A DAY THEY'LL NEVER FORGET.

You watch the kids from Taft of Woodland Hills and Birmingham of Lake Balboa play this amazing football game in this classic setting Friday, and you wonder what it is about the night that they'll remember years from now, when witnesses have scattered, when these pages are too brittle to turn, when the videotape is a relic of obsolete technology.

Because that's what everybody says about the City Section high school championship game at the Coliseum, isn't it? That the kids will never forget it.

Will it be second-stringer Brian Baylor's over-the-shoulder catch they remember, the one that gives underdog Birmingham its shocking early lead? Will it be Baylor's slashing run, which makes it a two-touchdown lead and makes you think Taft really is going down in the final again? Will it be the fumble, and the other fumble, and the fluky tip-to-interception that ends the first three possessions for the team masquerading as the City's only unbeaten?

Will it be the moment Birmingham goes up 28-0 and you realize this will either be the biggest upset in championship history or the biggest comeback? The 31-yard catch and big-time run by Steve Smith that gives Taft its first score and the slightest momentum going into halftime? The incredible 21-play drive that eats up almost the entire fourth quarter and gives Birmingham the touchdown that touches off the celebration?

Will it be their pictures on the big video screen above the peristyle? The vastness of the stadium's shell, the immensity of its history? The way they could make out individual voices in the crowd of 6,000, reminding them that this battle for the City is a squabble between neighbors, between schools five driving miles apart along Victory Boulevard and Winnetka Avenue?

The answer, you know, is yes. They'll remember all of those things. They'll remember the history they make better than they remember the history they read.

Birmingham's kids will remember it all fondly because they're the 35-7 winners in their first City final in 39 years and the first all-San Fernando Valley City final in 32. Taft's kids will remember it bitterly because this makes two December disappointments in a row. But over the years that might change.

``I think they'll remember whether they win or lose, obviously,'' said Lou Ramirez, the Birmingham athletic director from 1954 to '98, when the Braves-turned-Patriots won City titles in just about everything but won in football only in 1963. ``But they'll remember the things they did well. They'll remember plays where they did something very good. They'll remember the feeling if they lose. But after a while that will sort of go away.

``The kids, from '54 on, they come back, and they all say, `Do you remember this play?' I don't, but I always say I do, because I want them to feel that (what they did was important).''

Down on the Coliseum field the Birmingham and Taft players were warming up, and up in the stands Ramirez was talking about high school memories. Ramirez's own high school years were 1941-43. He played football at Hollywood High.

``I still remember this great block I threw on a 65-yard touchdown run against Uni High,'' Ramirez said. ``It wasn't a touchdown for me, but I remember because it was something good that I did. The guy I hit married a Hollywood girl. I see him at reunions. He says he doesn't remember the block. I tell him he must still be unconscious.''

Ramirez is 76, living in North Hollywood. He threw a block against Uni High 60 years ago. I guess we can say he'll never forget it.

In the Coliseum, where Bruce Springsteen capped his 1985 shows with ``Glory Days,'' the future 76-year-olds of the Valley had one of theirs.

You hope they don't remember the week that led up to this game, full of back-and-forth accusations between the two camps, the first leading to a Birmingham player's suspension.

You hope what they remember is the night Los Angeles turned on the lights in its greatest sports venue just so they could decide who's the best in the Valley.

This is as resounding an upset as the Coliseum has ever seen. Taft was 13-0, Birmingham 10-3. Taft beat Birmingham four weeks ago, 30-6. Taft was out to grab what eluded it last year, Birmingham was just happy to get this far.

``Then we went out and dominated,'' said Birmingham quarterback Ryan Lombardo, ``and we thought, `We can win this.' ''

What will they remember?

``Everything,'' Lombardo said down on the field afterward.

We'll check back in 60 years.