47 Fun Facts About UCLA

What are UCLA's official school colours?

UCLA's colours are True blue and gold; cardinal and gold belong to crosstown rival USC. The Bruins' fight songs are 'Sons of Westwood' and 'Mighty Bruins'.

In what year did the Los Angeles State Normal School become the Southern Branch of the University of California?

In 1919 the legislature turned the Los Angeles State Normal School into the Southern Branch of the University of California; it opened that September with 250 junior-college students and 1,250 teacher trainees.

Before Westwood, the campus was on Vermont Avenue in East Hollywood, on land now occupied by what?

Los Angeles City College now occupies the Vermont Avenue site; the Normal School moved there in 1914 and had outgrown its 25 acres by the mid-1920s.

The Janss Steps are named for the brothers who sold the Westwood land for how much?

Edwin and Harold Janss sold the Westwood land for $1 million, under a third of its value, knowing a university would lift the worth of everything else they owned around it.

The Westwood campus opened to students in which year?

The Westwood campus opened in 1929, with 5,500 students attending classes in four buildings arranged around the quad.

Which of these was one of the four original buildings around the Westwood quad?

Haines Hall, originally the Chemistry Building, was one of the four; the others were Royce Hall, the College Library (now Powell) and the Physics-Biology Building, now Kaplan Hall.

The twin towers of Royce Hall reference which famous Italian church?

Royce Hall's twin towers echo Sant'Ambrogio in Milan, a Lombard Romanesque basilica; the architects Allison & Allison used that style for the whole building.

Royce Hall is named after Josiah Royce, who was what?

A philosopher, Josiah Royce was a Harvard colleague of William James; born in Grass Valley, California, he took his bachelor's degree at the University of California in 1875.

The 'Bruins' nickname was offered to the Southern Branch by the student council of which school?

UC Berkeley's student council offered the name because Montana's Grizzlies already played in the Pacific Coast Conference; Berkeley's own teams stayed the Golden Bears.

What are the names of UCLA's costumed bear mascots?

Joe and Josephine Bruin are the costumed mascots, members of the UCLA Spirit Squad who appear at Bruin games alongside the cheer and dance teams.

For fall 2022 UCLA received how many undergraduate applications, the most of any US university?

About 175,000 applications, including transfers, arrived for fall 2022, more than any other US university received that cycle.

The first ARPANET message was sent from UCLA in 1969 to which institution?

Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park received the message on 29 October 1969; the system crashed after two letters, so the first transmitted characters were 'lo'.

That first ARPANET connection was made from a computer in room 3420 of which UCLA building?

Boelter Hall housed the SDS Sigma 7 host computer and the first Interface Message Processor, making the engineering building the network's first node.

Which UCLA professor developed packet-network theory and hosted the ARPANET's first node?

Leonard Kleinrock's 1960s work on queueing theory underpinned packet switching; his UCLA students Steve Crocker and Jon Postel went on to write the network's early protocols.

Bunche Hall is named for the UCLA alumnus who won the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for what?

Negotiating an Arab-Israeli armistice in 1949 as the UN's acting mediator earned Ralph Bunche the prize, making him the first African American Nobel laureate.

Which UCLA astronomer shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics?

Andrea Ghez shared the 2020 physics prize with Reinhard Genzel for showing that a supermassive black hole sits at the centre of the Milky Way; she became the fourth woman to win it.

UCLA pharmacologist Louis Ignarro shared the 1998 Nobel for discovering the signalling role of which molecule?

Nitric oxide, a gas, was shown to signal blood-vessel relaxation; Ignarro shared the 1998 prize with Robert Furchgott and Ferid Murad.

UCLA's medical school is named after which entertainment mogul?

David Geffen gave $200 million in 2002, and the school took his name; the health system's flagship hospital is named after Ronald Reagan.

The Bruins joined which athletic conference after the Pac-12 broke up?

The Big Ten admitted UCLA and USC for the 2024-25 season, putting two Los Angeles schools in a conference founded in 1896 as a Midwestern league.

UCLA's total of NCAA team championships trails only which school?

Stanford leads the all-time NCAA team championship count, with UCLA second; the Bruins were the first school to reach 100 titles, when women's water polo won in 2007.

Which UCLA alumnus lit the Olympic cauldron at the 1984 Los Angeles Games?

Rafer Johnson, the 1960 Olympic decathlon champion and a UCLA alumnus, climbed the steps of the Coliseum to light the cauldron at the 1984 opening ceremony.

Where do the Bruins play their home games on the gridiron?

The Bruins have played home games at The Rose Bowl in Pasadena since 1982; their only national title came in 1954, when a no-repeat rule kept them out of a Rose Bowl showdown with Ohio State.

How many NCAA men's basketball titles did John Wooden win at UCLA?

Wooden won 10 NCAA titles in a 12-year span from 1964 to 1975, including a record seven in a row; Jim Harrick added an 11th in 1995.

