Text:

“UCLA is rivals with USC, and 1-2 weeks before playing USC in football all the important statues or any kind of monumental thing at UCLA got boarded up so that no one could come and mess with it. This included Bruin Bear and the 42 from Jackie Robinson which would be put in a box. People wrote on the box with chalk or markers and say things like ‘F*** SC’ or ‘Go Home’.” 

Context:

MM is a 24-year-old American Missionary from a town in the middle of California. She attended UCLA for college and I asked her if there were any specific UCLA traditions that she remembered during Rivalry Week (when USC would play UCLA in football).

Interpretation:

As someone who attends USC, I know a little bit about this tradition, except at USC we don’t put our monuments in boxes, instead we cover them with duct tape to protect them from UCLA students. Clearly there must’ve been a history of the schools vandalizing each other’s monuments that caused them to start protecting them during Rivalry Week. The writing of “Go Home” on the box tells me that they are expecting USC students to come to campus to attempt some sort of vandalism or prank. It tells us how important football is at both of these schools and how the rivalry itself has traditions behind it that don’t really match up with football or anything about the school – the traditions have evolved into something separate from the schools themselves and amplify the hatred between the two schools.  which amplifies the hatred between the two schools.