Glasnost Bowl
Encyclopedia
The Glasnost Bowl was an attempt to stage an American
college football
game in Moscow
, USSR
at the beginning of the 1989 season
. The game was named after the policy of glasnost
("openness") introduced by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
in 1985. Scheduled for the Dynamo Stadium, the game was similar to the Mirage Bowl, a college football game played annually in Tokyo
, Japan
, with plans to have it be an annual contest with different participants each year.
Organized by Raycom Sports
, the game was scheduled between the University of Southern California
Trojans
and the University of Illinois
Fighting Illini
to open their regular seasons. Arrangements were made for a network telecast back to the United States, and airplanes were chartered for fans to fly to the Soviet Union. However, due to complications, the game was rescheduled for Los Angeles, California
as a USC home game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
.
as the venue for an American football
game can be viewed as an element of intense dialogue among Russians and American
s in the late 1980s. This exchange dialogue cut across many elements of culture and served as an important step in the political transitions leading to present day Russia
.
, to hold "The Glasnost Bowl", a regular-season opening game between two American college football teams. The announcement was the culmination of five years of negotiations with the Soviet authorities and a positive step in U.S.-Soviet relations, especially in light of the decade's previous American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics
in Los Angeles.
Scheduled for September 2, 1989
, the chosen site was Moscow's Dynamo Stadium, a soccer
facility in the northwest of the city with a then-stadium capacity of 50,000 persons (it currently has a 36,540 person capacity). The game planners hoped for 3,500 fans from each school, plus school marching band
s and cheerleaders, as well as 43,000 Soviet spectators. In addition to the United States, Raycom planned to broadcast the game in the United Kingdom
, Japan
, New Zealand
and Australia
; the Soviets planned to broadcast to republics of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc
via the state-run Gostelradio. The agreement between Raycom and Sovintersport had the Soviets keeping profits from their telecast, Raycom taking profits from the U.S. telecast and travel packages, and a split of the stadium gate (although tickets at the gate were planned for the equivalent of $1). Additionally, the two sides agreed to broadcast a five-minute instructional video to be shown on Soviet television during the months before the game: explaining the basic rules, positions, "When do you cheer at a football game?", and other basics.
The participating teams were not immediately selected, and a number of major Division I-A college football programs took interest in taking part in the historic game, including Florida
, University of Miami
, Florida State, Penn State
, Alabama, Texas and UCLA
. With the relatively short notice, interested teams needed to rearrange their schedules as the NCAA
did not grant the game an exception to its then-rule permitting only 11 regular season games. To help encourage teams, Raycom offered US$
300,000 to participating schools; however, the logistics remained difficult. Some teams, like Miami, were concerned about playing a difficult game abroad; others, like Florida, were unable to get out of previously scheduled games. Teams like Wisconsin
and Penn State were concerned about losing a home game and the extra income generated by such games (in some cases over $1 million). Also, with the game to be broadcast on ABC
, teams in the Southeastern Conference
, like Florida, had to further sort out complications with their exclusive television contract with TBS. By early November, the field of candidates was reduced to USC and Illinois: Kansas was willing to release USC from its commitment during that week and Illinois was open to having Raycom buy out one of its already scheduled games. The match-up was officially confirmed on November 15.
and the field commonly used by coordinators. Some Soviets were even interested if anyone was ever killed during the games. In addition, Dynamo Stadium's grass field was 10 yards too short to meet football specifications. Plans were made in case any unexpected flare-up in the fading Cold War
prevented the game from being played in the Soviet Union; the contingency plan had the game to be moved to Los Angeles and USC's home stadium, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
, with Illinois still splitting the gate.
However, despite these initial concerns, the general mood was optimistic. Both sides wanted the game to work. The kickoff was set for 8 p.m., Moscow time, and televised live in the U.S. at 9 a.m., Pacific time. ABC assigned a veteran group of sportscaster
s with Keith Jackson
, Bob Griese
and Mike Adamle
. Raycom agreed to bring in AstroTurf
for the stadium. The American media regularly touched on the novelty of the event, citing the shared colors of the Trojans uniforms and the Soviet flag and the name of Illinois' legendary Red Grange
.
