When John Wooden started his string of NCAA championships in
1964, Pauley Pavilion was a sight to behold.
Students would camp out days prior to the game just to get a
glimpse of one of the finest dynasties in collegiate sports
history.
As the championships piled up, Pauley Pavilion became one of the
most intimidating places to play in the entire nation.
In 2002, an organization called the Den looked to newly hired
athletic director Dan Guerrero to try to restore some of that
legacy.
The group petitioned to have the student section placed
courtside to give UCLA back the home court advantage it had lost
over time.
“From the beginning, Dan Guerrero was completely willing
to work with the students,” Den member Alex Budak said.
“He felt it was in the best interest of the program to get
the students more involved into UCLA athletics.”
Since that day, the Den has played a much larger role in
promoting UCLA athletics, assigning the students “True
Blue” shirts and leading the cheers for the students at all
UCLA athletic games and sporting events.
“We incorporated the “True Blue” shirts to
bring all the students together,” fellow member Matt
Crisafulli said.
“We wanted to make it a unifying symbol for all the UCLA
community.”
One of the goals of the Den is to uphold many of the traditions
of past UCLA students.
Besides camping out for basketball games, other Den traditions
include the “Frisbee Cheer,” delivered at the beginning
of every sporting event, and the singing of the alma mater at the
end of basketball games.
“Our job at the Den is to carry on the UCLA lore,”
Budak said. “We’re very fortunate to carry out the
traditions that students started over forty years ago.”
Besides leading traditional cheers at the football and
basketball games, the Den plays a much larger role on campus.
The Den holds meetings every other week in which it meets with
members of the UCLA athletic department and special guest speakers
to come up with ideas for students to get more involved with Bruin
athletics.
One of the big roles that the Den plays on campus is promoting
the non-revenue and lesser-attended Olympic sports that the casual
fan may not be familiar with.
They hold a Den Event of the Week that involves an Olympic
sport. The Den promotes the event by passing out fliers all over
campus.
“One of our goals is to promote all UCLA athletic
events,” Crisafulli said.
“We had four NCAA championship teams last year and they
all deserve the same support as the bigger sports on
campus.”