August 14, 1958: The saddest date in UCLA football history

The date of August 14 will always have a black circle around it for Bruin fans. It was the day, 49 years ago, that 53-year-old Henry "Red" Sanders died, ending the career of the greatest coach in UCLA football history.

When Sanders came to UCLA from Vanderbilt in 1949, he turned around a 3-7 team from 1948 into a 6-3 team in 1949, finishing second in the Pacific Coast Conference. Bruin teams under Sanders never finished lower than third in the PCC and won three titles (1953-54-55) in a row, had four second-place finishes and was third twice. His Bruins played in the Rose Bowl game following the 1953 and 1955 seasons ('54 and '56 Rose Bowls).

And, his undefeated 1954 team (9-0) won the 1954 national championship in the UPI poll while Ohio State won in the Associated Press poll. The two teams couldn’t meet in the Rose Bowl because of the PCC’s "no-repeat" rule of the time.

Sanders was also a colorful character. He ran the out-of-fashion single wing offense instead of the T-formation because opposing defenses rarely saw it and had little experience with the run-pass option on each play, similar to wishbone offenses of today.

And it was Sanders who coined the phrase – widely but incorrectly attributed to Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi – "Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing." Not to mention this Bruin favorite: "Beating USC isn’t a matter of life and death; it’s much more important than that."

Beating USC was something Sanders did with regularity. He was 6-3 against the Trojans during his tenure against some pretty good teams. Consider his 4-2 record against USC’s Jess Hill from 1951-56; other than against UCLA, Hill’s teams were 43-13-1! And in the 18 games in the series with Troy before Sanders’ arrival, UCLA had won a grand total of two and tied three.

(That’s right: even counting USC’s recently-snapped win streak, the Bruins are almost even – 26-28-4 – against the Trojans since Sanders’ arrival in 1949.)

Sanders’ record of 66-19-1 – a 77.3 winning percentage – is the best ever for full-season UCLA coaches and the university is still following his legacy. Not since Sanders was hired away from Vanderbilt by Wilbur Johns (who also hired another well-known coach, John Wooden) has UCLA gone outside of its own program to hire a football coach:

>> Successors George Dickerson (three games in 1958), Bill Barnes (1958-64) and Tommy Prothro (1965-70) were all Sanders assistants.

>> Pepper Rodgers (1971-73) and Dick Vermeil (1974-75) were assistants for Prothro and Terry Donahue (1976-1995) played for Prothro and was an assistant for both Rodgers and Vermeil.

>> Bob Toledo (1996-2002) was a Donahue assistant and current coach Karl Dorrell (2003-present) played for Donahue and was a graduate assistant at UCLA in 1988. One-game coach Ed Kezirian (following Toledo) played for Rodgers and was an assistant coach for Donahue.

Sanders was a larger-than-life figure in Los Angeles and when he died of a heart attack at the still-standing Lafayette Hotel on Beverly Boulevard – "visiting a friend" and "with a smile on his face" it was reported – an era ended. What could he have achieved in the following 10-15 years? We’ll never know, although the excitement of the Prothro Era gives us a clue to what could have been.

The second saddest day in Bruin football history? Send in your opinion and we’ll post our answer on Wednesday.

Comments

[Brian theriot]

Dear Rich:

I have to say, the second saddest day is when I signed my letter of intent in track and field to UCLA in 75 and enter UCLA - WOODENLESS. JOHN WOODEN WAS ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS I WANTED THE UCLA EXPERIENCE, OVER FOOTBALL, THAT I COULD HAVE GONE MANY PLACES. The saving grace was having a man named Jim Bush be my coach. Jim Bush, the greatest track and field coach in college history, that UCLA still owes a major goodbye banquet and honor of some form like "Bush Hall" , "Bush Fieldhouse", etc. Jim Bush is one of the finest men I have been honored to served.

Brian Theriot
Captain 1980
1978 NCAA Champion - UCLA
Mile: 3:56
800: 1:45.79
1500: 3:37

I owe most everything to Jim Bush

[steve]

i think the second saddest day was the day that j.d. morgan refused to hire denny crum to replace john wooden. crum was an obvious choice to take over but many feel morgan wanted to show that he knew better. maybe crum would have crumbled under the pressure of taking over for wooden -- but i don't think so.

[Brian theriot]

THERE WAS AND WILL NEVER BE A REPLACEMENT FOR JOHNNY.

I WOULD WALK INTO THE TRAINING ROOM MY FROSH YEAR. TRAINER LARRY WAS THE MAN. WOODEN TRAINED. I WANTED, FROM A TRACK MAN'S PERSPECTIVE, TO LEARN THE WOODEN WAY. I LEARNED IT, FROM JIM BUSH AND TRAINER LARRY AND DUCKY.

I WAS LUCKY TO CATCH THE WAKE OF WOODEN. IT CAUSED ALL FOR ALL SPORTS. WOODEN WAS THE MAN.

