Pacific Coast Conference

This article is about the college athletic conference of 1915–1959. For the community college conference, see Pacific Coast Athletic Conference. For the conference formerly known as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, see Big West Conference. For the high school athletic conference in California, see Pacific Coast Conference (California).

Pacific Coast Conference

Association	NCAA
Founded	December 2, 1915
Ceased	June 30, 1959
No. of teams	9 (final), 10 (total)
Region	Pacific Coast, Mountain States
Locations

The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a collegiate athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (including all four original PCC charter members) in the Pac-12 for many years, the older league had a completely different charter and was disbanded in 1959 due to a major crisis and scandal.

Established on December 2, 1915, ^[1] its four charter members were the University of California (now University of California, Berkeley), the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University).

Conference members

• University of California, Berkeley (1915–1959)
• University of Oregon (1915–1959)
• Oregon State College (1915–1959)
• University of Washington (1915–1959)
• Washington State College (1917–1959)
• Stanford University (1918–1959)
• University of Idaho (1922–1959)
• University of Southern California (1922–1959, suspended in 1924)
• University of Montana (1924–1950)
• University of California, Los Angeles (1928–1959)

Membership timeline

 Full members Other Conference Other Conference 

Before the crisis

Rivalries between the Pacific Coast Conference schools grew beyond athletics, with animosities around educational, financial and state rivalries. The tensions between the California and Northwest schools extended to Edwin Pauley, a regent of the University of California, disliking the member universities in the Pacific Northwest enough to advocate that the California institutions leave the Pacific Coast Conference to form a "California Conference."

The PCC had a history of being very strict with regards to its standards; it suspended the University of Southern California from the conference in 1924, performed a critical self-study in 1932, and a voluminous two-million-word report was compiled by Edwin Atherton in 1939. The PCC had a paid commissioner, an elaborate constitution, a formal code of conduct, and a system for reporting student-athlete eligibility. Following the submission of his report, Atherton was promptly hired as commissioner in 1940, ^[2] and served until his death four years later, ^[3] He was succeeded by his assistant, Victor O. Schmidt. ^[4]

Montana departed the conference in 1950 to join the Skyline Eight. ^[5]

The conference was wracked by scandal in 1951. Charges were made and confirmed that University of Oregon football coach Jim Aiken had violated the conference code for financial aid and athletic subsidies. After Aiken was compelled to resign, Oregon urged the PCC to look at similar abuses by UCLA football coach Red Sanders. The conference spent five years attempting to reform itself. In 1956, the scandal became public.

The crisis

The scandal first broke at Washington, when in January 1956, several discontented players staged a mutiny against their football coach, John Cherberg. After the coach was fired, the PCC followed up on charges of a slush fund. The PCC found evidence of the prohibited activities of the Greater Washington Advertising Fund run by Roscoe C. "Torchy" Torrance, and in May imposed sanctions. ^[6]

In March, allegations of prohibited payments made by two booster clubs associated with UCLA, the Bruin Bench and the Young Men's Club of Westwood, were published in Los Angeles newspapers. ^[6] UCLA refused for ten weeks to allow PCC officials to proceed in their investigation. Finally, UCLA admitted that, "all members of the football coaching staff had, for several years, known of the unsanctioned payments to student athletes and had cooperated with the booster club members or officers, who actually administered the program by actually referring student athletes to them for such aid." The scandal thickened as a UCLA alumnus and member of the UCLA athletic advisory board blew the whistle on a secret fund for payments in violation of PCC rules to University of Southern California players, known as the Southern California Educational Foundation. ^[7] This same alumnus also blew the whistle on Cal's phony work program for athletes known as the San Francisco Gridiron Club, with an extension in the Los Angeles area known as the South Seas Fund. ^[7]

In 1957, the conference fired Vic Schmidt, the commissioner. He had been tasked with cleaning up the conference, and had imposed sanctions on UCLA, including suspending athletes and prohibiting participation in the Rose Bowl for three years. ^[7]

Aftershocks and disbandment

The first major reaction came from the University of California system. Robert Sproul, president of the University of California, along with the chancellors of Berkeley and UCLA, drafted a "Five Point Plan", emphasizing academic eligibility standards, setting the two UC campuses apart from the PCC and laying the groundwork for their departure. ^[6] For Sproul the PCC dispute was not just about athletics; at stake was the ideal of a unified University of California that enjoyed statewide support. This ideal collided with aspirations of UCLA alumni who believed that Sproul's vision would always favor the Berkeley campus at the expense of the younger UCLA campus.

