On Having Both a Great Chancellor and Great AD
by Bruinut on Nov 2, 2011 5:50 AM PDT
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Print-Bumped. BN Eds.
From the Department of Redundancy Department, I apologize for repeating myself. I had commented on a thread that had been inactive for a few days, and has since withered on the vine.
I repeat it here, because it's germane to the topic of (we hope) selecting a new HC and AD. Mine had been a response to a poster who posited that having a Chancellor who was a sports fan was not essential to having a top-flight football program. For Bruinsnation, a place that cherishes the four letters, you will love the excerpt below in which Murphy, single-handedly, puts the four letters on the map.
I don't mean to canonize Murphy and Morgan, or to demonize Block and Guerrero. All are human, and none are perfect. But, the football results speak for themselves.
The Chancellor in my years was one Franklin Murphy. I think that Murphy was a bit of a sports fan, but more importantly, he took great pride in the institution and the four letters that symbolize it. Among his many accomplishments, Murphy put J. D. Morgan in charge of UCLA’s troubled sports program precisely because he was a sports guy who also had business acumen.
”We needed a competent business person who also knew something about athletics and [had an] abiding interest in sports,” Murphy would later reflect.
Among his accomplishments, Murphy:
... played important roles in the realization of Pauley Pavilion, the establishment of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, and the passage of the 1962, 1964, and 1966 bond issues which provided UCLA with $95,000,000 in construction funds...
As for Morgan, he didn't sit on his hands, either.
As associate business manager, Morgan was instrumental in arranging the financing for several major campus building projects, including Ackerman Student Union and the four high-rise residence halls.
As UCLA’s new director of intercollegiate athletics, Morgan – previously the associate university business manager and men’s tennis coach – would soon revitalize the sports program, catapult Bruin teams into the national spotlight, and ultimately redefine UCLA athletics as a model looked to by universities across the country.
Murphy’s best contribution may have been his attitude. When he left being Dean of the Kansas University Medical School and Chancellor of University of Kansas to become UCLA’s Chancellor, he did it whole hog. UCLA was neither a stepping stone, nor a final hurrah. He threw himself into being Chancellor, wielding tremendous pride in the four letters, and he expected everyone "underneath" him to do the same. To further show this pride, I offer one final excerpt from the book The Culture Broker: Franklin D. Murphy and the Transformation of Los Angeles.
It infuriated Murphy every time he called his office and heard the operator announce, "University of California, Los Angeles Branch." In short order, he instructed the campus operators to say instead, "Thank you for calling UCLA." "From now on out," Murphy told his staff, "everything around here is UCLA. We will make those four letters just as visible and indelible as MIT." When a Berkely administrator complained, Murphy snapped, "I authorized it. And make it quite clear to everybody up there that if I can’t authorize the telephone operators to identify the institution, I sure as hell shouldn’t stay at UCLA because it would be my belief that my authority is zero." Almost overnight, stationery, signs, and campus vehicles were inscribed with a new insignia: the four block letters "UCLA."
No, having the ardent support of a Chancellor isn’t absolutely crucial. And, having an AD with a keen business sense may seem incidental. But, boy, wouldn’t someone like Murphy and Morgan be a good fit now?
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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That last blockquote is epic
I didn’t know that story nut. That is awesome and incredibly relevant to so many macro discussions we have had over years re. the branding of our school and its athletic programs. Thank you so much for sharing this. Learned something new today about U—-C—-L—-A.
Speaking of Branding ...
… what’s the deal with our students’ and cheerleaders’ shortened “Let’s go, L.A.!” when shown on close-ups during football or basketball time-outs or other dead-ball situations? When was this deemed acceptable?
There’s a reason why we refer to them as The Four Letters.
Maybe they think that because of the geography, being in the southern part of the state, they should just cheer for Southern Cal.
This is wrong, and another thing to go on the “to do” list of our new Athletic Director. We are no longer the Southern Campus even if that’s the name of the yearbook.
Many of the younger people aren’t going to like this, but in my administration, the L in the eight clap is going to be “L” and not “LLLLLLLLLLL.” Sorry, but it’s not correct. If you have to have a long, drawn out L, you can of course do it, but you have to invent a new yell. It’s now UZLA or UBLA, it’s UCLA, We don’t change the letters or the way we say the letters. In my administration as Athletic Director.
Excellent post
And it goes to show what can be done when the people in charge have the right vision. Murphy and Morgan may have been the most dynamic Chancellor/AD duo in the history of college sports. I can’t think of any other combo that stood over the establishment of an absolute sports dynasty. We need that kind of spirit back in Westwood.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
The Murphy / Morgan tandem worked for UCLA as well as .....
Wisconsin’s Shalala / Alvarez did in the nineties and beyond.
