UCLA Bruins


The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. For football, they are in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I. UCLA is second to only Stanford University as the school with the most NCAA team championships at 125 NCAA team championships. UCLA offers 11 varsity sports programs for men and 14 for women.

History

Upon its founding, UCLA joined the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. In 1927, UCLA left the SCIAC and joined the Pacific Coast Conference, the forerunner of the Pac-12 Conference.
Following "pay-for-play" scandals at California, USC, UCLA, and Washington, the PCC disbanded in June 1959. On July 1, 1959, the new Athletic Association of Western Universities was launched, with California, UCLA, USC, and Washington as the four charter members. The conference renamed itself the Pacific-8 Conference in 1968, then the Pacific-10 Conference in 1978, and the Pac-12 in 2011.

Nickname and mascot

Upon UCLA's founding as the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, the football team was known as the "Cubs" because of its younger relationship to the California Bears in Berkeley. In 1923, the team adopted the nickname "Grizzlies". In 1926, the Grizzlies became the 10th and final member of the Pacific Coast Conference, which already included the University of Montana Grizzlies. The school, which had taken the "University of California, Los Angeles" name that year, became the "Bruins" and has been recognized as such in the years since.
The Bruins began to use live bears as mascots in the 1930s, renting animals to appear at all UCLA home football games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The practice grew less common until the 1950s, when students and alumni brought "Little Joe Bruin" to Westwood. A Himalayan bear cub from India, "Little Joe" grew too large and was transferred to a circus. "Josephine" was purchased by a group of alumni in 1961 and was kept in the backyard of the Rally Committee chairman. She was eventually taken to the San Diego Zoo.
A costumed mascot by the name of Joe Bruin was introduced in 1963. In 1967, the first female student to take the mascot role created Josephine "Josie" Bruin and joined Joe at athletic events. The design for the costumed bears has changed over the years, and Joe has had at least six looks over his history.

Team colors

The UCLA athletic teams' colors are UCLA Blue and Westwood Gold. Blue symbolizes the ocean and wildflowers; yellow to reflect the Golden State, the California poppy and sunsets.
In the early days of the school, UCLA had the same colors as the University of California, Berkeley: Yale Blue and gold. When football coach Red Sanders came to UCLA for the 1949 season he redesigned the football uniforms. The Yale blue was changed to a lighter shade of blue. Sanders figured that the baby blue would look better on the field and in a film. He would dub the baby blue uniform "powder-keg blue".
In 2002, UCLA Athletics and Adidas developed a new True Blue color that was darker than powder blue; it was used for all athletic teams starting in 2003. The UCLA Marching Band incorporated True Blue into its previous navy blue uniforms in 2007. The shade was replaced in 2017 with a return to Powderkeg Blue when UCLA switched to Under Armour as its apparel provider. In 2021, Nike and the Jordan Brand aligned the athletics blue with the university's UCLA Blue hue, which has been used by the school's academic and administrative units. The school's academic and administrative units had used UCLA Blue since 2004.

Varsity sports

Baseball

The 2010 team, under head coach John Savage, won the Los Angeles Regional and Super-Regional, and was the first team to win 48 games in a season. The Bruins joined seven other teams in the 2010 College World Series and finished in second place, behind the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. The 2011 team won the Pac-10 Conference title.
The 2013 team won UCLA's 109th NCAA Championship and their first in baseball in the 2013 College World Series by beating Mississippi State 3–1 and 8–0.
Many UCLA baseball players have gone on to play in Major League Baseball. In the 2009 World Series, Chase Utley hit two home runs to help the Philadelphia Phillies win Game 1. There were a total of four former UCLA baseball players in the 2009 playoffs: Philadelphia's Ben Francisco and Chase Utley, Colorado's Garrett Atkins, and St. Louis' Troy Glaus, who was the 2002 World Series MVP for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Chris Chambliss and Gerrit Cole were No. 1 overall picks in the MLB drafts. Trevor Bauer was drafted as the No. 3 pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 6, 2011. Former UCLA shortstop Brandon Crawford hit a grand-slam home run in his major-league debut with the San Francisco Giants on May 27, 2011, and helped the Giants to win the 2012 Major League World Series. Cole debuted with the Pittsburgh Pirates by winning his first four games he pitched and also drove in two runs with a single in his first at-bat in the 2013 MLB season.

Basketball (men)

Several of the most revered championships were won by the Men's Basketball team under coaches John Wooden and Jim Harrick. The rich legacy of UCLA basketball has produced 11 NCAA championships – 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, and 1995. From 1971 to 1974, UCLA won 88 consecutive men's basketball games, an NCAA record for men. Recent UConn Huskies women's basketball teams have set overall NCAA basketball records with 90-game and 91-game winning streaks. The 35-year period preceding and including the UCLA streak was characterized by less dynasties, however: 20 different men's teams won titles during that span. In comparison, the women's game to date has produced 35% less parity, with 13 schools winning all 35 titles offered since its inception.
Past rosters of UCLA basketball teams have included greats such as Rafer Johnson who was the 1960 Olympic Decathlon Champion, Gail Goodrich, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Reggie Miller and Walt Hazzard. The Bruins also had a winning record for 54 consecutive seasons from the 1948–1949 season to the 2001–2002 season.
In recent years, UCLA Men's Basketball was returned to prominence under Coach Ben Howland. Between 2006 and 2008, UCLA has been to three consecutive Final Fours, while UCLA's players have received numerous awards, most notably Arron Afflalo, a 2007 First-Team All American and the Pac-10 Player of the Year, and Kevin Love, a 2008 First-Team All American and the Pac-10 Player of the Year. UCLA has produced the most NBA Most Valuable Player Award winners, six of them by Abdul-Jabbar and one by Walton, who was Abdul-Jabbar's successor.
In March 2013, UCLA relieved head men's basketball coach Ben Howland of his duties after UCLA dropped an 83–63 decision to Minnesota in a second-round game of the NCAA tournament. The current head coach is Mick Cronin, former head coach at Cincinnati.

Basketball (women)

In the 1977–78 season, the women's basketball team, with a 27–2 record, were the AIAW Champions under head coach Billie Moore. The 2014–15 team won the 2015 WNIT championship by defeating the West Virginia Mountaineers 62–60 on April 4, 2015. In the 2024 season, the UCLA women's basketball team made it to the NCAA final four for the first time in program history, under coach Cori Close.

Women's beach volleyball

The UCLA Bruins women's beach volleyball team plays in the Pac-12 Conference. UCLA launched its beach volleyball program in 2013.
Women's National Championships: 2018, 2019
The beach volleyball team won its first national title on May 6, 2018, by defeating Hawaii and Florida State at Gulf Beach Place, Gulf Shores, Alabama. They repeated one year later on May 5, 2019, defeating rivals USC to win the National Championship.

Cross country

The UCLA Bruins men's cross country team appeared in the NCAA Cross Country Championship thirteen times, with their highest finish being 5th place in the 1980–81 and 1981–82 school years. The UCLA Bruins women's cross country team appeared in the NCAA Cross Country Championship eleven times, with their highest finish being 6th place in the 1985–86 school year.
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