Illinois rewarded 14 graduating seniors from its 1988 team to join them at the game the next year at the university's expense. While the Trojans' Spirit of Troy
marching band and cheerleaders were scheduled to make the trip, USC needed to adapt its mascot, Traveler
, a white horse with Trojan-costumed rider, by sending the rider and substituting a local Russian white horse. The game also survived a February–March 1989 legal battle between American promoters involved with Raycom.
Illinois head coach
John Mackovic
, USC head coach Larry Smith and their staffs visited Moscow in Spring 1989 to plan around the facilities and accommodations; the Soviet officials remained worried about the violence of the game, asking if ten ambulances were enough. The teams realized that they needed to bring all the necessary equipment for a major college football match-up: including footballs, goal posts, play clocks, cooks, a large amount of food (2,000 pounds per team, and the large quantity of ice used for football related strains and injuries. The plan had the teams flying by chartered jets from Los Angeles and Chicago to Moscow on August 28, having two days of practice before the game, sightseeing after the game and then returning on September 4. Travel packages for fans, including airfare and hotel, were sold starting at $2,595
.
Like the Olympics, the game itself became a political football
for thawing relations between the superpowers: American Congressional
personnel and agencies at both the state and federal level showed interest in participation, along with Soviet counterparts in their foreign ministries. Tentative plans were already being developed for the second Glasnost Bowl, between Miami and Penn State. Illinois baseball
coach Augie Garrido
suggested creating a two-sport doubleheader with both universities' baseball teams preceding the game.
Indeed, a lack of inter-cultural experience on both sides combined with the traditional Byzantine Soviet bureaucracy and way of business proved to be the dooming factors for the game. Just to form the "final" game contract, Raycom officials met with six different sets of Soviet negotiating teams, signing at last on April 27 in Moscow - nine months after the game was first announced. Executives at Raycom felt in the end that the game was a few years premature given the changes occurring in the Soviet Union at the time.
As per the original contract plans, the game was immediately shifted to the Coliseum, with USC agreeing to eventually play Illinois at home in Champaign, Illinois
; ABC still decided to carry the game, moving it to the Labor Day holiday. The game was played in Los Angeles on September 4, with the #22-ranked Fighting Illini upseting the #5 Trojans by a score of 14 to 13 in a tight contest before an attendance of 54,622. The teams finally played the second half of the home-and-home arrangement seven years later: On September 7, 1996
, the #19 Trojans routed the Illini 55-3 in front of 56,504 at Memorial Stadium
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
game in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, USSR
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
at the beginning of the 1989 season
1989 NCAA Division I-A football season
The 1989 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with Miami winning its third National Championship during the 80s, cementing its claim as the decade's top team, winning more titles than any other program....
. The game was named after the policy of glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
("openness") introduced by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
in 1985. Scheduled for the Dynamo Stadium, the game was similar to the Mirage Bowl, a college football game played annually in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, with plans to have it be an annual contest with different participants each year.
Organized by Raycom Sports
Raycom Sports
Raycom Sports is an American syndicator of sports television programs. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and owned and operated by Raycom Media.-Founding:...
, the game was scheduled between the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
Trojans
University of Southern California Trojans football
The USC Trojans football program, established in 1888, represents the University of Southern California in college football. USC is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I FBS and the Pacific-12 Conference . The Trojans have been a football powerhouse throughout NCAA...
and the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
Fighting Illini
Illinois Fighting Illini football
The Illinois Fighting Illini are a major college football program, representing the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. They compete in NCAA Division I-A and the Big Ten Conference.-Current staff:-All-time win/loss/tie record:*563-513-51...
to open their regular seasons. Arrangements were made for a network telecast back to the United States, and airplanes were chartered for fans to fly to the Soviet Union. However, due to complications, the game was rescheduled for Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
as a USC home game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, at Exposition Park, that is home to the Pacific-12 Conference's University of Southern California Trojans football team...
.
