In the state of the art cafeteria, created specifically for LA Basin University athletic teams, the walls were decorated with paintings and drawings of atheletes on former teams. Players on the visiting Huygens football team sat wherever they wanted, but the opposing coaches were seated opposite each other at a white-clothed table; the opposing quarterbacks were also seated together. There was no white tablecloth on their table. "It is not a good idea to give Cougar Joe Thatcher a white tablecloth", Swifts coach "Skyscraper" Cole observed.

"On the ranch where I grew up in East Texas", we never ate Greek food", Coug told River.

"In the Greek restaurant where I grew up, there was nothing but Greek food." On River’s plate lay filet mignon and an enormous baked stuffed potato. "But this…" He cut a large slice from the steak on his plate. "I think I'll move to your cafeteria".

At the adjoining table, Griff was eating a substantial pastrami sandwich. "At Huygens, ours are a little better due to San Francisco bread makers," he observed. "But your kitchen made me a pastrami sandwich for dinner, and they did not tell me that pastrami was only for lunch."

"This Septenber, your Huskies broke my Trojan's perfect beginning, and it would be the Pac-10 Game of the Week, the game in which we planned to set the pace to another Rose Bowl." Sky was a few years older; he and Griff had not played each other in their Pac-10 undergrad days. But obviously college football lingered at the core of former college football identities.

"31-0. Marinovich couldn’t get past our Defense and now he's going to have live with his immortal probably post-sac words: "All I saw was purple."

There was an ominous silence at the coaches table. "But I hear that The Raiders are seriously looking at him", Griff added. Diplomatically.

arrow Across the room, far from their coaches, Darnell and Noah and two Swifts players from the same Bell Gardens High School were sitting together.