Before he was a star actor, Mark Harmon was a student-athlete at UCLA, where he was the starting quarterback for the Bruins when they upset No. 1 Nebraska in 1972. He sat down with Pac-12 Networks to recapture that unforgettable day.
As a die-hard UCLA fan from the upper Midwest, I still think a lot about the great 1973 team that Mark Harmon was on that would put up 50-60 points in a lot of games that 1973 season. Although Nebby got revenge on us in Lincoln, the season boiled down to the regular season finale against our crosstown rival USC and we lost 23-13 and our chance to go to the Rose Bowl. To this day I grieve over that damn game.
As a junior at UCLA in the fall of 1972, my college roommate and best buddy was Efren Herrera, the placekicker hero of this huge upset victory. I often reflected upon how wonderful it must've been for the UCLA Football announcer, former Michigan Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon, to call this game (and the others for the next two years) of his son Mark's Bruin career!
I spent 4 years in the USAF at Offutt AFB in Nebraska (graduated from UCLA and got my commission) and all we heard about was Johnny Rodgers, Bob Devaney, and GOBI GRED (Go Big Red) Nebraska Cornholers). I got off of active duty in May of '72 and damned sure I was going to be in the Mausoleum for that game! When Herrera hit that field goal and the remaining 22 seconds ran off the clock, we all went wild and were down on the field mobbing up with the players. What. A. Night!
Mark seems to be the last of tbe emotioally-centered, clear-eyed, self-effacing student-atheletes we just don't see much of anymore. Now they're all entitled, pampered, spoiled, whiny brats who are eminently forgettable after their fifteen minutes of fame are up.
