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Happy Back To The Future Day, Pac-12 style

Happy “Back To The Future” Day.

To celebrate, we’re throwing it back to where certain programs and coaches were on Oct. 26, 1985, the day when Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown visited Oct. 21, 2015.

So, let’s go back to the past, Doc…

  • UCLA won the Pac-10 with a 6-2 record in conference play. The seventh-ranked Bruins secured a Rose Bowl victory over No. 4 Iowa, 45-28.

  • Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez was in his first year of coaching as a student assistant at West Virginia. The Mountaineers went 7-3-1.

  • Utah coach Kyle Whittingham was also in his first year of coaching in 1985. He was a graduate assistant at BYU. He’d make only two stops before getting to Utah in 1994.

  • Meanwhile, Stanford coach David Shaw was in junior high.

  • Colorado was balling out in the Big Eight. During the 1985 season the Buffs beat future Pac-12 opponents Oregon and Arizona.

  • The Buffs did, however, lose to future Pac-12 opponent Arizona State in the 1985 Freedom Bowl.

  • Cal landed linebacker Hardy Nickerson on the All-Pac-10 team that season. Nine years later, current Cal linebacker Hardy Nickerson Jr. was born.

  • Washington State coach Mike Leach wasn’t a football coach yet. Instead, in 1985 he was still in law school and appearing in “Grunt! The Wrestling Movie” on the side.

  • In 1985, USC and Oregon played in Tokyo. The Trojans beat the Ducks, 20-6.

  • Oregon State, under first-year coach Dave Kragthorpe, brought his 38-point underdog Beavers into Husky Stadium and upset the Huskies with a blocked punt returned for a touchdown in the game’s final minutes.