Donna Shalala is an associate of Bill & Hillary Clinton, a high profile lobbyist from some Washington institute when Bill tapped her as his Secretary of Health & Human Services. When University of Wisconsin hired her away from the beltway, its football & basketball programs, except ice hockey, caught her attention. Athletic achievements can coexist with academic accomplishments. Charles young thought so too. As a rabid sports fan, Shalala made it one of her institutional priorities in Madison to upgrade & promote sports programs to be on par with Madison’s academic reputations within the Big Ten Conference and nationally.
By and large, she succeeded when she left after a few years for greener pasture. Barry Alvarez became Big Ten Conference’s winningest coach for post season Bowl victories during his tenure. We know well what happened when UCLA went toe to toe with Badgers. Stanford found it out too.
Last year’s Horned Frogs got lethal fangs. They bested the Badgers.
Anyway, the glittery, state of the art Kohl Center, financed by a huge donation from Democratic Senator Herbert Kohl, owner of Kohl’s, Milwaukee Bucks & other radio stations in Wisconsin, also facilitated the emergence of Badger basketball after years of mediocrity, cowered especially by those physical Hoosiers during Bobby Knight’s heydays, reign of terror perhaps knowing his character demons and fanatical coaching style.
Basketball recruiting then rides the coattail of the football successes. I remember Badgers made it to the Final Four one year in the nineties, when Lavinoma severely gripped and hampered UCLA basketball. As a Wisconsin alum, besides being UCLA graduate, I had to wonder how they would belong.
Alvarez is now the Athletic Director. Badger football continues to fare well under his successor. But I must say he probably heard more than an earful from Alvarez after last Saturday’s blindsides from Ohio State.
UCLA, my other " lover " , can duplicate, if not exceed Wisconsin’s experience of athletic rebirth. Over the years, Madison’s academic achievements never decline nor suffer when compared with the parallel achievements of its athletics. To me, it never has to come down to either sports or academics. Duke’s perennial basketball dominance never impacts its academic reputations. It really comes down to the person UC system hires for its chancellor. Carnesale, Block came from the same mold. Just relax, Mr. Chancellor. Athletic excellence never dims the light of an institution’s stellar profile in academics.
As of this writing, Shalala is back at her game again, attempting to right the scandal plagued football program of Miami while promoting its moribund academics. This lady is tough. She is not Hillary Clinton’s pal, or some say soul mate for chump change. I am not saying when Block leaves, UCLA should dispatch a private jet to pick up Donna Shalala from Miami. The mindset & beliefs of our chancellor is the key.
Uh, No Thanks on Shalala
With all due respect 005, your facts are not quite right and Donna Shalala would be a terrible choice for UCLA.
And, your chronology is off.
First, the facts on Shalala and the UW athletic department. Yes, she was the Chancellor at UW when Alvarez was hired as the football coach but he was the product of a very well done search spearheaded by the then athletic director Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch. Shalala went to the Clinton administration from Wisconsin; she did not go to Wisconsin from the beltway. She went to Miami after leaving politics. I’m not sure when Alvarez became athletic director, but I think it was after she left. The basketball team began its resurgence while playing in the “old gym” which was an incredible place. It was the hiring of some great coaches like Bennet and Ryan, rather than the facility, that was the key factor.
I taught at the UW while Shalala was the Chancellor. She was not necessarily respected — for good reason. To many of us, she was all about self-promotion and short on principle. Can you say “politically correct”? Can you imagine a university where the chancellor pushes restrictions on the freedom of speech, for both faculty and students both inside the classroom and outside of it? Or, disregards votes of the student body and faculty senate to challenge the right of ROTC and military recruiters to discriminate against gays and lesbians?
My university is a great university that was a part of the original free speech movement and has found a place for diversity AND freedom of thought and expression. We would be taking a step backwards by hiring her.
And, by the way, Shalala is not the crusader brought in to clean up the Miami program. She was the chancellor of Miami during the years when the program was corrupt — and she looked the other way. To call her a reformer is to call Lame a reformer. It can’t be done.
So, let’s not fire up the jets and send them her way.
We can do much better.
sjh
Re: " ....... part of the original free speech movement ..... " Class of 66
Remember Madison’s Mayor Paul Soglin ?
He was one of the guest speakers in my graduate seminar, just a blunt, vintage anti establishment person representative of that era before my time at Wisconsin. He regaled us with tales of how they fought, or in his word, toyed with the Madison police & national guards during those tumultuous days. The last quarter issue of ONWisconsin alumni magazine carried pictures of those student riots too.
You can say the Kohl Center put the icing on the cake for Badgers’ basketball.
Last February, when I flew back to Madison’s frozen landscape for my friend’s wedding anniversary, I ran right into Bob Knight & his media entourage at Dane County airport. He was also in town, doing color commentary for a Badger game the next day.
Speaking of the devil, really. We waved and said " Hi Bobby ". Now he didn’t grab any of our arms, bare his teeth and demand that we call him coach. You know that was the episode, or the last straw if you will, that prompted the late Myles Brand, Indiana’s president to summarily dismiss him after the zero tolerance policy on Knight took effect. I hope I did not get the chronology wrong there now. He was pleasant, low key and chatted us up. I told him I was both Badger & Bruin. You know what he said ? " Oh, the more the merrier. "
It’s nice to have a fellow badger to chat with on BN.
