DESTINY'S TEAM; '54 CHAMPIONSHIP SQUAD WAS BRUINS' BEST.Byline: Jon Wilner Staff Writer The players congregated outside the Men's Gym Men's Gym on the campus of UCLA, now known as the Student Activities Center, is a 2,000 seat multi-purpose arena in Los Angeles, California. It opened in 1932. It was home to the UCLA Bruins men's basketball teams until Pauley Pavilion opened for the 1965-1966 basketball season. and gazed at the fading September sun. Some sat on the railing, some on the warm concrete. It was 1954, the first day of practice, yet they were consumed by an emptiness that had lingered for nearly a year. They talked about the previous season - about the promising start and disappointing end, about blowing a 20-0 lead to Stanford and a 14-0 lead to Michigan State in the Rose Bowl. What went wrong? How could they avoid a recurrence? They talked about coach Henry ``Red'' Sanders and his resolve that first day of training camp. He, too, felt the emptiness; they could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. They talked about a job unfinished, about a conference to conquer and history to make. It was group therapy in sweat and shoulder pads This article is about football protective equipment. For shoulder pads in fashion, see Shoulder pads (fashion). Shoulder pads are a piece of protective equipment used in American and Canadian football. , and as the sun faded into the Pacific and UCLA's campus grew quiet, their angst slowly disappeared. ``I'll never forget the feeling that was generated in that conversation,'' guard Sam Boghosian said recently. ``We knew we were going to be a team of destiny. We knew we were going to be something special.'' They'd be much more than that. They would be a team for the ages. Which is the greatest 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 team of the 1900s? In 1965, behind future 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 quarterback 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 , the Bruins beat No. 1 Michigan State in the Rose Bowl and finished the season ranked fifth. Terry Donahue's 1982 gang was 10-1-1, beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl and also finished fifth. In 1987, UCLA won 10 games and produced two dozen NFL draft The NFL Draft (officially the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting[1]) is an annual sports draft in which National Football League (NFL) teams take turns, through seven rounds[2] picks, including 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. , Carnell Lake Carnell Augustino Lake (born July 15, 1967 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is a former professional American football defensive back. Lake played 12 seasons in the NFL from 1989 to 2001 for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Baltimore Ravens. and 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. Jr. As talent goes, the '87 team stands alone. A decade later, quarterback Cade McNown Cade McNown (born January 12 1977 in Portland, Oregon) is a quarterback who played in the National Football League. He attended played college football at the University of California, Los Angeles. led the Bruins to 20 consecutive wins, two Pac-10 titles, a Cotton Bowl victory and back-to-back top-10 finishes. The 1997-'98 Bruins were as close to offensive perfection as the school has ever seen. Yet the best UCLA team of them all did not win 10 games, it did not produce a first-round draft choice or Heisman Trophy candidate, and it did not play in the Rose Bowl because of the league's no-repeat rule. All the 1954 team did was finish 9-0 and win the school's only national championship. (UCLA finished atop the coaches' UPI UPI abbr. United Press International poll, Ohio State atop the writers' and broadcasters' AP poll, kicking up a big controversy.) ``It's certainly the best I've seen,'' said UCLA 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 Peter Dalis, who has seen every team for 45 years. ``What I remember most was how physical they were and that they had a lot of speed, even by today's standards. Just the way they dominated - nobody could move the ball on them.'' The 1954 Bruins are one of the best teams in conference history - as dominant in their time as the great USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. squads and Washington '91 were in theirs. The proof is in the numbers: The '54 Bruins have the highest scoring differential (36.4) of the conference's seven national champions. Behind two-way All-Americans Jim Salsbury (guard), Jack Ellena (tackle) and Bob Davenport (fullback/defensive back), the Bruins led the nation in scoring offense (40.8 points per game) and scoring defense (4.4). In consecutive weeks, they beat Stanford 72-0 and Oregon State 61-0. ``UCLA's only weakness is that the Bruin third team is not quite as strong as the first team,'' Oregon State coach Kip Taylor Kip Taylor was the head football coach at Oregon State University from 1949 to 1954. His career record stands at 20-36. One of his highlights include u psetting eighth ranked Michigan State University 25-20, where they were three touchdown underdogs. quipped. The Bruins were so good they won every coin flip, took the ball every time, and scored on their first drive in eight of nine games. They were so good they shut out four of their last five opponents, including USC, which rushed for 5 yards in a 34-0 loss. After the game, Trojans coach Jess Hill Jesse