THE GREATEST LOSS EVER IN UCLA HISTORY WAS NOT THE REPLACEMENT OF WOODEN, THAT CANNOT BE DONE, IT WAS IN THOSE YEARS HIRING MEN THAT DID NOT UNDERSTAND THAT YOU CANNOT REPLACE HIM, NOW HOWLAND GETS IT, YOU LIVE ALONG SIDE OF WOODEN AND WHEN THE WOODEN LORE BARKS, YOU JUMP, WHY? BECAUSE IT IS WOODEN. AND HOWLAND GETS IT. WOODEN IS UCLA. THE TWO GREATEST COACHES EVER IN UCLA HISTORY ARE WOODEN AND BUSH ON WINNING PERCENTAGES.

MY QUESTION IS, WHEN WILL UCLA HONOR JIM BUSH AND NAME A FACILITY AFTER JIM BUSH?

I AM BRIAN THERIOT
BTHERIOTNL@AOL.COM

I DONT POST UNLESS YOU KNOW WHO IT IS.

[Donald Morrison]

Brian,

I agree UCLA should honor Jim Bush in some manner. I had the pleasure of interviewing him for a feature story I did about him when I wrote for the Daily Bruin. He was very nice and had some amazing stories to share. It was the best interview I've ever done. His record speaks for itself.

To answer Rich's question--the second saddest day in UCLA football history is December 5th, 1998. It wasn't a fumble.

Donald Morrison
UCLA '00

[DumpDorrell]

Thanks Rich!! Thank you for reminding us about one our our greats. Wilbur was a genius in hiring both Wooden and Sanders ... both coaches who had experience running programs already. It is also great to be reminded that we have a great football legacy! That we don't have to settle for mediocrity. That we can hire a coach with experience ... outside of the program ... and be winners again. It is indeed the saddest day in UCLA sports history when Sanders was taken from us so suddenly and so quickly. Thank you for reminding us.

[Mark]

I think the second saddest day in UCLA football history was the meltdown in Miami in 1998--I still can't get over that.

[3rdGenBruin]

Rich, nice piece on Red Sanders. What might have been...

I agree with others, second saddest day in Bruin football history was 12/5/98. Until we at least get to the championship game, the horrible taste of that day will linger.

[Sherman Oaks Bruin]

Two candidates. 1) The day we lost to USC 21-20 in 1967. Had we won that game, we would have played Indiana nn the Rose Bowl, won easily, and achieved an undisputed national championship. Prothro would have been the king of this town, and would probably not have left three years later, after another gut-wrenching loss to USC in '69. 2) The day that Dick Vermeil suddenly announced that he was leaving UCLA to take the Eagles job in 1976. Had Vermeil stayed for ten more years, UCLA would have had one of the top five programs in the country. Thirty years later, we are still waiting.

[Brian theriot]

Donald, great to hear about the Jim Bush interview. He never even got a farewell banquet. The hall of fame could set up a Jim bush section or the track section named after him. Jim Bush Hall.

[Jason]

December 5, 1998 without a doubt. The horror. Edgerrin James ran for 299 yards. It was almost as sickening as watching Jeff Samardzija waltz into the end zone last year.

[SoBayBruin]

The second worst day is Bruin football and all sports was the day Pete Dalis became athletic director. Only now is the damage he did beginning to be fixed.

[jon udell]

I was at both of the Rose Bowl games you reference, and I can assure you they were not in 1953 and 1955 respectively. For example the 1954 team was under the no repeat rule despite its 9-0 national (co) championship record, and could not have been in the Rose Bowl new year's day 1955. SC was in that game.

[Bud Kling]

1966 We beat $C without Beban ( who was injured) the famous Norm Dow Game and finished 9-1 $c finished 7-3 and was beat by Notre Dane by 50 pts and yet the conference voted $c into the Rose Bowl. Prothro was speaking at the Pep Rally in Pauley when he got the message and told the crowd. The first UCLA riots took place as we, the students, raced through the Village, stopped traffic at Wilshire and Westwood and then in rush hour traffic ran onto the 405 and stopped it cold. $c lost in the Rose Bowl to Purdue(?).

[Rich Perelman]

Thanks to Jon Udell for sharp eyes on my bad phrasework. The references to the 1953 and 1955 seasons (and '54 and '56 Rose Bowl games) has been cleaned up.

[DumpDorrell]

Bud

Great memory. That must have been some rally. Thanks!!

[Jim]

The man in the picture looks much older than 53. Was that age a typo?

[Gusto]

My sister went to UCLA '66-'70. I remember, as a little kid, during all the turmoil of the Sixties, seeing my sister's "Bruin Riots" t-shirt and wondering if she was some kind of revolutionary/Tom Hayden-Black Panther sympathizer. I didn't know it had anything to do with football until the 90's when I read about the Rose Bowl tragedy and aftermath.
BTW, there was a 'riot" in Westwood in 1980 after Kiki and the Kids beat Ohio State in the semis (I think). It was during finals and we had a little steam to burn off. We shut down Westwood, but never mmade it on to the 405!