LASLAVIC LOVES POSTSEASON
Rain is in the forecast throughout today, including the afternoon, when the Port of San Diego Holiday Bowl Parade is scheduled to make its way down North Harbor Drive.
Bands, floats and balloons will fall into place behind former Chargers linebacker and longtime local sports broadcaster Jim Laslavic, who will be leading the way as the parade’s grand marshal.
It is among Laslavic’s responsibilities this week as honorary chairman for the 2019 Holiday Bowl.
The title has been bestowed on several prominent local sports personalities, including Bill Walton, Randy Jones, Don Coryell and Meb Keflezighi.
The Holiday Bowl is getting additional bang for its buck with Laslavic, who will serve as emcee for a bowl luncheon before the parade.
Of course, Laslavic’s biggest responsibility is as grand marshal. Keeping those balloons from getting tangled is quite a task.
“I anticipate perfect weather by (this) afternoon,” Laslavic said.
If it remains wet, it may discourage some fairweather parade fans.
Laslavic will be waving from a float regardless of what Mother Nature has in store for San Diego.
And why wouldn’t he? Laslavic has seen worse. Much worse.
After all, he played for the Chargers in the “Freezer Bowl,” the 1981 AFC Championship Game at Cincinnati. Temperature for the game was minus-9, with 27 mph winds making the wind chill minus-37 (originally calculated as minus-59 by the wind chill formula then).
“When I played in Detroit, we had a rain storm so bad,” Laslavic said, “that one of our linebackers, Paul Naumoff, lost a shoe that got sucked off his foot because of the mud. We’re walking around looking for his shoe and couldn’t find it . ... I don’t know when that shoe finally showed up.
“So I’ve played in some bad weather.”
Laslavic’s bowl participation dates back 48 years, although it would be 49 years if he had his way.
Laslavic was a junior on the 1971 Penn State team that beat Texas 30-6 in the Cotton Bowl.
“It was a big game,” Laslavic said, “We broke the wishbone and held them out of the end zone.”
That took away some of the sting from the year before, when Penn State turned down a Peach Bowl invitation (Arizona State was invited instead) after a seven-win season.
The Nittany Lions had gone to back-to-back Orange Bowls in the 1968-69 seasons, finishing 11-0 both years.
Laslavic missed those games, in ’68 because he was still a high school senior and in ’69 because freshmen were not eligible to play.
There were only 11 bowl games in 1970, a far cry from the 39 bowl games being played this year (the Holiday Bowl became the 14th game when it was chartered in 1978).
So invitations were difficult to come by back in the day. Losses to Colorado, Wisconsin and Syracuse in 1970 made it a “down,” season for the Nittany Lions, who had not lost in 31 straight games before being beaten at Colorado in Week 2.
“We did finish 7-3, but I remember being in a team meeting and (Penn State head coach) Joe Paterno left it up to a vote.”
And they didn’t go.
It was the only season over a 20-year period that Penn State did not go to a postseason game.
“I wanted to go, but the seniors lobbied us real hard to vote no,” Laslavic said. “At the end of the year, a lot of the seniors had had enough.
No. 22 USC vs. No. 16 Iowa
Friday: 5 p.m., SDCCU Stadium
Iowa by 2
FS1; 1360-AM;
Line:
On the air: 790-AM
They’d been through a lot with Joe, he pushed and worked them hard.
“It was a secret ballot, which I appreciate because I voted yes. Heck, yes, I wanted to go to a bowl game.
“Consensus is that maybe Joe didn’t want to go to that bowl game, either. Maybe he wanted to spend Christmas home with his family. He had young kids at the time.”
More than half the 130 FBS teams are invited to bowl games. There’s usually a couple of eligible teams complaining about not getting in. Choosing not to go? Not so much.
“That would never happen nowadays,” Laslavic said. “There’s a lot of money at stake (now) and a lot of prestige and publicity for the program, so I don’t see it ever being turned down like that again.”
Weather forecast
The Holiday Bowl weathered two storms this week, but Friday’s forecast is for clear skies. Temperature at the 5 p.m. kickoff is expected to be about 56 degrees.
The field at the stadium has been covered throughout the week, so footing should be solid for Iowa and USC players.
“The field is going to look spectacular,” said Mark Neville, executive director of the Holiday Bowl. “They had an opportunity to work on it (Tuesday) morning. They’ve covered it up now. They did a lot of the painting already, and it looks beautiful.”
The Holiday Bowl went more than 30 years without rain impacting the game. In fact, the most significant rain was last year during Northwestern’s 31-20 win over Utah.
Expected attendance
If bowl officials’ expectations are realized, the crowd will be in excess of 50,000 for the first time since the 2014 game, a 45-42 USC win over Nebraska that drew 55,789.
The largest crowd ever was the 65,416 who showed up for the 2005 game, when Oklahoma edged Oregon 1714.
Team payout
Each team will receive a payout estimated this year to be $3.4 million.
The payout has grown dramatically during the game’s history.
It was $271,214 per team in 1979, $1,109,038 in 1989, $1.96 million in 1999 and $2.13 million in 2009.
kirk.kenney@sduniontribune.com