History
The attempt to use MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
as the venue for an American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
game can be viewed as an element of intense dialogue among Russians and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
s in the late 1980s. This exchange dialogue cut across many elements of culture and served as an important step in the political transitions leading to present day Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Early planning
On October 18, 1988, Rick Ray, CEO of Raycom, announced an agreement with Sovintersport, a division of the Soviet Ministry of Sports and Physical CultureMinistries of the Soviet Union
-Ministries:- Other agencies under the Cabinet of Ministers :-See also:* Council of People's Commissars, head of government from 1917-1946* Council of Ministers, head of government from 1946-1991* Cabinet of Ministers, head of government in 1991...
, to hold "The Glasnost Bowl", a regular-season opening game between two American college football teams. The announcement was the culmination of five years of negotiations with the Soviet authorities and a positive step in U.S.-Soviet relations, especially in light of the decade's previous American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics
1984 Summer Olympics boycott
The boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. The boycott was a follow up to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The boycott involved 14 Eastern Bloc countries and allies, led by the Soviet Union who initiated the boycott on May 8, 1984, and joined...
in Los Angeles.
Scheduled for September 2, 1989
1989 NCAA Division I-A football season
The 1989 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with Miami winning its third National Championship during the 80s, cementing its claim as the decade's top team, winning more titles than any other program....
, the chosen site was Moscow's Dynamo Stadium, a soccer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
facility in the northwest of the city with a then-stadium capacity of 50,000 persons (it currently has a 36,540 person capacity). The game planners hoped for 3,500 fans from each school, plus school marching band
Marching band
Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
s and cheerleaders, as well as 43,000 Soviet spectators. In addition to the United States, Raycom planned to broadcast the game in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
; the Soviets planned to broadcast to republics of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
via the state-run Gostelradio. The agreement between Raycom and Sovintersport had the Soviets keeping profits from their telecast, Raycom taking profits from the U.S. telecast and travel packages, and a split of the stadium gate (although tickets at the gate were planned for the equivalent of $1). Additionally, the two sides agreed to broadcast a five-minute instructional video to be shown on Soviet television during the months before the game: explaining the basic rules, positions, "When do you cheer at a football game?", and other basics.
The participating teams were not immediately selected, and a number of major Division I-A college football programs took interest in taking part in the historic game, including Florida
Florida Gators football
The Florida Gators football team represents the University of Florida in the sport of American football. The Florida Gators compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletics Association and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference...
, University of Miami
Miami Hurricanes football
The Miami Hurricanes football program competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference of the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision for the University of Miami. The program began in 1926 and has won five AP national championships...
, Florida State, Penn State
Penn State Nittany Lions football
The Penn State Nittany Lions football team represents the Pennsylvania State University in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Big Ten Conference. It is one of the most tradition-rich and storied college football programs in the...
, Alabama, Texas and UCLA
UCLA Bruins Football
The UCLA Bruins football program represents the University of California, Los Angeles in college football as members of the Pacific-12 Conference at the NCAA Division I FBS level. The Bruins have enjoyed several periods of success in their history, having been ranked in the top ten of the AP Poll...
. With the relatively short notice, interested teams needed to rearrange their schedules as the NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
did not grant the game an exception to its then-rule permitting only 11 regular season games. To help encourage teams, Raycom offered US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
300,000 to participating schools; however, the logistics remained difficult. Some teams, like Miami, were concerned about playing a difficult game abroad; others, like Florida, were unable to get out of previously scheduled games. Teams like Wisconsin
Wisconsin Badgers football
The Wisconsin Badgers are a college football program that represents the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and the Big Ten Conference. They play their home games at Camp Randall Stadium, the fourth-oldest stadium in college football...
and Penn State were concerned about losing a home game and the extra income generated by such games (in some cases over $1 million). Also, with the game to be broadcast on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, teams in the Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
, like Florida, had to further sort out complications with their exclusive television contract with TBS. By early November, the field of candidates was reduced to USC and Illinois: Kansas was willing to release USC from its commitment during that week and Illinois was open to having Raycom buy out one of its already scheduled games. The match-up was officially confirmed on November 15.
