50 Fun Facts About UCLA

What are UCLA's official school colours?

Cardinal and gold belong to the crosstown rival; the fight songs are 'Sons of Westwood' and 'Mighty Bruins'.

In what year did the Los Angeles State Normal School become the Southern Branch of the University of California?

That made it the second UC campus after Berkeley; the Southern Branch opened that September with 250 junior-college students and 1,250 teacher trainees.

Before Westwood, the campus was on Vermont Avenue in East Hollywood, on land now occupied by what?

The school moved there in 1914 and had outgrown its 25 acres by the mid-1920s.

The Janss Steps are named for the brothers who sold the Westwood land for how much?

The developers Edwin and Harold Janss knew a university would lift the value of everything they owned around it.

The Westwood campus opened to students in which year?

The first classes were held with 5,500 students in four buildings arranged around a quad.

Which of these was one of the four original buildings around the Westwood quad?

The others were Royce Hall, the College Library (now Powell) and the Physics-Biology Building, now Kaplan Hall.

The twin towers of Royce Hall reference which famous Italian church?

The building is Lombard Romanesque, a style chosen over Collegiate Gothic to suit the Mediterranean-like climate.

Royce Hall is named after Josiah Royce, who was what?

He was California-born and took his bachelor's degree at Berkeley in 1875.

The 'Bruins' nickname was offered to the Southern Branch by the student council of which school?

Berkeley's teams were the Golden Bears; the offer came after UCLA joined the Pacific Coast Conference in 1926.

The earliest known UCLA mascot, found by a gardener in 1917, was what?

The school rented live bears in the 1930s, including a Himalayan cub called Little Joe who was sent to a circus when he grew too big.

What are the names of UCLA's costumed bear mascots?

The fight songs are 'Sons of Westwood' and 'Mighty Bruins'; the alma mater is 'Hail to the Hills of Westwood'.

For fall 2022 UCLA received how many undergraduate applications, the most of any US university?

The exact figure was 174,914, including transfers.

The first ARPANET message was sent from UCLA in 1969 to which institution?

The system crashed after two letters, so the first transmitted characters were 'lo'.

That first ARPANET connection was made from a computer in room 3420 of which UCLA building?

The machine was an SDS Sigma 7, and the network's very first node was run from that building.

Which UCLA professor developed packet-network theory and hosted the ARPANET's first node?

His students Steve Crocker and Jon Postel went on to write the network's early protocols.

Bunche Hall is named for the UCLA alumnus who won the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for what?

A bust of Ralph Bunche at the entrance looks out over the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden.

As of 2025, how many Nobel laureates does UCLA count among its faculty and alumni?

Also 11 Rhodes scholars, 10 astronauts, 3 Turing Award winners and 7 Pulitzer winners.

UCLA pharmacologist Louis Ignarro shared the 1998 Nobel for discovering the signalling role of which molecule?

The gas turned out to be one of the most important molecules in cardiopulmonary physiology.

UCLA's medical school is named after which entertainment mogul?

The health system's flagship hospital is named after Ronald Reagan.

The Bruins joined which athletic conference after the Pac-12 broke up?

The move put a Los Angeles school in a conference that was for a century a Midwestern institution.

As of 2026, UCLA's 126 NCAA team championships trailed only which school?

The Bruins were the first school to reach 100 NCAA titles, when the women's water polo team won in 2007.

How many Olympic gold medals had Bruins won as of the university's count of 284 total medals?

UCLA has had a gold medallist at every Olympics the US has attended since 1932.

Where do the Bruins play their home games on the gridiron?

The team's only national title came in 1954, when rules kept it out of a Rose Bowl showdown with Ohio State.

How many NCAA men's basketball titles did John Wooden win at UCLA?

All in a 12-year span from 1964 to 1975, including a record seven in a row; Jim Harrick added an 11th in 1995.

What was John Wooden's nickname?

His teams also set a men's college record with 88 consecutive wins.

John Wooden was the first person inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in which two categories?

As a college guard he had been the first three-time All-American; his 'Pyramid of Success' became a business-school staple.

Where did John Wooden play his own college basketball?