Oregon State College president August Leroy Strand wrote, "The reasons for California and UCLA dropping out are as different as night and day... the significance of the whole affair was the union of Berkeley and UCLA... admissions and scholarship had nothing to do with the withdrawals . . . the marriage of this desire on the part of Berkeley with the known ambitions and necessities of its sister institution has produced a bastard that has the bark of a purebred but the innards and hair of a mongrel."

The PCC was falling apart, leading to the decision to dissolve after the 1958–59 season.

The PCC scandal was one of several problems during the chancellorship of Raymond B. Allen at UCLA that caused him to fall out of favor with the Regents of the University of California. Allen was widely expected to become the next UC President, but instead, in October 1957, UC Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr was the Regents' unanimous choice to succeed Sproul. ^[8]

New conference (AAWU)

See also: Pac-12 Conference § History

Soon after the PCC was dissolved, five of its nine members (California, Washington, UCLA, Southern California, and Stanford) created the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) for the 1959 season. While the AAWU did not negotiate an agreement with the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association to have a standing contractual invitation to the Rose Bowl Game until the following year, the Tournament of Roses did choose to invite the AAWU's inaugural regular season champion to the first post-PCC Rose Bowl.

After initially being blocked from admission, three of the four remaining schools eventually joined (Washington State in 1962, Oregon and Oregon State in 1964), but members were not required to play other members. Tensions were high between UCLA and Stanford, as Stanford had voted for UCLA's expulsion from the PCC.

Idaho was not involved in the scandals but had become noncompetitive in the PCC. Unlike Washington State, Oregon, and Oregon State, Idaho did not pursue AAWU admission, and competed as an independent before becoming a charter member of the Big Sky Conference in 1962. Idaho retains no strong connections to its PCC past other than a continuing rivalry with Washington State; the two land grant campuses are just eight miles (13 km) apart in the Palouse region.

The AAWU eventually strengthened its bonds and added members, renaming itself the Pacific-8 Conference (Pac-8) in 1968. By 1971, most Pac-8 schools played round-robin conference football schedules, and the two Oregon schools were again playing USC and UCLA on a regular basis. The conference added WAC powers Arizona and Arizona State in 1978 and became the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10). On July 1, 2011, the conference added Colorado from the Big 12 and Utah from the Mountain West (also a former WAC member) and became the Pac-12. The Pac-12 claims the PCC's history as its own, though it operates under a separate charter.

Conference champions

The official record book of conference champions was compiled by the then acting commissioner Bernie Hammerbeck in 1959. ^[9]

Men's basketball

See also: Pac-12 Conference men's basketball

The Pacific Coast Conference began playing basketball in the 1915–16 season. The PCC adopted a divisional format for basketball beginning with the 1922–23 season. The California schools formed the Southern Division, while the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain schools formed the North Division. The winners of the two divisions played a best of three series to determine the PCC basketball champion. If two division teams tied, they had a one-game playoff to produce the division representative. Starting with the first NCAA tournament in 1939, the winner of the PCC divisional playoff was given the automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Oregon, the PCC champion that season, won the first NCAA title game.

The last divisional playoff was in the 1954–55 season. After that, all teams played each other in a round robin competition. From the 1955–56 season through the 1958–59 season, the regular season conference champion was awarded the NCAA tournament berth from the PCC. In the case of a tie, a tie breaker rule was used to determine the NCAA tournament representative.

