Eddie Shore and the Original Six Dominance

Lore & Background

Upon its founding, UCLA joined the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). In 1927, UCLA left the SCIAC and joined the Pacific Coast Conference, the forerunner of the Pac-12 Conference. Following 'pay-for-play' scandals at California, USC, UCLA, and Washington, the PCC disbanded in June 1959. On July 1, 1959, the new Athletic Association of Western Universities was launched, with California, UCLA, USC, and Washington as the four charter members.

The conference renamed itself the Pacific-8 Conference in 1968, then the Pacific-10 Conference in 1978, and the Pac-12 in 2011. Upon UCLA's founding as the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, the football team was known as the 'Cubs' because of its younger relationship to the California Bears in Berkeley. In 1923, the team adopted the nickname 'Grizzlies'. In 1926, the Grizzlies became the 10th and final member of the Pacific Coast Conference, which already included the University of Montana Grizzlies.

The school, which had taken the 'University of California, Los Angeles' name that year, became the 'Bruins' and has been recognized as such in the years since. The Bruins began to use live bears as mascots in the 1930s, renting animals to appear at all UCLA home football games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The practice grew less common until the 1950s, when students and alumni brought 'Little Joe Bruin' to Westwood. A Himalayan bear cub from India, 'Little Joe' grew too large and was transferred to a circus.

'Josephine' was purchased by a group of alumni in 1961 and was kept in the backyard of the Rally Committee chairman. She was eventually taken to the San Diego Zoo. A costumed mascot by the name of Joe Bruin was introduced in 1963. In 1967, the first female student to take the mascot role created Josephine 'Josie' Bruin and joined Joe at athletic events. The design for the costumed bears has changed over the years, and Joe has had at least six looks over his history.

Reader's Guide

The UCLA athletic teams' colors are UCLA Blue and Westwood Gold. Blue symbolizes the ocean and wildflowers; yellow to reflect the Golden State, the California poppy and sunsets. In the early days of the school, UCLA had the same colors as the University of California, Berkeley: Yale Blue and gold. When football coach Red Sanders came to UCLA for the 1949 season he redesigned the football uniforms.

The Yale blue was changed to a lighter shade of blue. Sanders figured that the baby blue would look better on the field and in a film. He would dub the baby blue uniform 'powder-keg blue'. In 2002, UCLA Athletics and Adidas developed a new True Blue color that was darker than powder blue; it was used for all athletic teams starting in 2003.

The UCLA Marching Band incorporated True Blue into its previous navy blue uniforms in 2007. The shade was replaced in 2017 with a return to Powderkeg Blue when UCLA switched to Under Armour as its apparel provider. In 2021, Nike and the Jordan Brand aligned the athletics blue with the university's UCLA Blue hue, which has been used by the school's academic and administrative units. The school's academic and administrative units had used UCLA Blue since 2004.

Did You Know?

• From 1971 to 1974, UCLA won 88 consecutive men's basketball games, an NCAA record for men.
• The 2013 baseball team won UCLA's 109th NCAA Championship and their first in baseball in the 2013 College World Series.
• The women's beach volleyball team won its first national title on May 6, 2018, by defeating Hawaii and Florida State.