UCLA athletics is tops for former track star

  UCLA Sports Information Bruin fan Carl
McBain (far right) and his wife Bette
pose with UCLA football coach Bob Toledo.

Carl McBain, 82, is a self-professed huge fan of UCLA athletics.
But in his time at the school he was also one of the greatest
athletes that UCLA ““ and the country ““ had seen. A
student from 1937 to 1941, he was a track letterman for his final
two years under coaches Ducky Drake and Harry Trotter, as well as
the team captain during his senior year. In 1940, he won the
National AAU 400-meter hurdles title with a time of 51.6 seconds,
then a UCLA and American record. This record stood in the Pac-10
for 17 years and in the country for 10 years. That time was also
the fastest in the world that year. In the 1940 U.S. Olympic
trials, McBain also won the 400 hurdles and was voted by
sportswriters as most likely to win the gold medal at the Olympic
Games, which were canceled because of World War II. He was named to
the UCLA Hall of Fame in 1989. In the following interview, McBain
discusses what it’s like to be a UCLA fan, as well as some of
the changes he has seen in the university and Bruin athletics. . .
. DB: How were you involved with UCLA athletics? McBain: While in
school, I was on the Student Council as Chairman of the Athletic
Board and I was also president of Blue C, the club for all major
sports ““ football, basketball, baseball, track, tennis and
crew.

  UCLA Sports Information Bruin alumni Carl
McBain was the world’s best 400m hurdler in 1940.
DB: Those were the major sports? So what were considered the minor
sports?

McBain: Now there must have been eight or 10 of those. (Long
pause.) Archery. Swimming, diving. Handball. Water polo. That sort
of thing. Those were minor sports. I don’t think we had
soccer, but if there was a soccer team, it would have been a minor
sport. You see how hard it is for me to guess what the minor sports
were? But there were several.

DB: How did the Daily Bruin do in giving the minor sports
coverage? McBain: The Daily Bruin was excellent in covering sports,
both major and minor. The students were very interested in
athletics at that time. During those times we started to play USC
in football for the first time since 10 years before in 1936. Out
of the four years I was there we tied two games and lost two.

DB: How did you become the Blue C president? What were your
duties? McBain: Every year, all the sports got together to elect a
president. I was also on the student council as athletic chair. We
just really ran the student activities for the year with anything
that came up. If it were sports then I would bring up that subject,
but if it was forensics or student involvement, Kenny Washington
(the 1940 student council president and also a member of the UCLA
football and track team) would work on that.

DB: How have you stayed involved with UCLA athletics? McBain:
Just following them. Following the sports in the papers, always
being in touch on campus with the track coach and some of the
competitors. And now I’m very involved with the whole
athletic program. I put down an endowment to football and track,
and my wife made an endowment to women’s golf and
women’s basketball. How about that? Women are getting
stronger and stronger and we’re doing our share to help
them.

DB: What do you think of women’s sports today? McBain: Oh,
they’re making rapid strides, especially at UCLA. We’re
up in the top three nationally just about every year. The woman
heading that program is (associate athletic director and senior
women’s administrator) Betsy Stephenson and she’s doing
a great job.

DB: What were women’s sports like when you were at UCLA?
McBain: There were no women’s sports in 1940.

DB: What made you choose to come to UCLA? McBain: At USC the
tuition was $250, and the tuition here was $24. I was offered a
scholarship at USC, but I didn’t take it. I chose to come to
UCLA and pay the $24 because my brother just graduated with honors
in zoology (from UCLA) and he went to Stanford medical school for
graduate school. I started being loyal to the athletic program at
UCLA when I was in high school because of my brother. He was keen
on all the sports. As a matter of fact, he was coxswain of the crew
team.

DB: What was it like being an athlete at UCLA (in 1940)? McBain:
There were no scholarship programs for athletics, nor
grants-in-aids. A campus job was the reward. I was happy to get
one.

DB: What was your job like? McBain: First of all, I had to work
all the hours. It wasn’t like, “˜Oh, here’s a job,
but you don’t have to work because you’re an
athlete.’ I worked on a stenographic bureau, taking
stenographic materials all over campus to the professors. I
probably knew every professor on campus personally because I was
taking things to their office all the time. I knew at least 40 or
50 of them by name and sight. It was, “˜Hello Carl,’ and
that sort of thing.

DB: You said you were “˜fortunate’ to get a job. Why
is that? McBain: That was the Depression years, and it was very
difficult to get a job. It was nice to find one. Fifty cents an
hour is what they paid us, and I think if I hadn’t been an
athlete, I wouldn’t have gotten that job. That was a
specialty that they gave us.

