ANOTHER JEWEL ADDED TO RIVALRY.

Byline: KAREN CROUSE

PASADENA - What 80,227 fans at the Rose Bowl eyeballed Saturday was college football stripped of all its pretensions.

The L.A. city championship between USC and UCLA was an operetta by USC alumna Marilyn Horne, minus the orchestra. It was UCLA alumnus and director Rob Reiner's ``A Few Good Men'' opening at a single art house.

It was a Thanksgiving dinner confined to immediate family and served on everyday china. It was Michelle Kwan in blue jeans and a UCLA T-shirt and USC alumna Lisa Leslie without lipstick or mascara.

It was as stirring as a score by UCLA alumnus John Rubenstein.

It was infinitely more exciting than Florida State's victory over Florida in the only rivalry game the BCS had eyes for.

It was immeasurably more memorable than Oregon State's victory over Oregon in the duel that had all of the Pacific-10 abuzz.

Indeed, USC's 38-35 win over UCLA was a college football purist's sinful pleasure. It was a game short on hype but long on drama. It was more than the sum of the schools' records and nothing less than the city's college football fans have grown to expect when these cross-town rivals meet.

It was, simply, college football at its finest.

``Guys were flying around. There was a lot of scoring. Guys were playing with their hearts,'' was how USC's senior captain Petros Papadakis described it. Perfectly, we might add.

After 59 minutes, 51 seconds of riveting action, the outcome came to rest on the foot of a fifth-year senior with a single field goal on his college resume.

Because somebody had to try the winning kick and Trojans soccer standout Isabelle Harvey was not an option, USC sent out David Bell.

Bell, a first-rate kickoff specialist and a third-string placekicker, lined up for a 36-yard field goal with nine seconds remaining and the game tied at 35. Trojan Nation rose in prayer that Bell's range was longer than his memory; nine-and-a-half minutes earlier, he had pulled a 24-yard attempt so far left it nearly found Ralph Nader.

UCLA called a timeout to give Bell more time to ponder his humanness. His Trojans teammates wisely left him alone, so fearful were they of saying the wrong thing and triggering a paralyzing flashback.

When at last Bell stepped up to the ball, he did so with such deliberateness the whole scene seemed better suited for a movie directed by Robert Redford. As if stuck in slow motion, he struck the ball and it fluttered over the crossbar.

Bell probably won't remember his ensuing kickoff, but L.A. college football fans will never forget him. Years from now, some USC head coach (almost certainly not the besieged Paul Hackett) will replay Bell's kick to his underdog team as a means of inspiring them against UCLA (as if they'll require any added motivation).

It's the very thing Hackett did, showing his troops images throughout last week of games in the series that were as close as the 2000 Presidential election. As Bell lined up for his game-winning kick, USC quarterback Carson Palmer was already projecting Bell's image on some wall in the not-so-distant future.

``I was thinking, `Man, this is going to be what we're watching next year, this kick right here,' '' said Palmer, who also reserved a place in USC-UCLA lore with his performance.

The redshirt sophomore, who was benched in the second half of the Trojans' game the previous week at Washington State, found the fabulous form that had eluded him this season, completing 70 percent of his passes for 350 yards and four touchdowns.

His concentration, he said, had never been keener. But of course. `Tis always so when these teams get together. Players get into grooves they didn't even know they had.

Keary Colbert, a freshman receiver from Oxnard, pulled in a 12-yard touchdown pass from Palmer late in the third quarter to tie the game at 28 and said later in wonderment, ``The ball did seem kind of big today.''

So did the game, for that matter.

Against an afternoon sky that was colored like an opal, USC and UCLA added another jewel to their rivalry. On this day the Chris Weinkes and Ken Simontons of college football had nothing on David Bell.

``David Bell is God,'' Papadakis proclaimed as the USC band turned the Rose Bowl into its own personal orchestra pit. ``I love him.''

Unless you were a Bruin, it was impossible not to.

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Photo: USC players drench coach Paul Hackett as they begin celebrating their victory Saturday.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer