This week USC and UCLA renew their storied rivalry, each looking to make a late push to rise from the crowded Pac-12 South. The game itself carries plenty of importance in the Pac-12 championship picture, but this one should also make for one of the more attractive match-ups this weekend for fans of college football uniforms.
USC and UCLA will continue a series tradition by wearing home uniforms for the game. The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday the two Los Angeles schools will wear their standard home uniforms when they take the field in the Rose Bowl Stadium on Saturday.
The tradition of each team wearing home jerseys for the rivalry game came from a time when USC and UCLA each played home games in the Los Angeles Coliseum. Both teams were home uniforms through 1983, at which time the visiting team started to wear the more traditional white away uniform. In 2008, the tradition was brought back in spite of NCAA rules. USC head coach Pete Carroll sacrificed one timeout as required by NCAA rules and UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel agreed to spend one timeout to make things equal, even though he did not have to do so as the coach of the home team. Give both former coaches credit for helping to restore one of the more unique traditions in college football.
Neuheisel actually brought a temporary end to the tradition a few years later, in 2011. Fortunately, the tradition returned in 2012. The team each wore home uniforms last season in the Los Angeles Coliseum as well.