Terrill Hill (January 20 1907 - August 31 1993) was an American athlete, coach and college administrator who was best known for his tenure as a coach and athletic director at the University of Southern California. His career spanned six decades. visited UCLA's locker room. ``UCLA is the best club we've played,'' Hill said. ``They're No. 1 in the nation as far as I'm concerned.'' Sanders would not let them be anything less. If their focus faltered, if they took success for granted, if they slacked for a second inY practice or a game, he intervened with an unforgettable glance or blistering comment. After guiding the Bruins to a 16-3 record the previous two seasons, Sanders knew the championship window wouldn't stay open forever. ``He was as single-minded and focused, as committed, as I'd ever seen,'' Boghosian said. ``He never, not for one second, let us forget what happened in the Stanford game in '53. He was hell bent on Adj. 1. bent on - fixed in your purpose; "bent on going to the theater"; "dead set against intervening"; "out to win every event" bent, dead set, out to not letting us a lose a game.'' The Bruins used the single-wing offense, which positioned the tailback (Primo Villaneuva) 5 yards behind the center, as a shotgun quarterback is today. He'd either pass to the ends, run behind the dominating offensive line or hand the ball to wingback wing·back n. Football 1. A back positioned on offense behind or outside of an end. 2. The position played by such a back. Noun 1. Jim Decker. Sometimes, the Bruins would snap the ball directly to Davenport, the fullback, who was stationed next to Villaneuva. The quarterback, Terry Debay, was a blocker. It worked well. UCLA led the conference with 286.4 rushing yards per game, a mark that stood for 18 years, and its average of 40.8 points was the highest total in the nation in six years. ``It was a very deceptive offense,'' said assistant 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. , who coached the ends and tackles that year. ``People would look at it and think it's very plain. But when you snap to the fullback, and he pitches to the wingback, and he pitches it to the end on a reverse, it's hard to stop. We were the only team that used it out west.'' The Bruins opened the season with a 67-0 victory over the San Diego Naval Training Center, setting a school scoring record that would last a month. They only had two close games that year: a 12-7 victory over No. 4 Maryland and a 21-20 escape at Washington in which the second-half demons Demons See also devil; evil; ghosts; hell; spirits and spiritualism. ademonist one who denies the existence of the devil or demons. bogyism, bogeyism recognition of the existence of demons and goblins. returned. Leading 21-0, the Bruins fumbled two punts and watched the Huskies score 20 consecutive points before UCLA's defense sealed the victory. ``That game saved the season,'' Ellena said. ``The next week, we played Stanford and it was the quietest week of practice of the season. There was no rah-rah. It was liYke each man had his own vendetta vendetta (vĕndĕt`ə) [Ital.,=vengeance], feud between members of two kinship groups to avenge a wrong done to a relative. Although the term originated in Corsica, the custom has also been practiced in other parts of Italy, in other because of what had happened in '53.'' Including Sanders. ``If I remember correctly,'' Boghosian said, ``Red had a master's degree in English. I know you can't print his pregame speech.'' UCLA rushed for 418 yards and intercepted eight Stanford passes in the 72-0 victory. A few hours later, Ellena was married in the Westwood Christian Church, then everyone got back to work. With history in the crosshairs, the Bruins outscored their last five opponents 235-6. ``(Former UCLA coach) Tommy Prothro always said you have to compare teams within the era in which they played,'' Ellena said. ``You can't really compare our '54 team to USC in '72. The equipment was different. The rules were different. The players are bigger and faster today. ``But within our era, we were the best there was. It was really a magical season.'' 1954 starting lineup Offense (Reserves in parentheses See parenthesis. parentheses - See left parenthesis, right parenthesis. ) Guards: Jim Salsbury, Sam Boghosian (Hardiman Cureton) Tackles: Jack Ellena, Joe Ray Ends: Bob Long, Bob Heydenfeldt (Rommie Loudd) Quarterback: Terry Debay Tailback: Primo Villaneuva Fullback: Bob Davenport Wingback: Jim Decker Defense Tackles: Cureton, Salsbury (Boghosian) Ends: Ellena, Ray Outside linebackers: Heydenfeldt, Long Middle linebacker: Debay Cornerbacks: Davenport, Decker Safeties: Villaneuva, Palmer 1954 UCLA STATISTICS TEAM STATISTICS UCLA opp. Net yards rushing 2,578 659 Net yards passing 721 1,049 Total yards 3,293 1,708 First downs 151 95 Interceptions by 28 10 Touchdowns 55 6 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Passing Player Att Comp Yds TDs Villaneuva 23 49 400 5 Rushing Player Att Yds Avg Decker 47 508 10.8 Villaneuva 87 486 5.6 Receiving Player No. Yds Loudd 13 157 Long 11 157 CAPTION(S): photo, 2 boxes PHOTO (color) no caption (1954 starting lineup) Courtesy of UCLA BOX: (1) 1954 starting lineup (see text) (2) UCLA statistics (3) The Rivalry Saturday, 12:30 p.m., TV: Ch. 7, at the Coliseum 
You list Two Guards, Two Tackles, Two Ends and Four Backs for a total of Ten players. Who played Center??
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