Why UCLA Men's Cross Country?
June 5, 2000
HERE ARE 25 MAJOR REASONS WHY ATTENDING UCLA IS SO SPECIAL:
1.UCLA is the #1 Athletic Program of the 20th Century.
2.Through the 1999-2000 school year, UCLA leads all colleges in NCAA team championships won with 82, including an NCAA-leading four during the athletic year. All 82 championships have been won since 1950.
3.Since the 1976 Olympics, UCLA has produced more Olympians and Olympic Medals than any other university.
4.For the past three academic years (1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-2000), UCLA has been the nation's most popular university to attend, with over 30,000 applications for admission each year. More students apply here than any other college for UCLA's 4,000 admission spots per year.
5.In the latest U.S. News & World Report survey on top academic universities across the nation, UCLA is among the Top 10. UCLA has seven times as many academic departments ranked in the Top 10 as its cross-town rival from USC. In fact, UCLA had over 60 more departments ranked in the Top 20 in the annual academic survey.
6.UCLA won a National Championship in football in 1954. The Bruin men's basketball team has won 11 NCAA titles, more than any other university and also has appeared in more championship games than any other school. UCLA won the 1978 Women's Basketball National Collegiate Championship. UCLA is one of only a handful of universities that have won national championships in football and basketball.
7.The most successful active coach in NCAA history is UCLA's Al Scates, with a record 18 NCAA men's volleyball titles. Scates is believed to be the only current NCAA coach to have won titles in five decades - 60's (two USVBA's), 70's (seven NCAA's), 80's (six NCAA's) and 90's (four NCAA's) and the first title of the new millennium (2000).
8.Since the early 1970's, UCLA is the only Division I university to never have had a head coach leave for another college coaching job. This stability in coaching is because UCLA is the nation's No. 1 school at which to be a head coach. If a head coach leaves UCLA, it is usually for a position in professional sports.
9.If you add the current UCLA professional players in major league baseball, pro football, pro basketball, pro soccer and pro beach volleyball, there are more Bruin representatives playing professionally than any other school by a wide margin.
10.Michelle Kwan, the 2000 World Figure Skating Champion, attends UCLA. In the summer L.A. Laker Kobe Bryant takes classes here. Numerous celebrities, including actress Heather Locklear of Spin City, attended UCLA. There are numerous famous individuals who are attending or who have attended UCLA.
11.The internet was invented at UCLA. This university awards more doctoral degrees to minority students than any other college. UCLA was the first university in the Western United States at which open-heart surgery was performed. UCLA's Medical Center has been No. 1 on the West Coast every year since 1989.
12.Since national athletic department overall sports rankings began in 1971, UCLA is the only university to be ranked in the Top 5 every year. No other school has ranked in the Top 10 every year. UCLA was honored 21 times as the No. 1 men's or No. 1 women's program, more than double of any other university. The first time a combined athletic program was recognized, it was UCLA. Since the Sears' Cup rankings began in 1993-94, UCLA has ranked in the Top 5 every year.
13.UCLA is the only university to produce an NFL player who has helped his team win three consecutive Super Bowls -- Ken Norton, Jr. -- and a quarterback who has won three Super Bowls in four years -- Troy Aikman.
14.On the USA Women's Beach Volleyball Professional Tour, a UCLA player has been in the championship match at every event from April 1993 through June 2000 -- over seven years and almost 80 tournaments. A UCLA player has won almost 90% of the USA women's pro beach events. UCLA has produced the teams currently ranked first and second for 2000 Olympic qualification --Liz Masakayan/Elaine Youngs and Jenny Johnson-Jordan/Annett Buckner-Davis. 1996 Olympians Linda Hanley and Holly McPeak are both UCLA graduates.
15.When Sports Illustrated rated the nation's collegiate athletic programs for the first time, UCLA was selected No. 1. UCLA was recognized for its balance in academics, athletics and social life.
16.UCLA's Paul Caligiuri scored the goal that advanced the USA team to the 1990 World Cup in Italy, its first appearance in decades. In virtually every international USA match since that time, UCLA has had more players on the USA team than any other college. At least seven former Bruins --Cobi Jones, Brad Friedel, Eddie Lewis, Frankie Hedjuk, Ante Razov, Joe-Max Moore and Greg Vanney -- are candidates for the 2002 World Cup squad. Sasha Victorine and Pete Vagenas are among the candidates for the USA's 2000 Olympic team.
17.The Pac-10 named UCLA's Natalie Williams as its first female Athlete of the Decade for her All-America play in both volleyball and basketball. She followed a long line of multi-sport Bruin athletes which included stars such as Jackie-Joyner-Kersee, Rafer Johnson, Jackie Robinson, Ann Meyers-Drysdale and Jonathan Ogden and current Bruins Kristee Porter (volleyball, basketball, track & field), Freddie Mitchell (football & baseball) and Lauren Fendrick (volleyball & softball). UCLA's Quarter Academic System makes multi-sport student-athletes a strong possibility.
18.UCLA was the first university in history to win seven consecutive football bowl games. UCLA has played in the Rose Bowl game in five straight decades.
19.UCLA's is situated in one of the nicest areas in Southern California, just five miles from the Pacific Ocean. The average home price within a three-mile radius of the Bruin campus is valued at over $1 million dollars. The average year-round temperature is 74 degrees with little humidity.
20.Located in the nation's No. 2 media market, UCLA student-athletes receive national exposure as well as local coverage from a dozen newspapers, seven television stations and networks such as ESPN, CNN-SI and Fox Sports Net.
21.In the sport of tennis, UCLA is the only university to have two players from the same school play for the prestigious Wimbledon title--Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe in 1975. On the collegiate level, UCLA has been one of the two most dominant programs, winning numerous team and individual titles.
22.The JobTrak job placement system for college students to locate full-time and part-time jobs plus internships is an important academic resource in more than 300 colleges across the nation. UCLA is a clear No. 1 in placement of its students in these positions, and the Quarter System allows internship experience with class credit around playing seasons.
23.UCLA has the longest streak in NCAA history for consecutive winning seasons in the sport of men's basketball, a record that is now over 50 years in length dating back to 1948-49. No other major program is close to that figure.
24.UCLA is the university that has produced the women's 100-meter dash winner in each of the last four Olympics - Evelyn Ashford in 1984, Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 and Gail Devers in 1992 and 1996. UCLA is the only university to produce Olympic gold medalists in the decathlon (Rafer Johnson in 1960) and heptathlon (Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1988 & 1992).
25.When you combine UCLA's prestigious academics (its graduates average over $75,000 per year in income), a great all-around athletic program that produces championships and professional athletes, and an incredible social life, there is no university that can match the "total package" that UCLA offers.
I know you are supposed to talk up your university, but these stats are a little too stretched. By the way this sounds, UCLA shouldn't lose anything ever in any sport!