Today, crowds giddily cheer on Joe Bruin’s flexing biceps and the unmistakable hip waggle of Josephine Bruin, but UCLA’s mascots have been defined by an evolution of animals, monikers and sweaty costumes. It’s a cute sight, seeing Joe and Josephine Bruin kiss as a mass of cheerleaders steadily lift them up for all the audience to see, but the UCLA mascots haven’t always been this cute. Try to envision a live bear gallivanting about the Rose Bowl or a stray dog as the mascot of UCLA.
The birth of a mascot
UCLA, or as it was known in 1919, the Southern Branch of the University of California, was first referred to as home of the Cubs. This decision reflected the school’s status as the kin of its older sibling up north, UC Berkeley. The live mascot was a furry stray dog, affectionately named Rags, that a gardener found on campus, according to the Southern Campus yearbook archive.
It was in 1924 when UCLA adopted the more ferocious moniker of the Grizzly, according to the UCLA History Project. The name change raised the ire of the University of Montana, which had already claimed the name for its mascot. In 1926, student leaders at UC Berkeley decided to give one of their mascots to UCLA, the Bruin.
The look and style of the newly established Bruin went through a number of face-lifts over the century. The illustrated Bruin of the 1920s had a beaky muzzle that evolved into a Mickey Mouse style in the 1930s. That was promptly replaced with a bookish Bruin in the 1940s, complete with a mock turtleneck sweater and a ladder to shelve books. That turtleneck crept lower into a casual crew neck sweatshirt, and eventually jerseys, as UCLA became a dominating force in basketball in the 1960s and 1970s.
The earliest live mascots were not costumed individuals, but live bears, which appeared at games in the 1930s. This practice eventually ceased because of the danger of a live bear thrashing about the football stadium.
According to UCLA Athletics, which has a history of the Bruin mascots on its site, in the early 1950s, students and alumni called for a live mascot. However, the first Joe Bruin, a Himalayan bear cub from India, eventually grew too large and was sent to a circus. The inception of Josephine Bruin came from alumni who purchased yet another live bear to fill Joe’s place in 1961 and was kept in the backyard of the Rally Committee chairman. Josephine, or Josie as many called her, became too massive to take care of and was sent to the San Diego Zoo.
It was in the mid 1960s that individuals began to inhabit the costume of Joe Bruin, which was suitable to UCLA’s ever-increasing issues with live bear mascots. And like butter to bread, Joe was joined by a costumed Josephine Bruin in 1967, which united the couple that we know today.
Being Joe and Josie
UCLA alumnus Steve Halpern, a former Joe Bruin for the 1968-1970 and 1971-1972 seasons and former UCLA student body president, became Joe on a whim and soon found himself on the same court as renowned basketball player Lew Alcindor and coach John Wooden.
“It was one of the last games toward the end of the season,” Halpern said. “I didn’t see the mascot that day. … I walked up to the head cheerleader, Geoff Cooper, and he said, “˜Well, the guy didn’t show up. The costume is in the trunk of my car, and if you want to do it, do it.’ I went out and I got the costume, put it on, and I was the mascot. At the end of the game, I just took the costume home with me. So that’s how I became the mascot.”
The costume was not the most comfortable of fur coats, especially under the glaring Southern California sun. As mascot outfits go, the heat inside was only mildly bearable.
“You often had to take salt pills to keep from fainting. So there was always someone there to supply you with salt pills,” Halpern said.
Fainting wasn’t the issue for UCLA alumnus Devon Smith, who played Joe Bruin from 1987 to 1988, but unintentional weight loss did ensue.
“When I started out, I was 200 pounds. By the end of football season, I was 173,” Smith said.
Despite the cumbersome outfit, Smith pulled quite an agile stunt at a basketball game during halftime.
“They let me and one of the other mascots throw from the free-throw line, and I kept missing and Pauley starts booing. So I got a little cocky, and I stepped back to the 3-point line and I hit nothing but net. That’s as close as I got to playing ball for UCLA,” Smith said.
As the decade shifted, the Joe Bruin of the early ’90s reflected the rage surrounding cool Southern California culture, with a more flirtatious beach vibe.
“The head was more like a honeycomb bear head, (which was) easier to see and drink through,” said UCLA alumnus Ken Bencomo, who was a Joe Bruin from 1989 to 1990. “The character was a cool surfer type who loved to get down and street dance. He was a party Joe who loved the ladies.”
Likewise, the ’90s saw a more aggressive and bulky Joe, sometimes referred to as “Steroid Joe” by fans. Early ’90s Joe was not afraid to take on USC and its song girls either.
“For two years, I wore seven blond Barbies tied to my hip in ‘SC song girl outfits and taunted them the whole game. I made several of the (song girls) cry,” Bencomo said.
In 1996, UCLA settled on the style of the Joe and Josephine Bruin of today, with their strong brows and round cherub faces, a more kid-friendly option than, say, the live bear mascots of yore.
The kids would clamber up to UCLA alumna Jennifer Pickett, who played Josie from 1996 to 1998.
“One of the great things I loved about it was having these little kids run up to you in their dresses and their blue and gold and their faces painted and sit there on your lap and stroke your big nose and say “˜Oh, I love you Josie,'” Pickett said. “It was really sweet, and I remember doing that when I was a little kid.”
One of the current Joe Bruins, a fourth-year psychology student, simply enjoys the spirit that the mascot brings to the UCLA fans.
“It feels absolutely amazing,” he said. “Honestly, when you put on that suit and you walk out and you see all those people wearing blue and gold and people bring their kids up to you to say hi, you feel so happy. I’m so happy I got to do it. It has rounded out my UCLA career off with just the way I wanted it to end.”
From good old Rags to live bears, the UCLA mascot has evidently been a matter of trial and error. These days, it would be hard to see the UCLA mascot as something other than the cuddly duo of Joe and Josie, as the crowd roars with delight at their antics.
And the crowd still roars.