The Voice of Lee Schwartz, father of two former NFL studs, Geoffrey and Mitchell Schwartz, author of Raising Giants and member of Concussion & CTE Foundation’s West Coast Advisory Board . . .
MY BRUINS IN RARIFIED AIR
It’s been 30 years since the UCLA Bruins were on top of the basketball world. That last took place in 1995. Prior to that, they hoisted the National Championship trophy in 1975, the last in a run of 10 championships in twelve years. Since then, they’ve hardly been relevant. Three semi-final appearances but mostly nondescript performances.
Maybe 2026 will be different. It’s only two games into a 30+ game season, but what a start. With a #22 preseason ranking they convincingly beat #5 Arizona in the season’s opening tipoff. Then they blew out North Florida by 71 points in their second contest. After the two impressive W’s they now are ranked #9 in the polls.
UCLA football hasn’t been relevant in forever. They last appeared in the Rose Bowl game in 1999, last won “The Granddaddy of Them All” in 1986 (I was in the stands for that one!) and have yet to qualify for a College Football Playoff appearance.
Maybe 2026 will be different. With the hiring of Bob Chesney, the team has secured nine consecutive wins coming out of the gates this season. That has earned them a #4 ranking in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
The Bruins’ women’s basketball team has been the shining star among these three top programs. 2024-2025 team lost in the final four of the NCAA Tournament. Last season they raced their way to a national championship.
They began this season having had six players from the championship team selected in the first two rounds of the last WNBA draft. After two impressive wins to jump start this season, I saw a headline reporting the team sits at #10 in the current rankings.
#9. #4. #10. Three teams in the top ten of their respective rankings. Has a university ever had their top programs ranked in the top ten of their sport at the same time? I turned to my newest BFF 😊, ChatGPT, for an answer . . . and here’s what it had to say –
“UCLA may have achieved something exceptionally rare, but I can’t yet substantiate a claim that it’s unprecedented.” If ChatGPT cannot find otherwise, then I’m thinking it’s rarified air indeed.
GO BRUINS!!