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1954 UCLA Bruins football
Coaches' Poll national champion
FWAA national champion
PCC champion
Conference Pacific Coast Conference
Ranking
CoachesNo. 1
APNo. 2
Record9–0 (6–0 PCC)
Head coach
Offensive scheme Single-wing
Home stadium Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Seasons
←  1953
1955 →
1954 Pacific Coast Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
No. 2 UCLA $ 6 0 0 9 0 0
No. 17 USC ^ 6 1 0 8 4 0
Oregon 5 3 0 6 4 0
California 4 3 0 5 5 0
Washington State 3 4 0 4 6 0
Stanford 2 4 0 4 6 0
Idaho 1 2 0 4 5 0
Washington 1 6 0 2 8 0
Oregon State 1 6 0 1 8 0
  • $ – Conference champion
  • ^ – Selected as Rose Bowl representative
    UCLA won rivalry game over USC,
    but no-repeat rule was in effect
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1954 UCLA Bruins football team was an American football team that represented the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Pacific Coast Conference during the 1954 college football season. They played their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and were coached by Red Sanders. It was Sanders' sixth season as the UCLA head coach; the Bruins finished 9–0 overall, and were Pacific Coast Conference Champions with a 6–0 record. [1] In nine games, UCLA outscored their opponents, 367 to 40.

The Bruins were not eligible to play in the Rose Bowl vs. Ohio State (ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll) because of the PCC's "no repeat" rule, in effect for most of the decade, after California lost a third straight Rose Bowl in January 1951. Since UCLA had played in the 1954 Rose Bowl, they were excluded from the 1955 event. The game likely would have made for a de facto national championship game, but thus, rival USC (whom the Bruins soundly defeated 34–0) went instead, and lost 20–7 to Ohio State. Following the outcome, UCLA and Ohio State split the national championship.

UCLA was selected national champion by NCAA-designated major selectors of Dunkel, Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), Litkenhous, National Championship Foundation, and United Press International ( Coaches Poll), and co-champion by both Football Research and Helms. [2]: 113  This consensus national championship is claimed by the school. [2]: 120  [3] Ohio State was selected national champion by the AP Poll among other selectors.

Comparing the games against two common opponents, UCLA defeated California and USC by larger margins than Ohio State and the coaches of those schools both stated that they felt UCLA was better

During the season, the Bruins debuted their powder blue uniforms, referred to as "powder-keg blue" by head coach Sanders, that featured two white stripes around the shoulders. [4] The white uniforms with blue stripes were used the previous season during the game against USC but this was the earliest known instance of the stripes becoming a regular part of the UCLA uniform. [5] [6]

Schedule

DateTimeOpponentRankSiteResultAttendanceSource
September 188:30 p.m. San Diego NTC*No. 8W 67–024,793 [7]
September 251:00 p.m.at Kansas*No. 8W 32–725,000 [8]
October 18:30 p.m.No. 6 Maryland*No. 4
  • Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
  • Los Angeles, CA
W 12–773,376 [9] [10]
October 92:00 p.m.at WashingtonNo. 2W 21–2035,678 [11]
October 162:00 p.m. StanfordNo. 3
  • Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
  • Los Angeles, CA
W 72–070,555 [12]
October 231:30 p.m.at Oregon StateNo. 3W 61–08,500 [13]
October 302:00 p.m.at CaliforniaNo. 3W 27–665,000 [14]
November 62:00 p.m. OregonNo. 1
  • Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
  • Los Angeles, CA
W 41–046,435 [15]
November 202:00 p.m.No. 7 USCNo. 2
  • Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
  • Los Angeles, CA
W 34–0102,548 [16]
  • *Non-conference game
  • Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game
  • All times are in Pacific time

Game summaries

San Diego Navy

San Diego Navy at UCLA
1 234Total
San Diego Navy 0 000 0
Bruins 13 27720 67

The Bruins had originally scheduled Santa Clara to open their season but after the Broncos suspended football, the San Diego Naval Training Center was scheduled as a replacement. Although the San Diego NTC featured players such as All-American Bucky Curtis from Vanderbilt and All-PCC Earl Stelle from Oregon, UCLA was favored three touchdowns. [17]

Primo Villanueva scored the first two touchdowns of the game and the Bruins led 13–0 within 7 minutes. Bruce Ballard, Sam Brown, Villaneuva, and Bob Davenport would each score another running touchdown giving the Bruins a 40–0 halftime lead. Davenport, Gerry McDougall, and Doug Peters would each score three more running touchdowns and Ronnie Loudd would score a passing touchdown from Gerry McDougal to give UCLA a punishing 67–0 victory. [18] [19]

Kansas

UCLA at Kansas
1 234Total
Bruins 18 0014 32
Jayhawks 0 700 7

The Bruins scored three consecutive touchdowns in the first quarter. Kansas player Ralph Moody scored the first Kansas touchdown on an 82-yard punt return. Jack Ellena would score on a 50-yard punt return in the fourth quarter. A 73-yard run by reserve fullback Don Shinnick down to the 9-yard line would set up Gerry McDougall for UCLA's final score of the day. [20] [8] [21] [22]

