ANNIVERSARY ONLY A PAINFUL REMINDER FIFTY YEARS HAVE COME, GONE SINCE UCLA'S ONLY TITLE.Byline: Brian Dohn Staff Writer During the final weekend in October, many of the surviving members of UCLA's 1954 football team will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the school's only national championship. They'll remember the old single wing offense and the day they defeated Stanford 72-0. They'll talk about their beloved coach, Red Sanders Noun 1. red sanders - tree of India and East Indies yielding a hard fragrant timber prized for cabinetwork and dark red heartwood used as a dyewood Pterocarpus santalinus, red sanderswood, red saunders, red sandalwood , and bemoan be·moan tr.v. be·moaned, be·moan·ing, be·moans 1. To express grief over; lament. 2. To express disapproval of or regret for; deplore: the rule that kept them out of the Rose Bowl and a chance to play Ohio State for the undisputed title. Most of all, the players from that long-ago championship team will wonder why UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX never has won another. In a city where the Bruins often play in the shadow of USC's storied football program, many people ask the same question. As the team prepares for its season opener Saturday against Oklahoma State at the Rose Bowl, just what is UCLA's football legacy? ``UCLA has always been in the background, football-wise,'' said former tailback Wendell Tyler Wendell Avery Tyler (born May 20, 1955 in Shreveport, Louisiana), was a former professional American football player who was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the 3rd round of the 1977 NFL Draft. A 5'10", 205 lbs. , UCLA's fifth-leading rusher all-time with 3,181 yards. ``Being an athlete here, you always strive to bring that recognition. Unfortunately, our program has been up and down.'' The school boasts 94 NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association team titles, including 11 in men's basketball and 15 in men's tennis. Current or former athletes won eight gold and 19 total medals at the Athens Summer Olympics. In football, there also have been plenty of riches. Gary Beban Gary Joseph Beban (born August 5, 1946 in Redwood City, California) is a former American football player. Son of an Italian-born mother and a first generation Croatian-American father, Beban won the 1967 Heisman Trophy, the most prestigious award in college football, and the won the 1967 Heisman Trophy Heisman Trophy Annual award given to the outstanding college gridiron football player in the U.S. The trophy was instituted in 1935 by New York City's Downtown Athletic Club and was officially named the following year for the club's first athletic director, the player-coach . The team won eight consecutive bowl games, including three Rose Bowls, under coach Terry Donahue Terry Donahue (born June 24, 1944 in Los Angeles, California) is a former college football coach and NFL general manager, and a current football analyst. Player Terry graduated from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. Donahue played defensive line at UCLA. . The school has had 81 first-team All-Americans and sent more than 300 players to the NFL NFL abbr. National Football League NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga . But UCLA has lost five consecutive games to USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. by a total score of 126-32. Few outside Westwood remember that UCLA won the eight previous meetings. ``It depends on what you consider successful,'' said Ken Norton This article is about the hall of fame boxer. For Super Bowl Champion American football Linebacker, see Ken Norton, Jr.. Kenneth Howard Norton (b. August 9 1943, Jacksonville, Illinois) is a former world champion heavyweight boxer. , former UCLA linebacker and now a graduate assistant at USC. ``They have been able to do a lot of great things, and they have a lot to be proud of. National championships are one way to measure things. That's what people look at. Do you win championships? And they haven't won a lot of championships.'' The Bruins appeared close in 1998 when they opened the season 10-0 under Bob Toledo Bob Toledo (born March 4, 1946, in San Jose, California) is an American football coach, recently hired as head coach at Tulane University. He is best-known as the thirteenth head coach at UCLA. . But their run ended in Miami with a poor performance in a 49-45 loss to the Hurricanes. Three weeks later, UCLA lost to Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and hasn't been back. As for rankings, UCLA has finished in the season-ending Associate Press top 10 on 16 occasions, tying it with Florida State for 14th all-time. The Bruins have ended in the UPI UPI abbr. United Press International or USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. top-10 rankings 16 times, which is 12th best in the country. But because USC and UCLA have equal access to local talent, members of the 1954 team ask why that hasn't translated into better teams. ``Yes, I am surprised,'' said Sam Brown Sam Brown may refer to:
The 1998 meltdown against Miami was Brown's latest example, but when it comes to comparing UCLA's and USC's football programs, academic standards become an issue. ``I look at it this way,'' Tyler said. ``USC is a private institution, and UCLA is run by the state of California. Draw your own conclusions, but we're owned by the state of California.'' Said Brown: ``You can see one reason why (UCLA) hasn't won and (USC) has. I think it's the requirements of the school, especially in the athletic department.'' UCLA won the 1954 title with an overpowering blend of offense and defense. The Bruins scored more than 60 points three times and averaged 40.7 per game. They also posted five shutouts and allowed a total of six points in their final five games. In its biggest game, UCLA defeated defending national champion Maryland 12-7 at the Coliseum. ``We had a good offense, generally,'' said former UCLA coach Bill Barnes William H. Barnes was a baseball player, playing as a center fielder in the 19th century. He played for the St. Paul Apostles of the Union Association, a replacement team which began play near the end of the 1884 season. , an assistant on the 1954 team. ``Not that we scored a lot