In the week following UCLA’s 100th NCAA title victory, the number has come to symbolize many aspects of the school’s greatness.
Bruin fans have searched for the rudiment of UCLA’s success. Whether it was a particular sport, coach or player, people want a single image to equate with the long-standing success.
But perhaps more than any individual or team, the location of the school and its pristine campus reflect its decades of achievement and enable the Athletic Department to build elite teams. It may be the true catalyst for UCLA’s dominance.
The picturesque campus has served as a perfect atmosphere for coaches to groom championship-caliber teams, and the California location has led to superior programs in sports that are big on the West Coast, such as volleyball and water polo.
“When you walk on this campus you can’t help but be motivated to do well just because of the surroundings,” said Adam Krikorian, coach of the water polo teams. “It’s just a beautiful place to be.”
The location is favored by the NCAA titles statistic because sports that thrive on the West Coast are included while others, such as football, are not tallied.
The Bruins have dominated the West Coast sports, and these titles essentially reside in California.
No men’s or women’s team outside the state has ever won a water polo championship. And California schools have won 16 of 25 women’s volleyball titles and 31 of 37 men’s titles.
In terms of amassing NCAA crowns, the state’s top athletic universities have clearly led the way. UCLA tops the list with 100, Stanford has 91 and USC has 86. No other school has won more than 48 team championships.
These schools have also held the top spot in tennis. The UCLA men’s tennis team won the school’s first championship in 1950 and has captured 16 crowns in all. The program has also been able to recruit two NCAA individual champs from outside California ““ Benjamin Kohlloeffel and Arthur Ashe.
The disparity between California schools and the rest of the nation may also be a result of the huge pool of high school talent in the state and coaches’ ability to convince recruits from across the nation to bring their skills to California.
“We need to attract the best players to be successful,” Krikorian said. “And most of the talent in our sport is on the West Coast, there’s no question.”
The competition between these West Coast schools has undoubtedly motivated UCLA teams to compete at a high level. John Tanner, coach of the Stanford women’s water polo team, went so far as to claim his school’s supremacy after falling to the Bruins in the NCAA title game.
“I work with 18- to 22-year-olds, and none of them were born when most of (UCLA’s) championships were won,” he said. “During their lifetimes our athletic department has been the benchmark by which all athletic departments have been measured. … I couldn’t be prouder to be associated with (Stanford), the top athletic department in the country.”
UCLA, USC and Stanford are all united by similar climates and huge athletic departments, and each has successfully recruited nationally. Climate is a specific concern for athletes who play outside, and the California temperatures allow student athletes to practice throughout the school year.
“It’s certainly easier to recruit (to California),” Krikorian said. “As a recruit you’re always looking to a place that has the climate of a Los Angeles.”
The UCLA campus was a primary factor in perhaps the biggest recruit ever landed by the school.
The Bruins had won just 10 national titles when John Wooden brought basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Los Angeles from New York. That recruit led to unparalleled dominance in college basketball and put UCLA on the national sports radar.
Still, most coaches are able to succeed with West Coast talent. Men’s basketball coach Ben Howland has built teams with West Coast prospects and has started to dominate the California recruiting scene in the sport. Volleyball coach Al Scates, whose 19 titles are the most of any coach in school history, has trusted California stars throughout his tenure.
“Let’s face it, we have 300 (high school) volleyball programs from Santa Cruz to San Diego, and good high school players in this area.” Scates said. “So we really don’t have to go too far out of our area.”
The centrality of Bruin athletics to the UCLA community is demonstrated geographically with the placement of the J.D. Morgan Center and Pauley Pavilion at the heart of the campus.
In a similar way the location of the campus itself has been a key factor in the athletic dominance of the UCLA teams. UCLA athletes have developed in Westwood and coaches have built championship teams on the Los Angeles campus. And the ideal UCLA location is inextricably linked to any explanation of the years of athletic achievement the school has enjoyed.