Maryland

Maryland at UCLA
1 234Total
Terrapins 0 007 7
Bruins 6 006 12

Maryland were the 1953 national champions. Bob Davenport gained 89 yard on 23 carries and scored both of UCLA's touchdowns. Maryland's Howard Dare scored a touchdown on a pass from Charley Boxold to give the Terrapins the lead early in the fourth quarter. Davenport scored the go ahead touchdown in the middle of the fourth quarter to give the Bruins the victory. [23] [24]

Washington

UCLA at Washington
1 234Total
Bruins 7 0140 21
Huskies 0 0713 20
  • Date: October 9, 1954
  • Location: Husky Stadium
    Seattle, WA
  • Game start: 2:00 p.m. PST
  • Game attendance: 35,700
  • Game weather: Weather: Warm-Overcast
  • Referee: Jack L. Sprenger, Melvin W. Nicherson, Ted T. Fehring, Albert A. Bodner, Rudolph E. Hansen, Fred L. Gali

Bob Davenport scored two rushing touchdowns, Primo Villanueva scored one rushing touchdown, and Johnny Herman converted all three extra points to give UCLA a 21–0 led midway through the third quarter. After Bruins Coach Sanders replaced his starters with his second and third string players, Washington quarterback Bob Cox threw a passing touchdown to Dean Derby and Bob Dunn converted the extra point to reduce UCLA's lead to 21–7 at the end of the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Sam Brown fumbled which allowed Washington to recover at the UCLA 25. Cox threw another touchdown, this time to Corky Lewis but Dunn missed the extra point kick. Brown fumbled again for a 13-yard loss and Washington scored another passing touchdown on a 56-yard drive. Dunn's extra point reduced the UCLA lead to 21–20 with 2:30 minutes left. The Bruins would hold out to win the game. [25]

Stanford

Stanford at UCLA
1 234Total
Indians 0 000 0
Bruins 13 142124 72

The Bruin defense intercepted Stanford quarterbacks Jerry Gustafson and John Neff eight times and returned them for 210 total yards. Sam Brown set a new conference record for punt returns with 132 yards in three returns. Villanueva, Davenport and Brown each scored twice while Decker, Loudd, Heydenfeldt and McDougall scored once each for a total of 10 touchdowns. [26]

Oregon State

UCLA at Oregon State
1 234Total
Bruins 13 201414 61
Beavers 0 000 0

Sam Brown scored two touchdowns and Bob Davenport, Johnny Hermann, Primo Villanueva, Doug Peters, Don Shinnick, Russ Hampton, and Clarence Norris each scored a touchdown to give UCLA the 61–0 victory over Oregon State. The Bruins rushed for 498 yards and 593 total yards while holding Oregon State to 88 rushing yards and 111 total yards. [27]

California

UCLA at California
1 234Total
Bruins 7 7013 27
Golden Bears 0 600 6

Primo Villanueva rushed for two touchdowns in the first half and threw a touchdown pass to Johnny Hermann in the fourth. Cal's Paul Larson set new Bears record for passes (38), pass completions (25), and pass yards (280) and Williams scored the Bears' lone touchdown on a 7-yard run. [28]

Oregon

Oregon at UCLA
1 234Total
Webfoots 0 000 0
Bruins 7 14614 41

With the victory, UCLA set a new single scoring record of 333 points, surpassing the previous record of 327 points in just 8 games. Rommie Loudd scored the first points of the game on a 16-yard pass from Primo Villanueva. Bob Davenport, Jim Decker, Doug Bradley, Sam Brown, and Rommie Loudd each scored rushing touchdowns. Oregon only moved passed the 50 yard line two and the UCLA defense limited George Shaw, the country's leading passer with 178 yard per game, to only 29 yards. [29]

USC

USC at UCLA
1 234Total
Trojans 0 000 0
Bruins 7 0027 34

A 48-yard pass from Primo Villanueva to Bob Heydenfeldt gave UCLA a 7–0 first quarter lead. The Bruins poured on with four touchdowns in the fourth quarter: Bob Davenport scored from the one-yard line, Villanueva passed to Terry Debay for a 12-yard touchdown, Rommie Loudd caught a pass from Doug Bradley for an 8-yard touchdown, and Sam Brown passed to Bruce Ballard for a 17-yard touchdown. USC had only 5 yards rushing. [30]

Personnel

Roster

1954 UCLA Bruins Football

Halfbacks

Fullbacks

Quarterbacks

  • 40 Terry Debay – Senior
  • 44 Bob Bergdahl – Sophomore
  • 46 Gerry Okuneff – Senior
 

Centers

  • 50 John Peterson – Senior
  • 52 Jack McKay – Sophomore
  • 53 Steve Palmer – Junior

Guards

 

Tackles

  • 71 Gil Moreno – Junior
  • 74 Preston Dills – Junior
  • 75 Warner Benjamin – Senior
  • 77 Jack EllenaSenior
  • 78 Joe Ray – Senior

Ends


Sources: [31] [32] [33]

Coaching staff

Henry "Red" Sanders returned to coach the Bruins for the sixth season. The Bruin coaching staff included four future college head coaches, including three (Barnes, Dickerson, and Prothro) who would eventually serve as UCLA head coaches. [34]