of points, but we could control the ball.'' However, what should have been a premier Rose Bowl matchup for the national championship never took place because of a controversial and still debated rule. Teams weren't allowed to play in consecutive Rose Bowls. Since UCLA lost to Michigan State in the previous Rose Bowl, it wasn't eligible. Instead, USC played Ohio State, which won 20-7. ``It still burns me,'' said John Peterson, a center and defensive lineman on the 1954 team. ``That was the stupidest rule in the world. There were a few promoters trying to get a game going after the season. The seniors could have played the seniors, but it never came off.'' Before Sanders arrived for the 1949 season, UCLA had one top-10 finish and was being overshadowed by USC. The Trojans won four national titles from 1928-39 and went to the Rose Bowl five times during the 1940s. By the '50s, however, the fortunes of both programs changed dramatically. In 1957, the Bruins went 8-2, marking a school-record ninth consecutive winning season. The Trojans finished 1-9. But in the offseason, Sanders died of a heart attack. Rather than build on its success, UCLA again struggled and lost ground to USC. When Barnes finished his sixth full season as coach in 1964, the Bruins had three consecutive losing seasons. By 1962, USC was back on top, beating Wisconsin in the 1963 Rose Bowl and winning the national championship. ``I think of Red Sanders, and what would have happened if he was there along time,'' Peterson said. ``He and (basketball coach) John Wooden were hired at the same time. From the time he started coaching there, he turned that program around right away. ``They were both great teachers. Red Sanders was such an exceptional student of football, like Wooden was of basketball.'' In 1975, UCLA went 9-2 under Dick Vermeil Richard Albert "Dick" Vermeil is a former American head coach for the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles (1976-1982), St. Louis Rams (1997-1999) and Kansas City Chiefs (2001-2005). and beat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. The Bruins finished fifth in both polls, matching their best finish in a decade. USC went 8-4. Then came one of the best stretches in UCLA history, a 20-year run by Donahue that included eight consecutive bowl wins - including three in the Rose. Three times Donahue's Bruins won 10 games, and in 1988 they finished sixth in the ranking. One of his top players from that era was the Bruins' second-year coach, Karl Dorrell Karl Dorrell (born December 18, 1963 in Alameda, California) is the first black head coach in the history of the UCLA Bruins college football team, a position he took on December 18, 2002. . Donahue went 151-74-8, and UCLA continued to regularly churn out All- Americans and NFL players, including running back Gaston Green Gaston Alfred Green III (born August 1, 1966 in Los Angeles, California) is a former professional American football player who was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the 1st round (14th overall) of the 1988 NFL Draft. A 5'10", 189-lb. , quarterback Troy Aikman Troy Kenneth Aikman (born November 21, 1966 in West Covina, California) is a former American football quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League, and currently a television sportscaster for the Fox network. and safety Kenny Easley Kenny Mason Easley Jr. (born January 15, 1959) is a former American football strong safety who played seven seasons for the Seattle Seahawks from 1981 to 1987 in the National Football League. . Yet, a second national championship remained elusive. ``Upon (Sanders') death, there was a historical hiatus, and the program wasn't where it wanted to be before Tommy Protho was coach,'' said Pete Dalis, who was a student-manager under Sanders and spent 19 years (1983-2002) as UCLA's athletic director Athletic director (commonly, "athletics director") is a position at many American colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, which oversees the work of the coaches and related staff involved in intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic . ``There's kind of a normal cycle, as far as I'm concerned, of highs and lows.'' The last time UCLA was ready to take over Los Angeles was in 1998, when UCLA began the season ranked sixth under Toledo. The threat of a hurricane wiped out a September contest at Miami, and the schools rescheduled for Dec. 5. It turned out to be the day the program again went down hill. No. 3 UCLA traveled to Miami and was embarrassed by one of the worst tackling displays in school history. The Bruins followed with the loss in the Rose Bowl. Those two games came to define Toledo's tenure. ``I thought that was the saddest one,'' Peterson said. ``They were undefeated and they just played, I mean I've never seen such horrendous tackling in my life. As Red Sanders would say, all I could see is reaching and grabbing.'' New athletic director Dan Guerrero, who fired Toledo and hired Dorrell in December 2002, graduated from UCLA in 1974 after spending four years as a second baseman on the baseball team. Dorrell was a UCLA receiver from 1982-86, some of Donahue's greatest seasons. During his five years at UCLA, the Bruins were 43-13-4, including 5-0 in bowls. As a player, Dorrell won three Rose Bowls. As a coach, his team does not appear close. Compounding Dorrell's plight is the success USC is enjoying. Trojans quarterback Carson Palmer won the Heisman Trophy in 2002, and last season the Trojans won their 10th national championship. The Bruins this year are better than last year's 6-7 team but still lack depth to get to the top 25. ``The first thing I would say is that it's always been a class product,'' Guerrero said. ``That's what I see. I see great student-athletes. I see great tradition. I see the Rose Bowl. I see the best uniforms in America and I see fantastic football players in this program. And I also see an enhanced experience and a great deal of success.'' Brian Dohn, (818) 713-3607 brian.dohn(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: UCLA got one up on USC in 1967 when Gary Beban, left, won the Heisman Trophy over O.J. Simpson. Daily News File Photo Box: SEASON OPENER |
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