I’m sure when Wilt Chamberlain came to a biblical knowledge of his 100th woman on the second night of his lifelong bangin’ binge, he probably stopped for a second to admire the milestone. That is, if he had time before the next young lady was brought in.
I’m sure that in the midst of his first season in the major leagues, Cal Ripken Jr. stopped and said to himself during consecutive game No. 100, “Wow, that sure is something.”
And I’m equally sure that Methuselah, after reaching his 100th year, gave himself a nice pat on the back for a job well done.
So when UCLA proceeds with the festivities of self-congratulation in the coming year for reaching that sought-after round number in championships, we can at least take solace in that it has its precedent. I simply choose to provide some edification.
Wilt Chamberlain was great not because of his 100th lady friend, but because of his 20,000th, which assuredly set the ugly-bumping record. Cal Ripken is considered great not because of his 100th consecutive game, but because of his 2,632nd. Methusaleh is great because he lived 969 years, not 100 (also, he is great because he was the grandfather of Noah, who was, of course, Joan’s dad).
The exceedingly subtle point I am making is that, while 100 national titles is a nice round number that really appeals to me as a proud practitioner of the base-10 number system, it is not something that should really be celebrated as a truly important milestone.
UCLA is the best athletics school in the nation. There can’t really be opposition to that, as we surpassed USC and Stanford in team national titles a while back (I don’t like looking things up, so I’m going to exercise my discretion and not look up that date either). UCLA can lay claim to that honor, and the Athletic Department can feel free to put as many patches on uniforms as they would like indicating that UCLA is the best.
But celebrating this first to 100 thing, and putting patches on the uniform saying “first to 100″? It seems weak and small.
In his letter to the students following the 100th title win by the women’s water polo team (which, over the last three years, has been one of the most dominant teams in UCLA history in any sport, just so you know), Athletic Director Dan Guerrero wrote that “we will be first to 200.” I agree. UCLA probably will be. We have natural advantages here, and also have some of the best coaches in their respective sports.
The point, however, is that if we fully expect to be first to 200 (and I can only assume we expect to be first to 300 and so on until either the university system or the world ends) then why celebrate being first to 100? The number 100 is not the goal. It’s not even the first lap.
The goal, I can only assume, is to be the greatest athletic university in the nation. We’ve got that locked up for now. But it was locked up before this last title, and it will be locked up after the next.
Now get off my lawn.
E-mail Woods at dwoods@media.ucla.edu or e-mail Danny Roach at droach@ucla.edu to let him know Woods put him in his tagline. It was the best he could do.