SAN DIEGO — People across the country affectionately refer to San Diego as “America’s Finest City.”
After spending just a few days there, that lofty title seems deserving.
Everything I’ve ever heard people talk about the city seemed right on the money: The flawless weather, the incredible winter sunsets, the non-stop social gatherings in the downtown Gaslamp Quarter and all else the downtown had to offer.
But me, I always knew San Diego for something else; something better than great weather, awesome scenery and bustling city strips.
I’d think of my all-time favorite movie, “Top Gun.”
Probably the high point of my entire winter break was walking into the Kansas City Barbecue near the downtown waterfront, where they filmed the bar scenes in “Top Gun.” For me, walking into that place was like entering a sacred shrine. Movie posters of Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis adorned the walls, along with pictures of F-14 fighter planes from the movie.
I couldn’t help it — I had to buy a Top Gun T-shirt before I left. That’s how cool this place was.
So, back to my column. What on earth does “Top Gun” have to do with Oregon football?
Plenty.
Following the Ducks’ 35-30 Holiday Bowl win against Texas Dec. 29, Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti sat beneath Qualcomm Stadium and reflected on his team’s emotional win.
“We wanted to play everything right on the edge,” he said, the gleaming Holiday Bowl championship trophy sitting just to his right. “We wanted to play one inch out of control.”
Well, the Ducks did just that. At times it paid off, other times it didn’t. But make no mistake, it was that Top Gun-esque attitude among the players and coaches that won the game for Oregon.
Evidence: A fake punt attempt that would have worked, had the pass actually covered more than half the distance to the receiver, or the end-around by receiver Jason Willis that resulted in the winning touchdown.
And when quarterback Joey Harrington handed off to receiver Keenan Howry, who passed it back to — Harrington? Who then barreled into the end zone for his first-ever touchdown catch?
That Howry-to-Harrington play must have been scripted not by offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford, but by the writers of “Top Gun,” who, back in 1986, came up with another clutch play that worked just as well: “Hit the breaks and he’ll fly right by.”
Heck, Bellotti could have borrowed a line from Maverick in his postgame interview: “You don’t have time to think up there. If you think, you’re dead.”
Anyway…
“Top Gun” is a movie about a gung-ho fighter pilot at an elite dogfighting school who, every time he flies, pushes the envelope to almost out-of-control levels. The Ducks took a similar game plan into the Holiday Bowl, and even though they may have appeared out of control at times, they weren’t, and they won.
But, of course, there’s more linking the Holiday Bowl to Top Gun than comparisons.
When football teams travel to new places to play in postseason games, sight-seeing is a given. In San Diego, popular tourist sites included Sea World and the World Famous San Diego Zoo.
Oregon did that. They also went to a military base.
There, they talked to a real-life Top Gun instructor.
“We had a great speaker this week that was a fighter pilot,” defensive end Jason Nikolao said as his team celebrated its bowl victory on the field. “He talked to us about how he was really a part of that life and death experience, and he made us feel that this game, right here, was really going to be about life and death.
“So we talked about that with each other, and it was great to come out here and perform.”
I don’t know if I’d ever call a football game a life-or-death experience, but whatever that instructor told those players did the trick. The defense flew around the field with reckless abandon, and the offense continued to out-wit its opposition.
Oregon proved it still had that love and feeling, even after losing an outright Pac-10 title and a trip to the Rose Bowl in a crushing Civil War loss.
The day before the Holiday Bowl, players, coaches and alumni from Oregon and Texas gathered in the San Diego Convention Center for a luncheon. Each team showed a highlight video of their season’s best plays.
The Ducks set their video to the emotional music from “Gladiator.”
“Highway to the Danger Zone” would have been more appropriate.
Scott Pesznecker is the assistant sports editor of the Emerald. He can be reached at [email protected].