Planning a game in the Soviet Union
Even with the teams set, the logistics of hosting the first American football game in the Soviet Union proved challenging. Soviet officials were not used to the requirements of major American football teams: i.e., the locker rooms in the stadium were designed for 16-player soccer teams, not football teams with over 75 personnel, and Soviet stadiums did not have communications between boothsPress box
The press box is a special section of a sports stadium or arena that is set up for the media to report about a given event. It is typically located in the section of the stadium holding the luxury box. In general, newspaper writers sit in this box and write about the on-field event as it unfolds...
and the field commonly used by coordinators. Some Soviets were even interested if anyone was ever killed during the games. In addition, Dynamo Stadium's grass field was 10 yards too short to meet football specifications. Plans were made in case any unexpected flare-up in the fading Cold War
Cold War (1985-1991)
The Cold War period of 1985–1991 began with the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev as leader of the Soviet-Slovakia Union. Gorbachev was a revolutionary leader for the USSR, as he was the first to promote liberalization of the political landscape and capitalist elements into the economy ; prior to this,...
prevented the game from being played in the Soviet Union; the contingency plan had the game to be moved to Los Angeles and USC's home stadium, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, at Exposition Park, that is home to the Pacific-12 Conference's University of Southern California Trojans football team...
, with Illinois still splitting the gate.
However, despite these initial concerns, the general mood was optimistic. Both sides wanted the game to work. The kickoff was set for 8 p.m., Moscow time, and televised live in the U.S. at 9 a.m., Pacific time. ABC assigned a veteran group of sportscaster
Sportscaster
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
s with Keith Jackson
Keith Jackson
Keith Jackson is an American sportscaster, known for his long career with ABC Sports , his coverage of college football , his style of folksy, down-to-earth commentary, and his distinctive voice, with its deep cadence, and operatic tone considered "like Edward R...
, Bob Griese
Bob Griese
Robert Allen "Bob" Griese is a former American collegiate and Professional Football quarterback who earned All-American honors with the Purdue Boilermakers before being drafted in 1967 by the American Football League's Miami Dolphins...
and Mike Adamle
Mike Adamle
Michael David "Mike" Adamle is a sports personality and former National Football League player. He is best known as the co-host of American Gladiators series for seven years....
. Raycom agreed to bring in AstroTurf
AstroTurf
AstroTurf is a brand of artificial turf. Although the term is a registered trademark, it is sometimes used as a generic description of any kind of artificial turf. The original AstroTurf product was a short pile synthetic turf while the current products incorporate modern features such as...
for the stadium. The American media regularly touched on the novelty of the event, citing the shared colors of the Trojans uniforms and the Soviet flag and the name of Illinois' legendary Red Grange
Red Grange
Harold Edward "Red" Grange, nicknamed "The Galloping Ghost", was a college and professional American football halfback for the University of Illinois, the Chicago Bears, and for the short-lived New York Yankees. His signing with the Bears helped legitimize the National Football League...
.
Illinois rewarded 14 graduating seniors from its 1988 team to join them at the game the next year at the university's expense. While the Trojans' Spirit of Troy
Spirit of Troy
The Spirit of Troy, also known as the University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band , self-described as "The Greatest Marching Band in the History of the Universe," represents USC at various collegiate sports, broadcast, popular music recording, and national public appearance functions.The...
marching band and cheerleaders were scheduled to make the trip, USC needed to adapt its mascot, Traveler
Traveler (mascot)
Traveler is a horse who is the mascot of the University of Southern California. He appears at all USC home football games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as well as many other outdoor events, including numerous Rose Parades. The current horse is Traveler VII...
, a white horse with Trojan-costumed rider, by sending the rider and substituting a local Russian white horse. The game also survived a February–March 1989 legal battle between American promoters involved with Raycom.
Illinois head coach
Head coach
A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches...
John Mackovic
John Mackovic
John Mackovic is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the head coach of United States national American football team, which was formed to compete in the American Football World Cup...
