The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the California State Normal School which later evolved into San José State University. The branch was transferred to the University of California, becoming the Southern Branch of UC in 1919, making it the second-oldest of the ten-campus University of California system after the University of California, Berkeley.
Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greats in the heptathlon as well as long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals in those two events at four different Olympic Games. Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of All-Time. She served on the board of directors for USA Track & Field (U.S.A.T.F.), the national governing body of the sport.
Rafer Lewis Johnson was an American decathlete and film actor. He was the 1960 Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, having won silver in 1956. He had previously won a gold in the 1955 Pan American Games. He was the USA team's flag bearer at the 1960 Olympics and lit the Olympic cauldron at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium located in Pasadena, California. Opened in October 1922, the stadium is recognized as a National Historic Landmark and a California Historic Civil Engineering landmark. At a modern capacity of an all-seated configuration at 92,542, the Rose Bowl is the 16th-largest stadium in the world, the 11th-largest stadium in the United States, and the 10th-largest NCAA stadium. The stadium is 10 miles (16 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
James Earl Johnson is an American former professional football player and Olympic track athlete.
The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). For football, they are in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I. UCLA is second to only Stanford University as the school with the most NCAA team championships at 121 NCAA team championships. UCLA offers 11 varsity sports programs for men and 14 for women.
Alfrederick Joyner is an American track and field coach and former athlete. He was born in East St. Louis, Illinois. He is the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump. He was also the coach and husband of the late four-time Olympic medalist Florence Griffith Joyner and is the brother of six-time Olympic medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. While the men's teams are nicknamed the Trojans, the women's athletic teams are referred to as either the Trojans or Women of Troy. The program participates in the Pac-12 Conference and has won 136 team national championships, 112 of which are National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships. USC's official colors are cardinal and gold. The Trojans have a cross-town rivalry in several sports with UCLA. However, USC's football rivalry with Notre Dame predates the UCLA rivalry by three years. The Notre Dame rivalry stems mainly from the annual football game played between these two universities and is considered the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football. The Trojans also enjoy a rivalry with the Stanford Cardinal. The USC Trojans are considered one of the most successful college athletic programs of all time.
The UCLA Bruins football program represents the University of California, Los Angeles, in college football as members of the Big Ten Conference at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level. The Bruins play their home games off campus at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
The Men's Gym on the campus of UCLA, now known as the Student Activities Center, is a 2,000 seat multi-purpose building in Los Angeles. It opened in 1932. It was home to the UCLA Bruins men's basketball teams until Pauley Pavilion opened for the 1965–66 basketball season. It was informally known as the "B. O. barn." In 1955, the Los Angeles city Fire Marshal declared the building unsafe for a crowd of greater than 1,300. UCLA Basketball games then also were played at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium, the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena and other venues around Los Angeles.
The UCLA–USC rivalry is the American collegiate athletics rivalry between the UCLA Bruins sports teams of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and USC Trojans teams of the University of Southern California (USC).
Jackie Robinson Stadium is a college baseball park in Los Angeles, California. It is the home field of the UCLA Bruins of the Pac-12 Conference. Opened 43 years ago in 1981, it is the smallest ballpark in the conference, with a seating capacity of 1,820. It is named after former Bruin athlete Jackie Robinson, the first African-American major league baseball player of the modern era.
The Los Angeles Tennis Center is a tennis facility located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. The center opened May 20, 1984, and hosted the demonstration tennis event of the 1984 Summer Olympics. The UCLA Bruins tennis teams moved to the facility in 1985 (men) and 1997 (women). The NCAA Women's Tennis Championships were held at the LATC in 1984, 1987, and 1988, and the Men's Championships took place there in 1997.
The UCLA Bruins men's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of the University of California at Los Angeles. The team is a member of the Pac-12 Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The 1954 UCLA Bruins football team was an American football team that represented the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Pacific Coast Conference during the 1954 college football season. They played their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and were coached by Red Sanders. It was Sanders' sixth season as the UCLA head coach; the Bruins finished 9–0 overall, and were Pacific Coast Conference Champions with a 6–0 record. In nine games, UCLA outscored their opponents, 367 to 40.
The UCLA Bruins women's soccer team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of the University of California at Los Angeles. The team is a member of the Pac-12 Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The team won its first national championship on December 8, 2013, by defeating Florida State 1–0 in overtime. The Bruins won the program's second national title on December 5, 2022, beating North Carolina 3–2 in double overtime.
Joseph Mathias Kovacs is an American track and field athlete who competes in the shot put and has a personal record of 23.23 meters outdoors and 22.05 meters indoors. He won gold medals at the 2015 and 2019 World Championships. He won silver medals at the 2017 World Championships, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics. His personal best of 23.23 metres makes him the second best competitor all-time in the shot put event.
Elvin C. "Ducky" Drake was an American track and field coach and athletics trainer at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). During his more than 60-year association with the university, he became a fixture and "father confessor" to many of the athletes he worked with.
Meleni Rodney, OLY is a Grenadian sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres.
Arturo "Art" Venegas is a former track and field coach, specializing in the throwing events. During his coaching career, Venegas led 63 athletes to conference titles, and he coached 33 throwers to NCAA championships. The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) said that he "left an indelible mark on the sport of track & field for over 40 years".
