HAPPY END TO MUIR'S TRAIL; DREAM REALIZED FOR WAYWARD QB.

Byline: Eric Noland and Kevin Acee / Daily News Staff Writer

A self-described unemotional person, David Muir broke down in tears after Washington State beat Washington on Nov. 22 to clinch their Rose Bowl berth.

``Everything I've worked for the past 12 years, everything I've been through, this makes it all worth it,'' Muir said.

He will finish his college career on the bench backing up quarterback Ryan Leaf. But Muir's journey to the Rose Bowl is perhaps the wildest of them all.

Muir, a 1993 Chatsworth High School graduate, started his college career as a freshman walk-on at Washington State. He has since been back home, to Pierce College, to Louisiana and finally back to Pullman, Wash.

``It's been a dream come true for me,'' Muir said. ``For someone who has been through as much as I've been through, gone the route I've gone to get here . . .''

As an 18-year-old from Los Angeles, Muir was miserable in tiny Pullman. He broke his wrist midway through that first season, and in January he got word that the Northridge earthquake had claimed his stepsister's life. He left school, returned and then dropped out of school.

In 1994 he threw for more than 3,000 yards and 27 touchdowns for Pierce. After a less-impressive '95 season, no one came through with a scholarship offer, and Muir figured his career was finished.

But that spring, Northeast Louisiana called and Muir was back in the game. Not for long. Right before the 1996 season, in which he figured to battle for the starting job, Muir quit.

``I didn't like the South,'' he said. ``It's a weird place. I don't think you'll ever find me back there again.''

Muir again thought his playing days were done. He returned to the Valley and was helping coach at Pierce when he got a call from Buzz Preston, Washington State's running backs coach. The two had forged a friendship during Muir's first stint with the Cougars. Preston asked Muir to come back to Washington.

He has served as the Cougars' holder on field goals and even ran an unsuccessful fake this season. He returned one punt for 19 yards and rushed four other times. In Washington State's 77-7 victory over Southwestern Louisiana, he scored on a six-yard run.

``This program is top-notch,'' Muir said. ``They've done so much for me.''

Adding to Muir's excitement is Washington State's opponent in the Rose Bowl.

Muir's uncle played football at Michigan, and his dad attended Michigan.

``It's the last game of my career, and I get to play against Michigan in my hometown,'' Muir said. ``This is the biggest thing possible.''

Away for the holidays: The remote control in one hand. The room service menu in the other. Killing time in a Pasadena hotel, miles from home.

Not exactly a desirable way to spend this particular day, but it's nothing new for the members of the Michigan football team.

``Once you go to college and play college football, you kind of get accustomed to not being home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,'' said senior linebacker Sam Sword, the team's leading tackler. ``I haven't seen my family (at Christmas) the entire time I've been at Michigan. We've always been getting ready for a bowl.

``But this let's you know you've done your job and you're playing in a New Year's Day bowl. I'd rather be here in California getting ready to play for the national championship than be somewhere else.''

While celebrating a return to the Rose Bowl, they'll mark Christmas with a team dinner at the hotel.

Then and now: Michigan will be holding a 50-year reunion of its 1947 team, which won the national championship (a feat that was matched a year later but never since). The '47 team trounced USC in the Rose Bowl 49-0.

``There are so many parallels with this team,'' said Bob Chappuis, a halfback on that squad. ``They called us the Mad Magicians on the offensive team. But we had a lot of magicians on the defensive team, too. We gave up 53 points in 10 games and had five shutouts.''

Having fun: Mike Price figures a team going to a bowl has earned the right to party.

It was that way when the Cougars were in the Copper Bowl in 1992 and the Alamo Bowl in 1994, and it hasn't changed now that the Cougars are in their first Rose Bowl in 67 years. Thus, all but one of Washington State's practices (Monday) at the Coliseum have been open to the public. And at night players and coaches have been spotted whooping it up in Santa Monica.

All of Michigan's practices have been closed.

``It's just a difference in philosophy,'' Price said. ``We're going to practice hard, but we're going to enjoy our time down here.''

Price said he is not worried about spies at his practices.

``They've got 11 game tapes on us. We've got 11 game tapes on them. If they don't know what we're doing by now, which they do . . .''