• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

UCLA has the most dominant athletic program in the nation, but it is missing something that can never be achieved purely by its teams’ continued success.

What UCLA lacks is the atmosphere of support for athletics that truly defines a sports powerhouse.

The Bruin softball, baseball and men’s golf teams are currently competing for an NCAA Championship, but few students are interested in following the teams on a daily basis. Instead, the majority of the UCLA student body is only concerned with knowing if one of those teams wins the 100th NCAA title.

Even when a Bruin team wins an NCAA title, as both the men’s volleyball and women’s water polo teams have done in the last month, it receives little recognition from the students.

Despite its 99 NCAA titles, UCLA can hardly be classified as a “sports school.” Most UCLA students barely know of the success of their teams, let alone devote their time to supporting teams that aren’t football or basketball.

While living in a vibrant metropolis creates diversity in the students who attend UCLA and the opportunities available, it seriously detracts from the sports atmosphere on a college campus.

What is routinely found in small college towns across the country, and missing at UCLA, is an aura of pride in sports teams.

Even the best UCLA teams are often forced to play in front of sparse crowds at home games.

Take men’s tennis, for example.

Last year, the Bruins won the NCAA Championship for the first time in 21 years, and this year the team was again a contender for the national title before falling in the NCAA Quarterfinals to Pepperdine.

Their success made little impact in the number of fans who showed up to the Bruins’ matches, though, as the Los Angeles Tennis Center was frequently almost empty at home matches.

Thousands of students would walk past the stadium during the course of each match, but few ventured in to watch the Bruins. The team resorted to giving away free pizza and prizes to attract attention, but still the crowd was made up of mostly friends and family.

Almost all other UCLA sports experience the same lack of large crowds at their home matches.

The UCLA baseball team, which played an amazing regular season this year to make it to the NCAA Tournament a year after going 15-41, averaged only 581 fans at home games compared to the 1066 fans they faced when away.

And the UCLA men’s volleyball team won the NCAA Championship this year, but only managed an average home crowd of 872 while playing in front of an average of 1,874 people.

The situation at UCLA might seem typical until you visit a true sports powerhouse.

When I traveled to Penn State University to cover the men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament, it was immediately apparent that I was at a school that recognizes its sports’ accomplishments.

Penn State is the genuine sports fan’s paradise.

Not only are the athletic facilities impeccable – they recently committed an additional $170 million to even more improvements – but also an atmosphere of support for athletics encompasses the campus and surrounding city. UCLA just doesn’t have this love for sports.

UCLA doesn’t have statues of its coaches or name libraries after sports figures, as Penn State does. Can you imagine Powell Library being renamed Dorrell Library?

In State College, Pa., where the total population is decreased by more than half when students leave for the summer, fans loyally attend athletic events even if the team is having a rough season.

Meanwhile, at UCLA, athletics go largely unrecognized unless something like the men’s basketball team making it to the Final Four happens.

Imagine the atmosphere at UCLA during the basketball team’s improbable run to the championship game, and you’ll have an idea of what some colleges experience throughout the year for all their teams.

After two years of attending countless athletic events surrounded only by people who personally know members of the team, it has become clear to me UCLA is far behind many other universities in terms of having an atmosphere supportive of sports on campus.

E-mail Wozny at mwozny@media.ucla.edu.