DB: What other changes have you noticed in UCLA athletics
throughout the years? McBain: We had two part-time coaches in
track. Now they have many coaches in track, and they’ve got
an equal number for women. I don’t know how many coaches
there are in track but I would say 12 or 14. (In 1940) the coaches
worked at junior high schools in the day time but they came out at
3 p.m. to coach. Now you got 12 or 14 full-time jobs. It’s
specialized. They have the shot put and the discus and the javelins
“”mdash; that takes one coach. And now they have the sprints coach,
etc.

DB: What do you think is the greatest or most memorable moment
in UCLA athletics? McBain: Bob Toledo’s sixth-in-a-row win
over USC. We were not supposed to win that game but we did it.

DB: So what did you think of last year’s game, when the
streak was snapped? McBain: Last year was an unfortunate year for
the football team. We had many freshmen, and we had many injuries.
So when we got defeated last year I said, “˜Okay, wait until
2000 comes along.’ And it won’t be long too.
We’re gonna start that string of victories.

DB: You said that the 1996 football game is your best UCLA
athletic memory, but what about the 1995 men’s basketball
national championship? McBain: There are so many championships,
it’s hard to pick out one or two. Look at the Wooden
championships. Look at the Harrick championship. But that’s
just one of several, so I’m not going to pick out any more
(great moments) than I did. That’s a tough question. Look at
all the sports ““ I’ve been really thrilled to watch the
softball team. When you look over all the sports over many, many
years, it’s just hard to pick out one. Like tying USC in
football in 1937. That was a thrill. We weren’t supposed to
have a chance. I think they were favored by about 40 points or so
and we tied them.

DB: What do you think is the worst or most shameful moment in
UCLA athletics? McBain: From 1936-40 we played USC four times a
year in basketball and I witnessed 16 UCLA losses. Then later came
the Wooden years.

DB: When you first came to school here, did you ever imagine
that UCLA would become the athletic powerhouse that it is today?
McBain: You know, from 1940 to 2000, that’s 60 years.
It’s amazing, the changes in the athletic program. But no
more amazing than what’s happened in the medical center. No
more than what’s happened on the campus. No more than
what’s happened even in the dorms. We had no dorms then. The
athletic department is just one part of the whole of all the things
I mentioned. Yes, you can be proud of your athletic department, but
also of the entire campus.

DB: What do you think makes the UCLA athletic program so
special? McBain: I think that as much as we want to win in the
athletic program that we have, it’s not the most important
thing in the whole world. It’s not the most important thing
in one’s life. But I know for the athletes, it’s close.
Most of them take athletics more seriously than anything else. But
they’re also … most of them do not go professional. They
don’t make the professional teams and they’ve got to be
prepared for life. Academically, (football head coach Bob) Toledo
and the others stress academics. Not just to keep the men eligible,
but to try and get all the guys to graduate. About 80 percent of
the football team graduates.

DB: How has being an athlete at UCLA affected your life? McBain:
Life is a competition ““ sports helps one to learn how to
accept winning, as well as losing, as part of life itself.

DB: Do you have season tickets to all the games? McBain: Oh,
yes. Ever since I graduated from school. I have eight season
tickets for the football games at the Rose Bowl, and I have four
for basketball.

DB: Do you also have season tickets for the women? McBain: We
have season tickets for women’s basketball as well. And we
(my wife and I) go watch the golf team sometimes.

DB: Describe the extent to which athletics are supported by
Bruin alumni. McBain: More than is known by most students and
alumni. There are many groups, too numerous to mention, that give
their support to the UCLA athletic program.

DB: Are you raising any Bruin fans in your family? McBain: My
granddaughter, Shannon Stewart, is a sophomore at UCLA. And Melissa
McBain, my grandniece, is a sophomore on the cross country
team.

DB: Melissa? She’s a transfer from Moorpark, isn’t
she? McBain: Yes, she is. I took her up and showed her the campus.
She’d never even seen the campus. I introduced her around and
she decided that was for her. She was going to stay another year at
Moorpark but she decided to switch right then. She didn’t get
a scholarship because they were all gone, but she is a walk-on for
track and cross country. It’s not important, but she won the
Community College State 1500-meter Championship.

DB: Is there anything you’d like to add to this interview?
McBain: I think that UCLA, nationally, is rated among the top three
for overall athletic programs. A lot of credit’s got to go to
(UCLA athletics director) Pete Dalis for having all sports, both
men and women, rate that high every year. Pete Dalis certainly
deserves credit.

DB: Do you have any predictions for the upcoming season? McBain:
UCLA will defeat USC this year to begin a new string of wins.

DB: Is there anything you would change about your experience as
a Bruin? McBain: None. Win, lose or draw, I am a Bruin, period.
Interview conducted by Pauline Vu and Amanda Fletcher, Daily Bruin
Senior Staff.