University of California, Los Angeles

UCLA

School Info:

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the “Southern Branch” of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses. UCLA, considered to be one of the flagship institutions of the University of California system, offers over 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines and enrolls about 26,000 undergraduate and about 11,000 graduate students from the United States and around the world. Strengths in liberal arts and sciences and research strengths earned it membership in the Association of American Universities. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Los_Angeles)

How UCLA Ranks:

UCLA stands as one of the top universities in the world; it is currently ranked 4th in the world by the High Impact Universities rankings; 11th in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 13th in the world (and 11th in the United States) by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. It also ranks among the top 10 schools in the country with the most faculty awards. The faculty is “highly cited” for its research according to the Institute for Scientific Information. UCLA is also ranked 2nd among public universities in the United States in US News and World Report Ranking in 2011. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Los_Angeles)

The History of the UCLA Bruins:

Back in 1919 UCLA was known as the “Southern Branch” of the University of California. The UCLA football team, playing its first season, was then known as the “Cubs” owing to their younger relationship to the California Bears in Berkeley. In 1923, under new coach Jimmie Cline, the football team adopted the name “Grizzlies” instead of Cubs. In 1925, Bill Spaulding came west from the University of Minnesota to help upgrade the football program. In 1928, the Grizzlies joined the Pacific Coast Conference. However, there was a problem with the nickname, since the University of Montana, also a member of the PCC at the time, had prior rights to the nickname “Grizzlies”. UCLA, which had changed its name from the Southern Branch in 1927, became the “Bruins” in 1928 and has been recognized as such ever since.

The first athletic mascot for UCLA teams appeared as the result of spirited student demand. In the 1930′s, a live bear and its trainer were rented by Associated Students to appear at all UCLA home football games. However, wild animals became increasingly difficult to handle in a large crowd, and the Coliseum outlawed their appearances. (http://www.uclabruins.com/trads/history-traditions.html)

Bruins Football Homepage:  http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/m-footbl/ucla-m-footbl-body.html

2011 Bruins Football Schedule: http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/ucla-m-footbl-sched.html