JENNA SCHUETTE | arts & culture editor

APU and Biola share a rich legacy as a premier SoCal rivalry.

Many have likened the rivalry between Azusa Pacific and Biola to the USC-UCLA rivalry. Within their first few hours on campus, freshmen quickly come to learn about the legendary rivalry. Their first APU-Biola basketball game is a monumental rite of passage. By the end of the game, many will have “You wish you were a Cougar” stuck in their heads and will begin plotting the ultimate prank for the next game.

“It’s a kind of rivalry you don’t see very many places,” said athletic director Bill Odell, who is also a former APU men’s basketball coach. “It’s not built on hatred. It’s built on competition and respect.”

The epic rivalry dates back forty-two years. In late 1965, Azusa College and Los Angeles Pacific College merged to form Azusa Pacific College. At the time, there were only a half-dozen Christian schools in the Los Angeles area. And Biola was the premier school.

“Biola was a more established institution,” Vice President Emeritus Cliff Hamlow said. “We were just earning our stripes.”

Azusa Pacific quickly became a strong competition for Biola. In their first game as Azusa Pacific College in 1966, the Cougars defeated Biola at their home court 116-87. The winning streak continued for 11 games until 1971.

“It’s always been a healthy and intense rivalry,” Hamlow said. “But as the schools get bigger, the rivalry has gotten more intense.”

As a former student and current staff member, Hamlow has watched the rivalry grow for over 50 years. He was the basketball coach from 1966 to 1982 and returned for a four-year stint from 1985 to 1989. He later served as the Athletic Director. He is currently overseeing the building of the Science Center.

“I will never forget the playoff game in 1970, when we beat Biola 138-73,” Hamlow said. “As a coach, you never forget the Biola games. It’s always been a big deal.”

Odell also agrees on the weightiness of the APU-Biola games.

“We got killed in the first game I coached against Biola and it motivated me to work harder,” Odell said. “Even when we don’t feel it’s the most important game of the season, it is important to the community. The team feels the pressure.”

During the ‘80s and early ‘90s, the Cougar program began to slide. But by 1993, APU was once again threatening Biola.

“Our growth as a basketball school in the 1990s changed the whole dynamics of the rivalry with Biola,” Odell said.

Assistant Sports Information Director Joe Reinsch reminisced with Sports Information Director Gary Pine over standout games and outrageous student pranks.

“The rivalry really grew in 1996,” Pine said. “During the conference championships, APU was playing Fresno Pacific in Fresno and Westmont was playing at Biola. Both games were huge. If Biola lost to Westmont, then APU would be the GSAC champions. So two APU students went to watch the Biola game. With thirty seconds left on the clock, it was clear Biola was going to lose, so the two students snuck into the Biola locker room and wrote ‘APU GSAC Champs’ on their white board. The student involvement took off from there.”

In 1998, while visiting friends at Biola, an APU student stole a sign that read “Biola Founders Week: Think Red.” At the time, Biola would advance in the conference only to choke on the most important games. So during the Biola-APU playoff game in 1998, the student and some friends unrolled the readjusted banner that read “Biola Flounder’s Week: Think Choke.”

“When you keep actions within the context of rivalry, it’s a lot of fun,” Pine said.

Pine and Reinsch continued to name prank after prank where Biola and APU students fueled the rivalry.

“There are lots of former students, like myself, on staff now that fuel the rivalry,” Reinsch said.

In 2004 a student, who is now currently on staff, gathered 12 of his friends and hung a giant Blackout shirt that his mother had sewn together over the huge mural of Jesus on the Biola campus. It took them exactly eight-and-a-half minutes to hang the shirt. They posted Xerox copies of the Blackout-clad Jesus with the caption “Jesus wears Blackout” all over the APU and Biola campuses.

“When former campus pastor Chris Brown was a student, he helped initiate ‘the pound,’ an APU cheer,” Odell said. “And as campus pastor, you could always find him in the middle of the Blackout crowd. He built on the rivalry in a positive way.”

But why such a heated rivalry?

“Just like USC and UCLA, we are central schools in our division with strong athletics,” Hamlow said.

The two schools have competed intensely over the past 40 years for division championships. APU leads Biola overall in the series, 48-42.

“Both schools are awfully a lot alike, but we don’t want to admit it,” Pine said. “We compete beyond sports, we compete for students.”

Many students have looked at both Azusa Pacific and Biola when choosing a college. Often, students will have friends and siblings at the opposite school.

“But once you choose your school, you’re certain Jesus is on your side,” Pine said jokingly.

Hamlow, Pine and Odell all predict the rivalry will carry on for many more years to come.

“As long as we’re both in the conference, [the rivalry] will always be a big deal,” Odell said. “The relationships and proximity add a lot.”

“I’ll take the APU-Biola rivalry over USC and UCLA,” Pine, a former USC staff member, said. “In my opinion, it’s the best small school rivalry.”