Rivals’ reunion raises stakes

Sixteen years later, the key plays remain vividly memorable for Rodney Mazion:

Rossie Johnson's interception return, Jason Davis' huge hit on the sideline, Brad Faunce's 91-yard punt.

To Mazion, that was the UNLV-UNR rivalry at its best -- a game that came down to the end with conference and bowl implications.

The Rebels scored with 58 seconds left for a 32-27 victory, earning a share of the Big West Conference championship and a berth in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Now, with the Wolf Pack set to join UNLV in the Mountain West Conference within the next two years, Mazion, a safety on that 1994 team, hopes the rivalry can recapture the big-game atmosphere he felt that night.

"I think it's great that we're finally in the same conference," Mazion said Thursday. "I always wondered how long it would take us and the Wolf Pack to get back in the same league again."

The schools were in the Big West together from 1992 to 1995 before UNLV left for the Western Athletic Conference and eventually joined the splinter group that formed the Mountain West.

On Wednesday, UNR and Fresno State accepted invitations to leave the WAC and join the Mountain West.

"If you don't have a historic and traditional rival in college football, you're missing something," said Rebels football coach Bobby Hauck, who hopes that the UNLV-UNR game will be moved to the end of the season, when most big rivalry games are played.

Former UNLV athletic director Brad Rothermel remembers when the schools played each other twice a season in basketball even when they weren't in the same conference. They have been meeting once a year in recent seasons.

UNLV was 4-0 and ranked No. 1 in the 1981-82 season when the visiting Wolf Pack handed the Rebels an 86-76 loss. UNR coach Sonny Allen said UNLV "might be No. 1 in the country, but they're No. 2 in Nevada."

"I can remember that one very distinctively," Rothermel said. But he also remembers the Rebels avenging the loss with an 86-72 victory later that season in Reno.

"I'm delighted they're back," Rothermel said.

The rivalry was probably never more intense than that 1994 football game at Sam Boyd Stadium.

In addition to the game's conference and bowl implications, there were bad feelings between the programs after Jeff Horton left UNR the year before to coach the Rebels.

Terry Cottle, UNLV's associate athletic director for football operations, went into administration that year after serving 10 seasons as a Rebels assistant coach.

"(The victory) was a great feeling, especially coming off the year before when we were 3-8 and probably had more talent on that 3-8 team than the next year," Cottle said.

Mazion was more than ready to face UNR. He called the Wolf Pack's quarterback and top wide receiver "average" during game week, drawing ire from up north.

Mazion attracted further attention by wearing a Batman mask on the field.

"I can't stand Reno," Mazion said Thursday. "I still don't like them to this day."

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914.