, USC head coach Larry Smith and their staffs visited Moscow in Spring 1989 to plan around the facilities and accommodations; the Soviet officials remained worried about the violence of the game, asking if ten ambulances were enough. The teams realized that they needed to bring all the necessary equipment for a major college football match-up: including footballs, goal posts, play clocks, cooks, a large amount of food (2,000 pounds per team, and the large quantity of ice used for football related strains and injuries. The plan had the teams flying by chartered jets from Los Angeles and Chicago to Moscow on August 28, having two days of practice before the game, sightseeing after the game and then returning on September 4. Travel packages for fans, including airfare and hotel, were sold starting at $2,595
.
Like the Olympics, the game itself became a political football
Political football
A political football is a political topic or issue that is continually debated but left unresolved. The term is used often during a political election campaign to highlight issues that have not been completely addressed, such as the natural environment and abortion.There are many reasons that an...
for thawing relations between the superpowers: American Congressional
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
personnel and agencies at both the state and federal level showed interest in participation, along with Soviet counterparts in their foreign ministries. Tentative plans were already being developed for the second Glasnost Bowl, between Miami and Penn State. Illinois baseball
College baseball
College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. Compared to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a less significant contribution to cultivating professional players, as the minor leagues primarily...
coach Augie Garrido
Augie Garrido
August Edmun Garrido, Jr. is a coach in NCAA Division I college baseball. As of June 12, 2011, Garrido has compiled a record of 1,817 wins, 823 losses, and 8 ties. He is currently in his 43rd season of collegiate coaching...
suggested creating a two-sport doubleheader with both universities' baseball teams preceding the game.
Plans collapse
On June 8, just three months before the game, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner broke the surprise bad news: the Glasnost Bowl in Moscow was canceled by Raycom. All sides expressed deep disappointment in the result. Raycom CEO Rick Ray cited "contractual concerns" over the previous weeks for the cancellation that were not resolved to their satisfaction, specifically citing arrangements for hotel rooms and transportation. While all involved expected and accepted facilities and accommodations that were not up to normal requirements, serious questions arose as to whether such needs could be delivered in the required numbers. Raycom agreed to returning all sold travel packages, with interest, to those who had made arrangements to go to Moscow. By far the largest stumbling block was the Soviet authorities' inability to guarantee the required number of hotel rooms and lack of communication from the Soviet side. The Soviet authorities told Raycom that they could not assure the number of hotel rooms in the contract, or the locations previously agreed upon, and asked for a delay in negotiations. Additionally, Raycom was not selling its tour packages as well as it had hoped: as of mid-May, fewer than 1,000 of over 3,000 packages had been sold. A contributing factor was the price for the six-day, five-night trip, which was considerably higher than most Soviet tours which offered even more. Raycom, faced with the potential of large financial losses, decided it could no longer move forward and cancelled the game.Indeed, a lack of inter-cultural experience on both sides combined with the traditional Byzantine Soviet bureaucracy and way of business proved to be the dooming factors for the game. Just to form the "final" game contract, Raycom officials met with six different sets of Soviet negotiating teams, signing at last on April 27 in Moscow - nine months after the game was first announced. Executives at Raycom felt in the end that the game was a few years premature given the changes occurring in the Soviet Union at the time.
As per the original contract plans, the game was immediately shifted to the Coliseum, with USC agreeing to eventually play Illinois at home in Champaign, Illinois
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
; ABC still decided to carry the game, moving it to the Labor Day holiday. The game was played in Los Angeles on September 4, with the #22-ranked Fighting Illini upseting the #5 Trojans by a score of 14 to 13 in a tight contest before an attendance of 54,622. The teams finally played the second half of the home-and-home arrangement seven years later: On September 7, 1996
1996 NCAA Division I-A football season
The 1996 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with the Florida Gators crowned National Champions, but not as unanimously as the Bowl Alliance would have hoped....
, the #19 Trojans routed the Illini 55-3 in front of 56,504 at Memorial Stadium
Memorial Stadium (Champaign)
thumb|right|300px|Original plan for Memorial Stadium circa 1921. Caption from [[Popular Mechanics]] Magazine, 1921Memorial Stadium is a football stadium located in Champaign, Illinois, in the United States, on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The stadium is dedicated as...
.