Crosstown Rivals

Whether Waldie’s prediction proves true or not, his calculus is revealing. Which university will inherit the keys to the city? The most likely answer is that they will have to share. As their ranking gap shrinks, so does the distance between Westwood and West Adams, two formerly disconnected suburbs now fusing into a vibrant marketplace of minds and ideas.

There may be no better emblem of that unlikely triumph of psyche over geography than the 1970s radical from Boyle Heights who, 30 years after entering UCLA, found himself standing before a strange commencement podium, addressing his alma mater’s rival.

(illustration by Deanna Staffo)

Prized prof: UCLA’s Terence Tao, 31, awarded a 2006 Fields Medal, the ''Nobel Prize of mathematics''

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“In the final analysis,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked the most recent crop of young Trojan graduates, “isn’t it an essential truth that any real rivalry is rooted in respect?”