The Resurection of Madison Football and Stuff
Paul Soglin was a third year law student and on the committee that interviewed me when I was hired to teach at the law school. He went on to become a very good mayor. Interestingly, during his terms, Madison hired a very progressive, forward thinking police chief, David Cooper, whose vision of “community based policing” helped diminish the conflicts between the kids and the cops. The demonstrations continued but without the tension that had led to confrontations in the past.
Wisconsin always supported its football team — win or lose. When I first got there it was “lose”, and often lose ugly. But, the Saturday rituals were always the same. Fill the streets and follow the marching bad to fill the on campus stadium. There was tailgating in the parking lot (nothing rivals the tailgating available at the Rose Bowl BUT I would trade that for an on campus stadium any day). And, then the game. Which Wisconsin usually lost. However, the stadium literally rocked — especially when the band played the “Bud Song” the last line of which was changed to “… when you say Wisconsin, you’ve said it all”.
Wisconsin was not a recruiting powerhouse — primarily farm kids and some from the Chicago area. But, when Alvarez took over, they began to play as a team and beyond their talent level. Great coaching with good talent turned the program around.
Wisconsin has never been a “rich” state. In fact, it has been in financial decline for many years, many many more than the UC system. The strong union made industrial base started to crumble in the 70’s as employers fled to the south and its anti-labor laws. The term “rust belt” refers to the industrial wasteland that accompanied the move.
So, wihtout a lot of money, and without all of the cache that is UCLA, a strong coach with a good staff — one that could get the talent to play to and above its “potential”, a team that was hard and disciplined (there is something to say for kids who’ve worked in the barn all their lives as opposed to kids drawn by Hollywood lights) Wisconsin elevated its football program to become what it is, today.
Fan support is legendary. Ask any of us who went to the two Rose Bowls in which Wisconsin beat us. Our stadium was filled with their Red. Obviously, our alum’s treated it as a time to scalp tickets. Theirs as a way to support a team.
-005, Wisconsin is a great example for us. We disagree on the role of the Chancellor, but not on the fact that a school can turn around a moribund program with the right coach and AD AND a supportive culture that also includes great facilities, AND a very strong fan base that is rabid and committed for the long haul.
sjh
Wow, all that insightful perspective from a fellow Bruin / Badger fan
If you also receive ONWisconsin magazine quarterly, check the inside front page of the winter issue. It was a panoramic picture of red clad badger fans holding rallies at Santa Monica pier last December 31.
Just like what you said, the fan base & its unyielding support of its team is always phenomenal. I wrote the editor. He printed my letter in the summer issue.
I lived through five of those fervent football weekend years in Madison while pursuing my PHD in educational administration. Alvarez trumps our coaches in every aspects of the game day and night. If you were there with Dave McClain, then you know the rapid turnaround in Badger football started with him. When Wisconsin beat Michigan & Ohio State all in one season, it literally floored me.
Elvis Priesley has not left the building after all.
Wisconsin is never a rich state by any means, knowing what I know. Apparently both football and basketball coaches have the right mix of players from within state and out of state selectively, as you alluded, to play their brand of diligent, no thrill yet effective games to be so competitive over the last two decades.
When the Bruins played well, they dazzled with flashy athleticism. But look at Toledo’s team against Miami, and our two Rose Bowl losses. A stark contrast appeared. Guess you and I, and many here at BN know the issues.
I love Westwood and I love Madison no less. The formative years I spent at both places made me what I am today, professionally & intellectually.
UCLA is due for a drastic overhaul. There is not a shred of doubt about it.
Lessons to Be Learned from Rebuilding the Badgers
There are some lessons that we can learn from how Alvarez rebuilt his Badger team — without a lot of money or highly touted recruits.
First, he built the O and D lines — with local farm fed big, tough kids. It has been years since we had tough lines.
Then, he made sure that everyone, no matter the position, played sound football. Wisconsin blocked, tackled, and caught the ball; fumbles were minimized. Special teams became special. Just really sound fundamentals — nothing flashy.
As Wisconsin got better, Alvarez was able to recruit some special players at the skill posiitions. And, now, he is attracting some very special players.
He has done all of this in a small market (great but not glitzy college town — in my eyes one of the best in the country rivaling Ann Arbor and Austin) but one that turns rather cold in winter.
A great coach/teacher, a true vision, a recruiting plan that filled needs, players that bought in, team play, pride and a dose of wackiness that Madison provides =s success.
Money is not the only factor in success.
sjh
I knew somehow someone would bring this up.
Most NCAA west coast teams have swift tailbacks, running backs agile in physique, capable of sudden, quick bursts of speed that tear through opposing teams’ defensive line much like deers running through the bushes. Weight is not their advantage, nor firepower for conquests on the field.
