TONY CRUTCHFIELD, BYU's veteran left cornerback, will be back in the Rose Bowl this week when
the Cougars play UCLA Saturday night. As far as Crutchfield is concerned, that means he has the home field advantage. Keep backpedaling out of the endzone and you're on his doorstep. You can park in his driveway for $10."For the Super Bowl we charged $20," he says, grinning.
The Pasadena native hasn't played in the Rose Bowl next door since he graduated from high school. But during high school he and his teammates at John Muir High School made themselves right at home. Each year they played their arch rivals from Pasadena High School in the Rose Bowl - in a game called the "Turkey Tussle." Crowds nearing 50,000 would show up, and for the three years Crutchfield was involved they saw the John Muir Mustangs win every time.That was not unusual, since the John Muir Mustangs were rather dominating when Crutchfield was going to school. They won consecutive California big-school Coastal Conference titles in 1985 and 1986, when Crutchfield was a junior and senior, and the '86 team finished undefeated (14-0) and enshrined in the National High School Hall of Fame.
No less than 10 players were recruited to Div. I-A college programs off that team. Three of them - tailback Ricky Ervins, tight end Marcus Robison and safety John Hardy - are already in the NFL, with the Washington Redskins, Houston Oilers and Chicago Bears, respectively.
Crutchfield was a fullback/tailback for the Mustangs, as well as a linebacker. He and Ervins were the running backs behind quarterback Vince Phillips, Crutchfield's half-brother. Since Ervins had been informally adopted into the Crutchfield home - he lived with the Crutchfields during his high school years - the Mustangs of '85-86 featured the now legendary (in Pasadena) all-brother backfield. The game films doubled as their home movies.
"We weren't too bad," says Crutchfield, still grinning. It's not often that you leave high school, go on to college, and say, "Yeah, but my high school backfield was better."
Ervins went on to play for USC, where he became a star and finished his career last New Year's Day by winning the MVP award back home in the Rose Bowl.
Crutchfield and Phillips were also offered scholarships by USC (the Trojans kept a car, an assistant coach, and a file of letters of intent stationed outside the John Muir campus). Phillips instead accepted an offer to play baseball for the New York Yankees organization. Their $160,000 signing bonus was too much for even USC to outbid. Currently, he's playing outfield for the Double-A Albany Yankees in the Eastern-Continental League.
As for Crutchfield, he shocked a lot of people by signing with Brigham Young instead of the Trojans. But he had a feeling. "I felt USC could live without me," he says. "BYU wanted me bad. I wanted to go where I knew I was wanted."
In 1987 he left the shadow of the Rose Bowl and settled in Provo, where, ever since, he has been a valuable defender for the Cougars in spite of periodic knee problems. He's had three knee surgeries to date, including one three weeks ago. That surgery, an arthroscopy, cleaned out the scar tissue from his two previous operations (in 1988 and early 1990) and bathed the tendons in cortisone. When Crutchfield tested the knee, his right one, against Florida State's speed receivers in last week's season opener, he had seven tackles and said he felt better than anytime in more than two years.
That's good news for his homecoming this week, where he will not be an invisible man - either by UCLA's receivers, or by the people in his home town.
"My whole neighborhood will probably be there," he says.
His ticket requests long ago exceeded his supply. Leaving him only with this tip to anyone still asking: There's a hole in the gate by the side of the golf course adjoining the field.
That's how Crutchfield and his brothers used to sneak onto the Rose Bowl field. "We'd go in there, throw the ball around, and dream about playing there one day," he says.
He says he'll talk to both Vince and Ricky this week about going back home. That will get him in the mood - both for returning to the Rose Bowl and for playing UCLA.
"In my family, there's not a lot of love lost for UCLA," he says. Whereas for UCLA's famous home field, there's no place like it.