Name Position Years
at UCLA
Alma mater (year)
Henry "Red" Sanders Head coach 6 Vanderbilt (1926)
William F. Barnes Ends coach 5 Tennessee (1939)
Deke Brackett Assistant coach 5 Tennessee (1933)
George W. Dickerson Assistant line coach 8 UCLA (1936)
Jim Myers Line coach 6 Tennessee (1946)
Tommy Prothro Backfield coach 6 Duke (1941)
Johnny Johnson Freshman coach 6 UCLA (1946) [35]

Statistics

Team

UCLA Opp
Points per game 40.8 4.4
First Downs 151 95
  Rushing 119 35
  Passing 31 58
  Penalty 1 2
Rushing yardage 2,578 659
  Rushing attempts 454 314
  Avg per rush 5.6 2.1
  Avg per game 286.4 73.2
Passing yardage 721 1,049
  Avg per game 80.1 116.6
  Completions – attempts 52-107 (48.6%) 92-216 (83.8%)
Total offense 3,299 1,708
  Total play 561 470
  Avg per play 5.9 3.7
  Avg per game 366.6 195.3
Fumbles lost 23–12 32–21
UCLA Opp
Punts – yards 40-1497 (37.4 avg) 57-1932 (33.9 avg)
Punt returns – total yards 32-588 (18.4 avg) 23-271 (11.8 avg)
Kick returns – total yards 16-323 (20.2 avg) 58-862 (14.9 avg)
Onside kicks
Avg time of possession per game
Penalties – yards 34-400 41-355
  Avg per game 44.4 39.4
3rd down conversions
4th down conversions
Sacks By – yards
Total TDs 45 6
  Rushing 35 2
  Passing 10 4
Field Goals – attempts 0-0 (0%) 0-0 (0%)
PAT – attempts 37-55 (67.3%) 4-6 (66.7%)
Total attendance 317,707 134,178
  Games – avg per game 5 – 63,541 4 – 33,544

Scores by quarter

1 2 3 4 Total
Opponents 0 13 7 20 40
UCLA 91 82 62 132 367

Offense

Rushing

Passing

Receiving

Defense

Special teams

(Statistics compiled from individual NCAA game summaries) [7] [22] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [16]

Ranking

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
( ) = First-place votes
Week
PollPre12345678910Final
AP8 (1) 8 (2) 4 (3) 2 (20) 3 (10) 3 (23) 3 (45) 1 (72) 1 (117) 2 (92) 2 (85) 2 (133)
CoachesNot released4 (1) [36]2 (5) [37]3 (2) [38]3 (6) [39]1 (8) [40]1 (19) [41]1 (26) [42]1 (23) [43]1 (22) [43]1 (21) [44]

Awards and honors

All-American

  • First Team All-American (Consensus)
    • Jack Ellena (AAB, AFCA, AP, INS, NEA, SN, UP)
  • First Team All-American
    • Bob Davenport (AP-2, FWAA, INS-2, NEA-2, UP-3, CP-2)
    • Jim Salsbury (AFCA, AP-3, FWAA, INS-2, NEA-2, UP-2, CP-3)
  • Second Team All-American
    • Primo Villaneva (AP-HR, UP-2, CP-HR, NEA-HR)
  • Honorable Mention All-American
    • Sam Boghosian (UP-HR)
    • Hardiman Cureton (UP-HR, UP-HR)
    • Bob Heydenfeldt (UP-HR)
    • Bob Long (AP-HR)
    • Ronnie Loudd (UP-HR)
    • Terry Debay (UP-HR)
    • Jim Decker (UP-HR)
    • John Peterson (UP-HR, CP-HR)
    • Joe Ray (AP-HR, UP-HR)

Coaches' All-PCC

  • All-PCC First Team
    • Bob Davenport
    • Jim Salsbury
    • Primo Villaneva
    • Jack Ellena
  • All-PCC Second Team
    • Sam Boghosian
    • Herdiman Cureton
    • Bob Long
    • Jim Decker
    • Joe Ray
  • Honorable Mention
    • John Hermann
    • Terry Debay
    • Gil Moreno
    • John Peterson

UP All-Coast Team

  • All-Coast First Team
    • Bob Davenport
    • Jack Ellena
    • Jim Salsbury
    • Primo Villaneva
  • All-Coast Second Team
    • Sam Boghosian
    • Herdiman Cureton
    • Bob Heydenfeldt

AP All-Pacific Coast Team

  • All-Pacific First Team
    • Bob Davenport
    • Jack Ellena
    • Bob Long
    • Jim Salsbury
  • All-Pacific Second Team
    • Sam Boghosian
    • Herdiman Cureton
    • Joe Ray
    • Primo Villaneva

[45]

1955 NFL Draft

Rnd. Pick No. NFL team Player Pos. College Conf. Notes
2 18 Los Angeles Rams Bob Long  B UCLA PCC
2 24 Detroit Lions Jim Salsbury  OG UCLA PCC
11 127 Los Angeles Rams Joe Ray  T UCLA PCC

source: [46] [47]

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