Wisconsin, and for that matter other Big 10 Conference teams, notably Ohio State during Woody Hayes’ years, do have heavy set players because of the conference tradition in playing running game. Running backs are not so much fleet but rotund. They primarily rely on brute strengths to barrow through the defensive line, daylight be darned.
Ron Dayne is a prototype of another Buckeye running back in the 70’s, a two time Heismen trophy winner that flopped in the pros. The name escapes me. NFL’s diverse plays and sophisticated strategies obviously cannot quite accomodate such one dimensional players operating like big, steady going farm tractors that flattened everything in their way.
Yet in college games, even now, these are some of the most lethal weapons coaches deploy, if they can find some with decent football skills but immense strength & velocity when they run.
Defensive linemen fell like bowling pins, utterly trampled and vanquished when Ron Dayne came at them.
Power Running Team
When RN tells us he wants us to be a “power running team”, I think of those Big 10 teams — big farm kid lines and big tough backs grinding out the ball, straight ahead, smash mouth football. Need a yard or three, straight up the middle for it. We are not built for that type of football.
I guess his “power running team” idea is the pistol, built more on speed and deception - a great read and fake- than smash mouth. That’f fine with me if we have the talent and teaching to pull it off.
Of course, Wisconsin evolved into a much more sophisticated team with a great passing game built on solid protection from the line, receivers who could create distance and catch the ball, QB’s who could throw, and a running game strong enough to keep things balanced and move the ball when necessary.
We actually have many of the pieces to necessary for the resurrection we just lack the culture and coaches to do so. And, Wi has had great AD’s for many, many years.
Think about it. Think about a state school in a terrible economy with funding issues worse than the UC’s, a very small recruiting base, competition from a very strong conference — what made the difference? Culture, coaching and the athletic department.
005, I’m so glad you brought up Wisconsin because for years I’ve been thinking that UW is the best example of what we can do with the right people in charge.
sjh
We lack fundamentals and discipline
Wisconsin has it. We don’t. They have a core foundation which we don’t.
On behalf of 66 & myself, thank you Nestor ....
for your compliments of my alma mater & 66’s previous employer, UW – Madison’s Law school.
66, am I saying it right ?
I marveled at Wisconsin’s fervent fan base, unyielding allegiance to its team in my letter to ONWisconsin alumni magazine. Nobody, really, left Kohl Center a second before the game ends, win or lose. Camp Randall Stadium’s raucous crowds rocked and danced with players and band members each home game.
Some of us, at least my spouse and me plus several, stopped by Old Town Pasadena to mingle, not vent or commiserate these past two seasons.
Yes, UCLA & its Bruin pride can achieve it too. Charles Young was always at the sidelines. Didn’t he ? Not to repeat myself here, he stood with Neuheisel midfield after that memorable game as fans and the media mobbed the latter.
I was one of those that wanted a piece of this magnificent Bruin quarterback too.
Where is Dr. Block ? Where was Dr. Carnesale ? Maybe there were receptions at the chancellor’s residence but I hope they knew their university’s team needed their presence & support against other conference teams. Bruin pride means athletic achievements & academic excellence.
Torn between two lovers does not aptly describe my plight. They are both important in my heart.
Yeah, now the name comes up.
They honored him at a game in Columbus a few seasons back.
I can’t remember the occasion but Archie Griffin appeared with Ron Dayne at some pregame ceremony in Madison last year. They think they are both spokesperson for some organization for kids with diabetes foundation.
On the pictures my friends emailed me. They looked mirror image of each other, exceptionally broad shouldered, hulky. Think of Shaquille O’Neil a foot and a half shorter.
Reading all the other posts gives me so much more detail about UCLA’s athletic traditions long before I boarded the Northwest flight bound for LAX to begin my undergraduate program in Westwood.
It really is the synapsis of Bruin pride. Come on Dr. Block, log on to BN here and read them yourself.
This is something we must explore
Just like what you said, the fan base & its unyielding support of its team is always phenomenal
The BN community has bought in. How do we get the rest of the U.C.L.A. community to become this invested? And not even with agreeing with our ideas here, but at least sharing that same passion?
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
You know, something tells me it has to do, in some way, with.....
regional culture.
Tell me I am wrong but UCLA’s student demographics differed so much from Wisconsin’s. I made many friends there during my grad school years, and also interacted well with undergraduates that took my professor’s course when I worked as his teaching assistant.
Not to say who is better & who is not, but my perception told me that given the same situation on campus, whatever it was, I could just see myself or students at UCLA respond differently than those at Madison’s and vice versa. This is the best I can tell you.
You know I heard the refrain about " when California goes, so goes the rest of the country. " Definitely something has got to do with our society here in Los Angeles, America’s second largest, rather ethnically diverse city as opposed to a midwestern campus town situated between Lake Monona & Mondota, geographically called isthmus.
Students’ voice counts little in Westwood. That is true & unfortunate, mind boggling to say the least. These are university’s clientele. Even deep pocket alums once were students too. But it seems like only adults with deep pockets have a say in school or sports governance.