What was John Wooden's nickname?

The Wizard of Westwood was the press's name for Wooden, who reportedly disliked it; his teams also set a men's college record with 88 consecutive wins.

John Wooden was the first person inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in which two categories?

Player and coach are the two categories in which Wooden was enshrined, in 1960 and 1973, the first person honoured in both; as a college guard he had been the first three-time consensus All-American.

Where did John Wooden play his own college basketball?

Wooden played guard at Purdue, where the Boilermakers' 1932 team was retroactively named national champion by the Helms Foundation.

Which architect designed Pauley Pavilion (1965) and shaped much of the modern campus?

Welton Becket's firm designed the 1965 arena; regent Edwin Pauley matched the alumni's contributions to get it built, and it was renovated in 2010-12.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played at UCLA under what name?

Lew Alcindor was his name until 1971; as a sophomore All-American in 1967 he led UCLA to the first of three straight titles.

How many times has the UCLA men's basketball team finished a season undefeated, an NCAA record?

All 4 came under Wooden, in 1964, 1967, 1972 and 1973; the program also holds the record of 11 NCAA titles.

The Victory Bell contested with USC originally came from what?

A Southern Pacific locomotive supplied the bell; UCLA's alumni association gave it to students in 1939, USC students stole it in 1941, and the rivalry game has decided its owner since 1942.

Which UCLA center made 21 of 22 shots in the 1973 NCAA final?

Bill Walton scored 44 points on 21-of-22 shooting against Memphis State in the 1973 final, a title-game scoring record, as UCLA won its seventh straight championship.

Who partnered Arthur Ashe to the 1965 NCAA doubles title for UCLA?

Ian Crookenden, a New Zealander, won the 1965 NCAA doubles with Ashe as the Bruins also took the team title that year.

Which director of The Godfather graduated from UCLA's film school in 1967?

Francis Ford Coppola took his MFA from UCLA's film school, where Jim Morrison of the Doors had also studied before that band formed in 1965.

UCLA's oldest tradition, an annual gala of student talent, is called what?

Spring Sing has run since 1945 and is staged at Pauley Pavilion or the Los Angeles Tennis Center; the Beat 'SC bonfire is the other big rite.

Which coach led UCLA men's volleyball from 1963 to 2012?

Al Scates coached the Bruins for 50 seasons, winning the first NCAA men's volleyball championship in 1970 and his last in 2006.

The all-male a cappella group Bruin Harmony appeared as a college group in which 2010 film?

The Social Network, David Fincher's 2010 film about Facebook's founding, cast Bruin Harmony as a Harvard a cappella group performing at a campus event.

In which year did the Regents rename the Southern Branch 'University of California at Los Angeles'?

In 1927 the Regents adopted the name 'University of California at Los Angeles', the same year construction began in Westwood; the 'at' became a comma in 1958.

Which football coach redesigned UCLA's uniforms in 1949, adding the shoulder 'UCLA Stripe'?

Red Sanders, hired in 1949, added the shoulder stripe and lightened the navy to a shade he dubbed 'Powder Keg Blue', reasoning it would show better on the field and on film.

Under what name was UCLA's student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, founded in 1919?

Cub Californian took its name from the Southern Branch teams, then called the Cubs; it became the Daily Bruin after the Bruins nickname arrived. The Westwood Enabler is the campus satire paper.

What is the title of UCLA's alma mater song?

Hail to the Hills of Westwood is the alma mater, the slower song sung after games; Sons of Westwood and Mighty Bruins are the fight songs.

Which team ended UCLA's record 88-game men's basketball winning streak on 19 January 1974?

Notre Dame won 71-70 in South Bend on 19 January 1974, having also been the last team to beat UCLA before the streak began in January 1971.

Who beat the two-time defending champion varsity in the first game at Pauley Pavilion in 1965?

UCLA's own freshman team won 75-60 on 27 November 1965 behind a 31-point, 21-rebound debut from its young centre, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Pauley Pavilion was the venue for which sport at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics?

Mary Lou Retton won the all-around there, the first Olympic gymnast from outside Eastern Europe to do so.

Which Bruin quarterback won the 1967 Heisman Trophy?

Gary Beban won the 1967 Heisman Trophy; that same academic year UCLA's star centre was named national player of the year, a first for one school.

Which company did UCLA alumni Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce found?

Blizzard Entertainment began in 1991 as Silicon & Synapse and went on to build the Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo franchises; Riot Games was founded by USC graduates.

Which future Nixon chief of staff led the fundraising campaign to build Pauley Pavilion?

H. R. Haldeman, a UCLA alumnus and later a regent, led the drive; Regent Edwin W. Pauley matched its million dollars, earning the arena his name at the June 1965 dedication.

Which quarterly Finals Week tradition has UCLA students running across campus in their underwear?

The Undie Run takes place on the Wednesday evening of Finals Week each quarter; Midnight Scream is a different ritual in which students yell at midnight to release exam stress.