Ibs.), and every bit as dangerous. Against Pitt, he scored two touchdowns on runs of 1 and 9 yds.; against Syracuse, he plunged 4 yds. for one score, set up another with a 47-yd. pass, and threw 13 yds. for a third. Against Missouri last week, he completed eleven out of 20 passes, for 204 yds. Even so, he is hardly a one-man team. Halfback Farr is a legitimate All-America candidate who has aver aged 6 yds. per carry so far this season. Flanker Harold Busby is a threat to go all the way any time he gets his hands on one of Beban's passes--because he runs the 100-yd. dash in 9.4 sec. Tackle John Richardson (254 Ibs.) and Guard Larry Agajanian (232 Ibs.) supply the beef for a gang-tackling defense that limited Syracuse's own All-America Halfback Floyd Little to 18 yds. in twelve carries and held Missouri to 39 yds. on the ground.

With that kind of defense, plus an offense that has averaged 37 points a game, U.C.L.A. could probably bank on a return engagement in the Rose Bowl --if only it weren't for Southern Cal. U.S.C.'s Trojans are ranked No. 5. They are also itching for revenge against Prothro's Bruins. The "Battle of Los Angeles" is scheduled for Nov. 19, and 72,000 seats in cavernous (capacity: 94,750) Memorial Stadium have already been sold. After that, even the Rose Bowl may be an anticlimax.

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