Again, it starts from the leadership and its politics. Both Block & Carnesale came from elitist, ivy league intellectual background. They are the type that can further burnish UCLA’s already stellar academic reputations, if this is university regents’ ultimate goal. But at the end of the day, UCLA is UCLA where athletic achievements & academic excellence parallels each other.
At the risk of being superficial
here’s my hunch:
The midwest kids come from predominantly small towns, many from farms. Many have worked hard all their lives — especially the farm kids — and don’t come with a sense of entitlement or a feeling that they have a “right” to be entertained.
Madison is a true college town — in the same sense that Austin is. The town has two focal points — the university and government. There are no professional teams and no cross town competition. So, Badger sports are really a very big deal. The Badger constituency is the entire state (unlike California schools that have many big time sports schools that divide the state into regional fan bases.) And, although there are two major basketball programs (Marquette is the other), the allegiance to the state school in a state where in state tuition is critical for most of the students to be able to afford to go to college — is very deeply held.
In a like manner, almost all fans in Wisconsin are rabid Packer backers and root for the Brewers and Bucks.
It is a small state unified by a handful of sports teams.
NOW THE BIGGIE: The mission statement of the University of Wisconsin: “The boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state.” This is a university with absolute and true outreach — in every facet of its being — to all the people in the state. It is a way of life in all academic departments AND the athletic department.
Students and the alumni play MEANINGFUL roles in all aspects of the university including sitting on hiring committees AT ALL LEVELS from faculty to Chancellors to athletic directors. There are a lot of student rituals tied to athletics and these create the good memories that fuel alum loyalty.
One of my favorite traditions: During the homecoming football game, the 3rd year law students take the field right before the game. They gather at the midfield line. Each wears a derby and carries a cane. A signal goes off and they run down the field and throw their canes over the goal post — the tradition is that those who catch their canes will win their first cases. It is really a sight to see — especially because many are not sober. Can you imagine our athletic department encouraging and tolerating such an event?
Can we create that sense of community here? I think we can. And, to be honest, I though RN was the perfect person to do it. He really has the charisma to motivate the passion. But, I think he was squelched in part by the failures on the field and by the AD culture that is passionless. (I think it unfair to call out “Morgan Center” because JD Morgan had that passion. Calling out the building that rightfully carries his name does not feel right to me).
Has the time passed us by? I really don’t think so. I know people are tired of hearing me talk about Mike Leach — but the fact is that he rebuilt the culture in Lubbock and rekindled the passion — partially by winning but in great part by reaching out and becoming a part of the community.
Is LA to big to affect? I guess Lubbock, like Madison, is so insulated that it might be easier to capture a critical mass. But, I choose to believe that with the right AD and coach, and a WINNING program, we can get there.
sjh
Fwiw
I’m not tired of hearing you talk about Mike Leach, and I’m especially not tired of hearing you talk about wanting to create for today’s students a college experience as rich, rewarding, and enduring as the one that you had.
Keep talking, I say. The absence of prompt action does not mean that your words are falling on infertile soil. Preach on, brother.
I appreciate your insight, and Htse005 above as well.
Sounds like a similar thing goes on in Nebraska, where the University becomes the face of the state.
And while U.C.L.A. probably won’t be the face of California (size, diversity, north v south, etc…) or maybe even Los Angeles, we need to find a way to make it the face of every Bruin alum. As uclaike wrote about the alums at the meeting with the Chancellor celebrating the Cal victory, there are too many or our alums who lack the passion that we do. And I don’t think we are the ones who are misguided.
greg in denver, U.C.L.A. guy for life - BruinsNation.com
You know, 66, now that you brought it up
Football is the religion of Green Bay. Everyone that attends the game is some sort of a stockholder of the football organization. Tickets are passed on through the generations within their families.
CBS 60 Minutes had several segments on the Packers’ phenomenon over the years. I want its journalists to plan their segments on Pauley Pavilion’s renovation, its history and the significance in NCAA college games too.
My buddy, a dentist, lives just ten minutes from the Holy Shrine, Lambeau Field. Even preseason team practice drew huge crowds outside the training facilities, vying to catch a glimpse of their heroes coming in or going out in their cars.
That stunned me when I visited my buddy and he took me to see the Lombardi Museum & Lambeau Field. Call it fanaticism if you will for us here in California but that intense team spirit & unyielding support of Wisconsinites is just something to be experienced.
The year when Badgers trampled the Bruins, even their red team color at the Rose Bowl completely overshaded the Bruins’ blue and gold in what should have been the latters’ home game. It saddened me to learn later that many UCLA fans sold their tickets rather than attending the game. Last year was no different. I flew back overseas on New Year’s Eve. LAX arrival areas literally draped itself with red, especially United & Delta concourses because they have the most flights coming in from Chicago & Minneapolis, two of the main hub for flights originating from Madison. That says how many badger fans flew in, even at the last minute, to see their team play.
