05-12-2014, 12:30 PM
How close was the UCLA Stanford gap?
In 1999, UCLA wanted to use the Most NCAA Team Titles in the century claim to then declare themselves the college athletics program on the century, but the gap was so small that they needed to wait for the fall sports to finish up. I think they needed to wait until very late November because it was possible that Stanford could have won the XCs, MWP and/or WVP to zip right over the top. At one point in there Stanford did not win one of those titles, and then with only one or two outstanding UCLA issued their press release to declare themselves the Program of the Century. It was that close.
At the time it looked clear that the trend was our friend and that by 2001 or 2002 Stanford would move ahead. I would never have thought that UCLAs lead would be safe apparently into 2015 and likely beyond.
In 1999, UCLA wanted to use the Most NCAA Team Titles in the century claim to then declare themselves the college athletics program on the century, but the gap was so small that they needed to wait for the fall sports to finish up. I think they needed to wait until very late November because it was possible that Stanford could have won the XCs, MWP and/or WVP to zip right over the top. At one point in there Stanford did not win one of those titles, and then with only one or two outstanding UCLA issued their press release to declare themselves the Program of the Century. It was that close.
At the time it looked clear that the trend was our friend and that by 2001 or 2002 Stanford would move ahead. I would never have thought that UCLAs lead would be safe apparently into 2015 and likely beyond.