His 1932 team was retroactively named national champion by the Helms Foundation.

Which architect designed Pauley Pavilion (1965) and shaped much of the modern campus?

The regent Edwin Pauley matched the alumni's contributions to get it built; the arena was renovated in 2010-12.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played at UCLA under what name?

His arrival as a sophomore All-American in 1967 relaunched the Bruins' dynasty.

How many times has the UCLA men's basketball team finished a season undefeated, an NCAA record?

In 1964, 1967, 1972 and 1973; the program also holds the record of 11 NCAA titles.

The Victory Bell contested with USC originally came from what?

The alumni association gave it to students in 1939; USC's Trojan Knights stole it in 1941 and the game has decided its owner ever since.

After each rivalry game the Victory Bell's mounting is repainted in the winner's colour. UCLA's is what?

The bell itself is brass; UCLA's official colours are true blue and gold.

Jackie Robinson, a four-sport athlete at UCLA, was best known there for which sport?

He later broke Major League Baseball's colour barrier, but at Westwood he was a star running back.

Arthur Ashe won the 1965 NCAA singles title for UCLA and the doubles too. Who was his doubles partner?

The New Zealander and Ashe helped the Bruins take the team title the same year.

Which director of The Godfather graduated from UCLA's film school in 1967?

The film school also produced Jim Morrison, and the Doors, Linkin Park and Maroon 5 all formed among UCLA students.

UCLA's oldest tradition, an annual gala of student talent, is called what?

It is staged at Pauley Pavilion or the outdoor tennis centre; the Beat 'SC bonfire is the other big rite.

By the end of 2025, how many national titles had UCLA men's volleyball won?

The men's water polo team had 13 titles through 2024 and once won 52 straight matches, an NCAA record.

The all-male a cappella group Bruin Harmony appeared as a college group in which 2010 film?

The ScatterTones, another campus group, finished second at the international collegiate championship three years running.

In which year did the Regents rename the Southern Branch 'University of California at Los Angeles'?

The same year the state broke ground in Westwood.

UCLA's first library, now Powell Library, was founded in which year?

Lawrence Powell became librarian in 1944 and later the first dean of the library school.

Which football coach redesigned UCLA's uniforms in 1949, adding the shoulder 'UCLA Stripe'?

He also lightened the navy to a baby blue he dubbed 'Powder Keg Blue', reasoning it would look better on the field and on film.

Under what name was UCLA's student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, founded in 1919?

It grew into Los Angeles' third-most circulated newspaper and took two National Pacemaker Awards in 2016. The Westwood Enabler is the campus satire paper.

What is the title of UCLA's alma mater song?

Sons of Westwood and Mighty Bruins are the two fight songs; the alma mater is the slower, reverent one sung at the end of games.

Which team ended UCLA's record 88-game men's basketball winning streak on 19 January 1974?

The streak had begun in 1971. UCLA had earlier snapped a 60-game home winning run by the same rival in South Bend, and the two met 42 times between 1966 and 1995.

Who beat the two-time defending champion varsity in the first game at Pauley Pavilion in 1965?

The freshmen won 75-60 on 27 November 1965 behind a 31-point, 21-rebound debut from a young centre later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Pauley Pavilion was the venue for which sport at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics?

Mary Lou Retton won the all-around there, the first Olympic gymnast from outside Eastern Europe to do so.

Which Bruin quarterback won the Heisman Trophy, the school's first and only winner of the award?

That made UCLA the first school with top winners in football and basketball in the same year, as its star centre was also named national player of the year.

Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce, all UCLA class of 1990, founded which company?

The trio went on to build the Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo franchises. Riot Games was founded by USC graduates.

Which future Nixon chief of staff led the fundraising campaign to build Pauley Pavilion?

The drive raised a million dollars, which Regent Edwin W. Pauley matched, earning the arena his name at its June 1965 dedication.

Which quarterly Finals Week tradition has UCLA students running across campus in their underwear?

It happens on the Wednesday evening of Finals Week. Midnight Scream is a different ritual: students yell as loudly as they can at midnight to release exam stress.