Neuheisel is a good pied piper when it comes to rallying the UCLA fan base. He can turn out fans too had his team’s performance been less distressing. Wolverines & Buckeyes perennially chewed up Badgers before spitting them out in tiny fragments. Yet those fans still frolicked, partied in the aftermath. Lately, their favorite rallying song was " Build Me Up. Buttercup ", a British rock & roll hit from the 60’s I understand.
Can we do that here ? Remember Barry Newman’s " I Love LA " It will be a good fit.
Let’s brainwash Dr. Block in reverse, really. It’s okay we spend big bucks in our coaches and win games on weekends. Professors’, researchers’ dedication towards their scholarly publications, laboratory findings won’t slack. Federal science grants, academic recognitions won’t diminish when student athletes compete victoriously. Their GPA won’t regress either, trust us.
Prompt actions will not materialize at Westwood. That we all understand. But at least the process can begin towards chieving it ultimately. Madison is not the only program, nor the perfect one , for UCLA to emulate. We can do even better.
A note of caution, though. I don’t want our chancellor to be a prototype of Ohio State’s Dr. Gordon Gee. Look at what he said and did before the Buckeye coach Jim Tressel’s dishonest handlings of his star players blew wide open and also after it ultimately caught fire in Columbus. If that is what winning well constitutes, I’d stick with the the Dorell, Neuheisel deal. Mediocrity at least would not cost anybody integrity.
When my son.....
was a student and working for the State Journal as a sports writer, he was asked to be on a committee that was helping to develope student participation for the soon to be opened Kohl Center. The administration wanted students to be involved in decision making for the athletic department.
When the new regime comes on board they must makes the students a top priority. As it stands now, students are second class citizens around Westwood.
I would counter that Alumni are also second class citizens.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi
That was my comment that you responded to
My comment was itself a response to one that started off saying “We have to go higher than sleepwalker DG and nervous RN, because the big C doesn’t care so much about sports.”
My point was just that calling for Block’s resignation/termination was not a reasonable thing to do at this juncture, because his primary responsibility is academics. And if he doesn’t really care about athletics, then he should put somebody in charge of athletics who cares and is empowered to do these things.
I’m not really a fan of Block, and a lot of that has to do with some institutional stuff at large. I believe some of that does indeed bleed into athletics. But ultimately, I don’t think our efforts should be focused at him right now, which is all I was responding to. Getting a good AD is what matters right now – failure to do that would rest squarely on his head.
Do I wish we had a Murphy/Morgan mindset right now? Absolutely. But I’m not quite ready to divert my efforts to going after Block. That’s all I was trying to convey in my post.
Fair point
and please understand: I’m not trying to single you out or to revive an old argument. I think we agree right down the line on what UCLA needs. Your original comment wasn’t the butt of my comment then or now; it just reminded me of this story.
My point in reposting the comment here was (1) to publicize that lovely Murphy anecdote, and (2) to show what can be done with, as tasser says, a dynamic duo of C and AD.
I hesitate whenever I think of posting some story from “the good old days,” because I can almost see readers rolling their eyes and thinking “There he goes again…” :-)
Given the awful job UCLA has done ...
…as an institution to promote and preserve our athletic tradition, the more important than ever to do what we can to take note on our own.
by Nestor on Oct 31, 2011 3:40 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Absolutely not!
Talking about the good old days is how we establish tradition. And UCLA has been piss poor at promoting the UCLA football tradition to the point where people didn’t know we had one. It’s sad that we have to remind people how much winning UCLA Football used to do. We didn’t create our expectations out of thin air. And if UCLA is not careful, the UCLA Football brand will die out.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Yep
Not respecting our past history enables people to incrementally lower our standards. It enables to lowering standards of expetations of winning the conference titles in football to just remain “relevant” and getting into sh!tty bowl games.
by Nestor on Oct 31, 2011 4:02 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
I appreciate the "Let's hear it" sentiment
As a parent who has generated a good amount of eye-rolling in my kids over the years, I have come to anticipate eye-rolling symptoms. For that matter, I remember well the eye-rolling that I, myself, did when an oldster started in on me with the “when I was your age” routine. I guess I’m a bit gun-shy.
Oh, no offense taken
I didn’t feel singled out. I totally appreciate your post, and wholeheartedly agree. Just wanted to clarify what I was getting at with my other post (since I missed your response the first time).
Like you said, we’re in agreement on the long-term needs here. And that is quite a Murphy anecdote… I’m glad to have reminded you of it. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Nut
That’s the kind of attitude we need in our new athletic director. Can you see Guerrerror saying something like that to anyone?
Regarding JD...
Great post, especially the last Murphy quote. When I was there we had Chuck Young, who did care about sports.
But JD had minuses that sometimes fatefully overshadowed his pluses. (FYI, he was the assistant tennis coach when my father played for the freshman team with Groucho’s son Arthur Marx, and no one on the team liked JD.)
