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By CARL SAWYER Register Sports Writer Run to centerfield and shag a few fangoes. A Spectacular Start: ‘It was the greatest debut by a sophomore I've ever seen. I was really impressed.”’ Those were the comments of Orange Coast College football coach Dick Tucker, a TV viewer like thousands of other Orange County fans, who watched and marveled as young Rick Bashore quarterbacked UCLA in its opener against Houston in the Astrodome. Like Bill Shoemaker so often does as a jockey, Bashore nearly picked up the Bruins and threw them across the finish line in front. Cold statistics barely illustrate the impressive showing of UCLA's sophomore quarterback from Edison High in Huntington Beach. Connecting on 16 of 27 passes for 245 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 33 more, Bashore did everything but win the game. After Bashore’s spectacular start, these must be trying times for Steve Bukich, the Bruin junior quarterback from Newport Har bor High, who like Bashore, dreamed of being the Bruin signal caller. Bukich, who knows how to trigger coach Terry Donahue’s explosive veer offense also, gives the Bruins a potent 1-2 punch at the vital QB slot. . .and for the first time since Scott Henderson, out of Sunny Hills High, quarterbacked the Bruins, Orange County has something to cheer about when UCLA goes on offense. Welcome Rookie: Houston's Cougars seemed to try to give the game away to the Bruins by losing six of seven fumbles, but they put together two clutch TD drives in the second half to pull out the win and overshadow Bashore’s heroics. As anticipated, Houston aimed much of its running attack at Billy Don Jackson, UCLA's husky freshman recruit from Sherman, Tex., who went the distance at defensive tackle. Jackson was a prep All- American only a hoot and a holler from Houston, so it was only natural that the Cougars wanted to test him good in his first collegiate start. If Houston can gets its speed around the end, look for the Cougs to give Penn State problems in their next start Saturday, but they may not look as swift on the grass at College Park as they did on Astroturf.
Newspaper Details
Orange County Register
Orange, California, US
Fri, Sep 16, 1977
Page 29
Full Page
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USA 24 May 2026
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