Season	Conference Champion (#)	Playoff Runner-up
1915–16	California (1) Oregon State (1)	none
1916–17	Washington State (1)
1918–19	Oregon (1)
1919–20	Stanford (1)
1920–21	California (2) Stanford (2)
1921–22	Idaho (1)
1922–23	Idaho (2)	California
1923–24	California (3)	Washington
1924–25	California (4)	Oregon State
1925–26	California (5)	Oregon
1926–27	California (6)	Oregon
1927–28	USC (1)	Washington
1928–29	California (7)	Washington
1929–30	USC (2)	Washington
1930–31	Washington (1)	California
1931–32	California (8)	Washington
1932–33	Oregon State (2)	USC
1933–34	Washington (2)	USC
1934–35	USC (3)	Oregon State
1935–36	Stanford (3)	Washington
1936–37	Stanford (4)	Washington State
1937–38	Stanford (5)	Oregon
1938–39	Oregon (2)	California
1939–40	USC (4)	Oregon State
1940–41	Washington State (2)	Stanford
1941–42	Stanford (6)	Oregon State
1942–43	Washington (3)	USC
1943–44	California (9) Washington (4)	none
1944–45	Oregon (3) UCLA (1)
1945–46	California (10)	Idaho
1946–47	Oregon State (3)	UCLA
1947–48	Washington (5)	California
1948–49	Oregon State (4)	UCLA
1949–50	UCLA (2)	Washington State
1950–51	Washington (6)	UCLA
1951–52	UCLA (3)	Washington
1952–53	Washington (7)	California
1953–54	USC (5)	Oregon State
1954–55	Oregon State (5)	UCLA
1955–56	UCLA (4)	none
1956–57	California (11)
1957–58	California (12) Oregon State (6)
1958–59	California (13)

• Bold indicates national champion

Football

		Conference			Overall
Season	Champion(s)	W	L	T	W	L	T
1916	Oregon ^	2	0	1	6	0	1
	Washington	3	0	1	6	0	1
1917	Washington State	3	0	0	6	0	0
1918	California	2	0	0	7	2	0
1919	Oregon ^ (2)	2	1	0	5	1	3
	Washington (2)	2	1	0	5	1	0
1920	California (2)	3	0	0	9	0	0
1921	California (3)	4	0	0	9	0	1
1922	California (4)	4	0	0	9	0	0
1923	California (5)	5	0	0	9	0	1
1924 [10]	Stanford ^ (2)	3	0	1	7	1	1
	California (6)	2	0	2	8	0	2
1925	Washington (3)	5	0	0	10	1	1
1926	Stanford (2)	4	0	0	10	0	1
1927	Stanford ^ (3)	4	0	1	8	2	1
	USC	4	0	1	8	1	1
	Idaho	2	0	2	4	1	3
1928	USC (2)	4	0	1	9	0	1
1929 [11] [12]	USC ^ (3)	6	1	0	10	2	0
	Stanford (4)	5	1	0	9	2	0
	California (7)	4	1	0	7	1	0
	Oregon (3)	4	1	0	7	3	0
1930	Washington State (2)	6	0	0	9	1	0
1931	USC (4)	7	0	0	10	1	0
1932	USC (5)	6	0	0	10	0	0
1933	Oregon (4)	4	1	0	9	1	0
	Stanford ^ (5)	4	1	0	8	2	1
1934	Stanford (6)	5	0	0	9	1	1
1935	California (8)	4	1	0	9	1	0
	Stanford ^ (7)	4	1	0	8	1	0
	UCLA	4	1	0	8	2	0
1936	Washington (4)	7	0	1	7	2	1
1937	California (9)	6	0	1	10	0	1
1938	California (10)	6	1	0	10	1	0
	USC ^ (6)	6	1	0	9	2	0
1939	USC (7)	5	0	2	8	0	2
1940	Stanford (8)	7	0	0	10	0	0
1941	Oregon State	7	2	0	8	2	0
1942	UCLA (2)	6	1	0	7	4	0
1943	USC (8)	5	0	0	8	2	0
1944	USC (9)	3	0	2	8	0	2
1945	USC (10)	5	1	0	7	4	0
1946	UCLA (3)	7	0	0	10	1	0
1947	USC (11)	6	0	0	7	2	1
1948	California ^ (11)	6	0	0	10	1	0
	Oregon (5)	7	0	0	9	2	0
1949	California (12)	7	0	0	10	1	0
1950	California (13)	5	0	1	9	1	1
1951	Stanford (9)	6	1	0	9	2	0
1952	USC (12)	6	0	0	10	1	0
1953	UCLA (4)	6	1	0	8	2	0
1954	UCLA (5)	6	0	0	9	0	0
1955	UCLA (6)	6	0	0	9	2	0
1956	Oregon State (2)	6	1	1	7	3	1
1957	Oregon State (3)	6	2	0	8	2	0
	Oregon ^ (6)	6	2	0	7	4	0
1958	California (14)	6	1	0	7	4	0

^ Denotes PCC representative in Rose Bowl for shared conference championships

• Bold denotes national champion recognition

Baseball

The PCC adopted a divisional format for baseball in 1923, with the same alignment that it used for basketball. Briefly, the conference also included the St. Mary's Gaels.