1. He hired Pepper Rodgers who had a losing record at Kansas. Pepper’s first season was the absolute worst since I started following UCLA in the early Sixties. Then he directed a we-can’t-possibly-pass offense that ran up tons of yards and then got bombed by Michigan and (twice) SC because, well, they couldn’t pass. Not that he didn’t have the opportunity, but he kept Sciarra on the bench behind Mark Harmon, a nice guy and fine actor.
2. He hired Gene Bartow who I believe had a losing record at Illinois after holding Bill Walton to 21-of-22 shooting at Memphis. This was instead of picking Louisville’s Final Four coach, Denny Crum, who Coach Wooden specifically recommended for the job. JD didn’t want any coach who might be at all assertive, so Denny won 2 NCAAs and is in the Hall of Fame, whereas Bartow managed to lose to Idaho State in the tournament before splitting.
Hiring the right coaches
is a lot harder than giving them facilities that will help them succeed.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
I love this post because ...
in it Nut sheds light on the experiences that were UCLA when us geezers went to school. One recurring theme from us old people is that we want you young’uns to understand that there was a time when things were done right, when we were both a football and basketball school, when we were an academic and sports powerhouse and did not tolerate mediocrity in any segment of the university’s mission.
As to JD, yes, he may have made a bad hiring choice or two, but he made some outstanding hires, too — and built a very sound foundation for all of our programs. He was a strong leader who was visible, approachable, and accountable.
sjh
And I loved the way he pontificated the enunciation of "Jooooohhhhhnnnnn Robbbbeeerrt Woooooodddddennnnn"
It took him about a minute to get the name out.
If he was also
a sidler, then it might have been disturbing…
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Thanks, 66
We’ve talked often about balancing athletics with academics, and how UCLA needn’t compromise one for the other. Another balancing act that any good administrator has to perform is to weigh both academics and athletics with the business side of a university.
In remembering and researching J. D. Morgan, one is struck by his sharp business intellect. It made good business sense to him for UCLA to field world-class athletic teams, while not compromising academics.
And, that’s the part that baffles me most in looking at the current UCLA picture. To me, it looks ridiculously obvious that UCLA football is a platinum business opportunity for the taking. Why in the world wouldn’t UCLA see the obvious and make sure its football facilities, staff, and teams are all first-rate? It makes such good business sense, after all.
Why don’t we? Beats me.
Talking about JD Morgan now
Would KIki Vandeweghe have the acumen, managerial skills & experience, not to mention the stature of being a former UCLA All American to be the type of AD we need ?
Is he still NJ Net’s GM ? He was at Denver too. The only knock against him is football because basketball has been his life thus far.
Nice suggestion
One of the more thoughtful ones I’ve seen so far.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Thanks, Tasser
If someone is already an experienced NBA GM with some interim coaching duties too, as I understand, he should be able to handle well, if things panned out, college AD responsibilities too. In Kiki’s case, he is a native son even. What he brings to the table sure beats Guerrero’s.
I am not slighting Guerrero’s All American bruin baseball background either. I simply think Kiki Vandeweghe can get the job done better.
Look at SC. They called back Pat Haden too.
A couple of dissimilarities
Vandeweghe is a basketball guy, and I want a football guy.
Vandeweghe has integrity, Ethical Pat doesn’t.
great Post Bruinut!
That’s a great story about Franklin Murphy.
In my time as a Bruin, Murphy Hall has always been a dirty word. Whether fighting the bureacratic red tape as a student, or bewildered by their neglect of UCLA Sports, it has always been a bad thing.
Hearing this is a vindication of the man for which the building is named. I agree with you. How great would it be to have a chancellor like that again.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi
Franklin Murphy and UCLA
I was a student at UCLA when Murphy came there. He was an MD, so as soon as he got there, south campus exploded with medical facilities and new schools, etc. He also was visible on campus and seemed to be moving around a lot having meetings with people at their offices, rather than calling them to him. Very approachable and a good representative of UCLA. The comment above about answering the phone is a good one.
He came to my fraternity house for dinner one night and discussed football during the latter Billy Barnes era. His comment was that UCLA would schedule, in the future, schools that had similar academic standards rather than whoever it was who we had just lost to that weekend (an SEC team IIRC). He suggested a team like Michigan. Later in life he went to the LAT as a BOD member, and may have been CEO for some time. I am sure the Chandler’s arranged that job.
Mensgym
Props to Bruinut
First of all great post! I just ordered the book. I had absolutly no idea of the role he played in both the development of UCLA and the greater Los Angeles area.
Thank you for repeating this nugget. You felt you had important information that needed to get out. You didn’t accept a defeatist point of view. “Oh well, nobody responded to the post, I guess that’s it.”
On a small scale your action is what is needed to effect change in many aspects of UCLA Athletics. You didn’t give up. If everyone were to accept defeat at the first sign of resistance nothing will ever change for the better. That includes better practice facilities, an on campus stadium, and the willingness to spend money on coaching staffs throughout UCLA Athletics.
