Click on these photos to enlarge them, and take a look at past
Daily Bruin articles. Error: Embedded data could not be displayed.
Photos are from Daily Bruin file.
The clock has been ticking since the middle of May.
When women’s water polo player Courtney Mathewson fired a
ball that found the back of the net, UCLA upset top-seeded USC 9-8
in the NCAA Championship match to capture the sports
program’s 99th NCAA title.
From the moment coach Adam Krikorian hit the water to join his
players in celebration, those who follow UCLA sports have been
waiting to see their university get to the century mark before
anyone else.
Since that day, UCLA has gone to different measures to draw on a
50-year tradition.
Upon winning No. 100, UCLA will unveil a special commemorative
plaque that will be showcased in the trophy room in the J.D. Morgan
Center. The school will also build a first-to-100 display at the
Hall of Fame and is still contemplating giving a commemorative gift
to surviving members of each title team.
But it all started way back in 1950, when men’s tennis
coach Bill Ackerman guided UCLA to its first ever NCAA title.
Co-captain Glenn Bassett, sitting in his Laguna Niguel home,
vividly remembers that day.
“Bill had lost to USC twice that year,” he said.
“It was his last year, and he never asked us for anything.
But he walked in and said, “˜Guys, win this one for
me.’
“We never thought we’d be starting something so
big.”
Message boards have been filled with lists compiled of the best
championship teams and the team most likely to win No. 100.
It could be Jill Ellis’ third-ranked women’s soccer
team, which has made the College Cup for three straight years but
has yet to win the title. It could be No. 4 men’s water polo,
which is a perennial contender under Krikorian. There’s also
No. 3 women’s volleyball, enjoying its best start in years
under Andy Banachowski .
But that’s the reality for any school that has logged
enough championship laps to get near 100: Just about every sport
has to be good enough to win it all in any given year.
While much has been made about the widespread success of Bruin
athletics, there doesn’t seem to be a consensus as to what
makes Westwood a title magnet.
Men’s volleyball coach Al Scates is the winningest coach
at the winningest school, capturing 19 NCAA titles (21 overall,
with two won before his sport was NCAA sanctioned).
Scates speaks of his success as more of a math formula than a
magic potion.
He credits his winning ways to the location of UCLA, right in
the heart of talent-rich Southern California, which develops prep
athletes in nearly every sport.
“We get to see good athletes all over the area, from San
Diego up to even Northern California,” he said. “We can
scout players other schools don’t ever see play.
“The ability to play sports in warm weather year round is
also a luxury that a lot of schools don’t have.”
The numbers back up Scates’ location theory. After UCLA,
Stanford is second overall with 92 titles, and USC is third with
84. Oklahoma State is a distant fourth with 47 titles.
But upon closer inspection, UCLA has actually dominated in a
pair of indoor sports that don’t depend on the weather
““ Scates’ men’s volleyball program and John
Wooden’s men’s basketball program, the school’s
flagship sport.
Which brings us back to Scates’ formula for success. His
system employs former players as assistant coaches and graduate
assistants who are familiar with the schemes in hopes of bringing a
level of continuity often missing in college athletics.
“The first player we did that with was Andy Banachowski,
and that worked out pretty well,” Scates said.
Banachowski was hired as the women’s volleyball coach
during his junior year and has gone on to win six titles and over
1,000 matches.
There’s plenty of talk about the UCLA mystique and about
Westwood being a special place. Call Scates a realist because he
downplays that notion.
“I don’t know what the goals are for coaches at
other schools, but we want to win,” he said.
“It’s about having the players to win.”
Even so, how has UCLA continued to attract such elite players?
Continuity on the coaching staffs can’t hurt.
UCLA NCAA Titles Error: Embedded data could not
be displayed.
It isn’t just Wooden, Scates and Banachowski. UCLA has had
a uncanny chain of great coaching that is largely responsible for
the march to 100 NCAA titles. No sport exemplifies that quite like
the men’s tennis program.
One year after the men’s tennis team delivered UCLA its
first title, J.D. Morgan replaced Ackerman as the program’s
coach. Morgan would go on to win the school’s second title in
1952, claiming a total of six titles before his retirement. Just as
Morgan’s coaching tenure ended, his era as athletic director
began with Wooden’s 10 titles in 12 years.
Bassett succeeded Morgan as men’s tennis coach, winning
seven titles while coaching from 1967 to 1993. Bassett acknowledges
that plenty of schools could sustain a winning tradition in one or
two sports, but maintains that what built the foundation for
UCLA’s 99 NCAA titles was the leadership Morgan brought to
the athletic department.
“He had a passion for every single sport on campus,”
Bassett said. “You would see him at events for every team and
that has set a standard for excellence for each sport. He instilled
expectations for everyone, and he was demanding.”
Although it started with Morgan, there has been a tremendous
sense of tradition that UCLA coaches have always harkened back to.
Billy Martin followed Bassett as coach, and the two still speak on
a regular basis.
But that tradition can be a double-edged sword.
Jill Ellis has achieved great success as the women’s
soccer coach by most schools’ standards. But she isn’t
at most schools. So her back-to-back runner-up finishes don’t
draw a second look.
In just the last two years, Ellis has recruited Kara Lang, the
top Canadian women’s soccer player, and Lauren Cheney, the
top American. She came over from Illinois and put UCLA on a level
with soccer giants Notre Dame and North Carolina. Until she wins a
title, though, she won’t get much credit.
“When the UCLA job opened up, I was attracted to it for
many reasons,” Ellis said. “But mostly I saw UCLA as a
challenge to win titles.”
At a Pac-10 conference a couple years ago, Ellis saw Washington
women’s soccer coach Lesle Gallimore wearing a ring. Ellis
asked Gallimore what it was, and the Huskies coach told her it was
for winning the Pac-10. Ellis just laughed to herself and thought
of the long line of titles that are keeping the Morgan Center
warm.
“She got a raise for winning the conference, and I
don’t even get a raise for making the College Cup,”
Ellis said.
As for her team’s chances of winning the school’s
100th NCAA title, Ellis says it’s a possibility that is hard
not to acknowledge.
“We’ve talked about it as a team,” she said.
“It would be special for us because it would be our first
title. For some of the other programs, it might be boring ““
just another title.”