Season	Conference
1916	CAL
1917	CAL
1918	ORE
1919	WASH
1920	CAL
1921	CAL
1922	WASH
Season	North	South
1923	WASH	CAL
Season	Conference
1924	CAL
Season	North	South
1925	WASH	STAN
1926	WASH	CAL
Season	North	CIBA
1927	WSU	STM
1928	ORE/WSU	STM
1929	WASH	CAL
1930	WASH	USC
1931	WASH	STAN
1932	WASH	USC
1933	WSU	CAL
1934	ORE	CAL
1935	ORE	CAL/USC
1936	WSU	USC
1937	ORE	CAL
1938	OSU/WSU	CAL
1939	ORE	USC/STM
1940	OSU	STM
1941	ORE	CAL/STM
1942	ORE	USC
1943	ORE/OSU	**CAL/USC
1944	WSU	UCLA
1945	WSU	CAL
1946	ORE	USC
1947	WSU	CAL/USC
1948	WSU	USC*
1949	WSU	USC*
1950	WSU*	STAN
1951	OSU	USC*
1952	OSU*	USC
1953	ORE	STAN*
1954	ORE*	USC
1955	ORE	USC*
1956	WSU*	USC
1957	ORE	CAL*/USC
1958	OSU	USC*
1959	WASH	USC*

*denotes Pacific Coast Conference playoff champion
**California won the CIBA Division 1 and USC won CIBA Division 2. California won the whole division title by beating USC in the CIBA playoff

• Bold indicates National Champion

Commissioners

• Herb Dana, 193x–1940
• Edwin N. Atherton, 1940–1944
• Victor O. Schmidt, 1944–1959
• Bernie Hammerbeck (acting), 1959

See also

• List of defunct college football conferences
• California Intercollegiate Baseball Association

References

1. (Portland) Oregon Daily Journal. December 3, 1915. "Four Colleges Form Coast Conference at Very Secret Session"
2. "Coast colleges name Atherton boss". Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. January 6, 1940. p. 10.
3. "Edwin Atherton, Coast football czar, dies". Berkeley Daily Gazette. United Press. September 1, 1944. p. 11.
4. "Coast schools appoint new commissioner". Milwaukee Journal. Associated Press. September 2, 1944. p. 2, part 2. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
5. "Montana Accepted As Member of Skyline Eight". Independent Record . Helena, Montana. AP. June 11, 1950. p. 12. Retrieved January 5, 2020– via newspapers.com.
6. John R. Thelin (18 November 1996). Games Colleges Play: Scandal and Reform in Intercollegiate Athletics. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 1–. ISBN   978-1-4214-0391-5.
7. Ronald Austin Smith; Ronald A. Smith (2011). Pay for Play: A History of Big-Time College Athletic Reform. University of Illinois Press. pp. 125–. ISBN   978-0-252-03587-6.
8. Kerr, Clark (2001). The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949–1967, Volume 1. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 154–155. ISBN   9780520223677 . Retrieved 16 February 2019.
9. "When the Pacific Coast Conference was dissolved". Eugene Register-Guard. 2 March 1960. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
10. Written at Portland, OR. "Stanford, U. C. Tie for 1924 Coast Gridiron Title, Says Conference". San Francisco Bulletin . San Francisco. United Press. December 12, 1924. Retrieved December 9, 2024. The Pacific Coast intercollegiate football conference today decided upon assignment of the Schwabacher trophy, emblematic of the Coast championship. California and Stanford wil each hold the torphy for six months, a flip of the coin to determine which team shall have it first.
11. "Coast Season Ends with Four-Way Tie". The Oregonian . December 2, 1929. Retrieved December 9, 2024. The Pacific coast conference football season ended last week with four teams, Southern California, Stanford, California, and Oregon tied for first place.
12. Leiser, William (December 18, 1929). "Move to Open Grid Season Earlier Killed By Conference". The San Francisco Examiner . Retrieved December 9, 2024. The 1929 football championship was officially designated a four-way tie between Oregon, California, Stanford and USC.