Raybru,
I sincerely appreciate your taking the time to write this note. In addition to the anxiety I had about being a when-I-was-your-age, didactic boor, I also didn’t want this re-post to be taken as a hey-look-at-me-dammit snit. I thank you, humbly, for understanding.
If you were to search BN for “four letters,” I’m sure the number of hits would be in the hundreds. Those four letters, and the phrase “four letters,” itself, have come to symbolize the collective family pride that we all feel. So, I just knew that all Bruins would appreciate a story in which the four letters were “born,” so to speak, as much as I did.
I’m going to order the book, too. In looking up the anecdote in order to get the story right, I noticed lots of other tales of Franklin Murphy, the don’t-tell-me-how-to-run-my-university rebel going up against Clark Kerr, the all-things-go-through-me Wizard of Berkeley. I love tales of iconoclastic upstarts who don’t bow and kneel when they’re supposed to, especially when the irreverence purposely fortifies your own family. Like you, I’m anxious to read more such tales.
Go Bruins
Sports Arena
Another example of how bad our AD is. Ben and the boys are going to be playing in venue outlined with SUC gear.
by TheUniversityOfTheMasses~Reconize! on Nov 2, 2011 10:21 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
I was a student when Murphy was Chancellor.
He believed a university should be a “marketplace of ideas.” Not so sure that’s true anymore with all the PC stuff, et cetera.
Young was an assistant to Murphy, a relatively minor guy at the time.
Morgan spoke slower than any person I have ever heard, but had a certain gravitas about him.
But Murphy failed on the football stadium IIRC. That was the perfect time to do it, too. And Young never pushed it that I am aware. Remember, we were wedded to the Colisuem until 1980, then the Rose Bowl.
People back then took 90,000 seat stadiums as the norm. Why build anything smaller when you’ve got two “real” stadiums? Baseball stadiums, too, had to be big, at least like Dodger Stadium. Character and culture didn’t matter. Just size and perfect geometry mattered.
We should look to the past, but we can do better today, I think.
"Morgan spoke slower than any person I have ever heard, but had a certain gravitas about him."
It was a lengthy speech for him just to say our basketball coach’s name. He spoke much slower than the announcer at the Crapaseum and Dodger Stadium, the late, great John Ramsey.
Murphy was the gold standard
He deliberately stayed only eight years (1960-68), during which time, as mentioned above, he boosted the medical school into national recognition and presided over great growth, in parallel with the state and the entire UC system. But he built the library, bringing in Bob Vosper from Kansas, into one of the top ten in the country, and he was largely responsible for the development of the Wight Art Gallery and the sculpture garden on North Campus.
During his tenure (and while JD was AD), Rafer Johnson and CK Yang were one-two in the Olympic decathlon, John Wooden won his first two championships, and Tommy Prothro won a Rose Bowl. Arthur Ashe starred on JD’s tennis team (no small thing, because it was one of the factors that demonstrated to a New York kid named Alcindor that UCLA honored African American scholar-athletes).
JD transformed college basketball, with help from Kareem, by helping promote the classic UCLA-Houston game at the Astrodome, the first major nationally televised game and the largest crowd to see a game to that point. But he said that his greatest moment as AD was seeing Ashe play Jimmy Connors, two Bruins, play for the championship at Wimbledon.
And as much as we all would like to have a stadium on campus, there was never any way that the politically powerful Westwood/Bel Air community wold permit it, given the huge parking issues and the high property values. That’s been discussed in BN posts before. The only time that would have been possible was the 1940s, when the Janss Corporation still had land to sell and the Westside was not yet developed to the same degree. Remember, until the Dodgers got to LA, the Coliseum was perhaps the premier stadium in the country, hosting not only UCLA, $C, and Rams football but an Olympic games and many of the most important national and invitational track meets.
Murphy did indeed go on the the LA Times, as chairman of the Board. They could use him there today, too.
I meant no dimunition of Murphy re the stadium
He was a great Chancellor, truly, and Young for all his accomplishments was always in Murphy’s shadow because Murphy made UCLA what it is today. No doubt.
You’re also right about the Coliseum. It was the center of which UCLA was just a cog. Just a different mind set then.
Now look what other schools are doing with their on campus stadiums. First Stanford, now Cal and Washington. On Sportscenter they filmed Saban and the team at Alabama. We are talking a different universe in the facilities. We have to upgrade or we may as well go Ivy League.
Appreciate your additional perspective.
If only it were possible
There would be nothing better than a campus stadium. I lived in Baton Rouge for five years, and LSU stadium on a Saturday night is astonishing, surrounded by thousands of partying alums and all the streets restricted to inbound traffic. Of course, with the proceeds from a house in the Westwood hills, you could pretty much buy Baton Rouge. Or Tuscaloosa, for that matter. It’s the sad truth that part of UCLA’s being the most beautiful urban campus in the US is that its surrounding neighborhood is equally beautiful.
Maybe some billionaire will, buy up Westwood Village for us and turn it into a tailgate-friendly stadium and parking lot. Paradise and a parking lot.
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