During the 1981-82 academic year, the University of California, Los Angeles, won more NCAA titles in a single year — five — than any other institution had ever won before. Now, 25 years later, the Bruins are poised to set another bar — the first NCAA member to win 100 team championships.

Even more remarkable, UCLA has won all of its championships since 1950. In that year, Herb Flam completed an undefeated four-year tennis career at UCLA by contributing both singles and doubles (with Gene Garrett) titles to the team’s — and the institution’s — first national championship.

Fifty-six years later, on May 14, 2006, the women’s water polo team beat the two top seeds to win the Bruins’ 99th team championship. In between, UCLA teams won 97 NCAA titles in nine different sports, producing dynasties such as the John Wooden-coached men’s basketball teams in the 1960s and 1970s and a remarkable 19 men’s volleyball championships between 1970 and 2006.

Current UCLA Athletics Director Daniel G. Guerrero looks forward to the 100th victory, as much for what it will mean to past Bruins as to those currently involved with the program.

"To be the first school to win 100 NCAA team championships would be a great tribute to all of the outstanding student-athletes, coaches and support staff throughout the years," he said. "UCLA has a rich athletics history, and it is important to remember and celebrate those who built the foundation and earned the early championships as well as those who have contributed to recent successes."

Celebrations planned

To that end, the institution is planning to celebrate the 100 victories in a variety of ways. However, UCLA Associate Athletics Director Glenn Toth said that planning how the institution will mark the occasion has been tricky because of timing issues.

"When we win the 100th is unknown," he said. "When we ended last (2005) year at 97, we thought there was a reasonable chance that we might get to 100 soon, so we formed a committee ... and started formulating what we’re going to do."

The committee included members from the athletics staff, other campus departments and the alumni association. It began meeting last fall, and the institution went through the fall and winter championship seasons without winning a national title. When 98 and 99 were won on consecutive weekends this spring, officials began to dust off the campaign, titled "First to 100."

The centerpiece of the celebration will be a presentation at each home football and men’s basketball game after the institution reaches 100 championships, with representatives from five of the past championship teams honored at each game, either at halftime or before the game. The teams won’t be honored in any particular order.

Ideally, officials would like to begin the celebration in the fall, so the timing would be awkward if a Bruin team wins a national championship this autumn. Toth said the institution doesn’t want too much time to pass between capturing the 100th title and the kickoff of the celebration, so beginning it during the basketball season is an option.

"The planning for this is really tough, especially in getting the representatives for some of these teams. You want to lock people in months in advance," he said. "It’s been an interesting planning process because when we win it is an unknown."

Besides recognizing a member of each championship team, the celebration will include videoboard presentations at both the Rose Bowl (where UCLA plays its regular-season football games) and Pauley Pavilion, including trivia, quizzes, video and photos related to the five teams being introduced at that game.

UCLA also developed a "First to 100" logo to be used in the center circle of the field or court and has asked for NCAA permission to replicate the national championship trophy in a larger size to display at the UCLA chancellor’s office and in the UCLA Hall of Fame.

All the athletics team uniforms will be adjusted in some way to recognize the 100th championship, too. For example, the block "C" in "UCLA" on the men’s basketball uniforms will be gold instead of blue because "C" is the Roman numeral for 100.

"We want people to say, ‘Why is the ‘C’ a different color than the ‘U’ and the ‘LA?’" Toth said. "We want the television announcers to explain it to the home audience."

The institution also has developed commemorative apparel and small, individual trophies for members of championship teams. Each sport — even those that have not won an NCAA championship —-will be included in the celebration in some way.

One element that will not be affected by the timing of the win will be provided by one of UCLA’s corporate partners, adidas. The company helped athletics administrators put together a full-page congratulatory newspaper ad that includes a photograph of some of the NCAA championship trophies in UCLA’s collection. Officials plan to place the ad in the Los Angeles Times within days of the 100th championship.

While all this planning is going on in the athletics department, the student-athletes — and the rest of campus — are abuzz with the excitement of the 100th championship.

Toth said the student-athletes are excited about the possibility of their team putting the school over the top.

"(They) have been openly saying how great it would be to be number 100." Toth said.

The department is considering something special for the team that wins the 100th championship, but he said that each championship is just as special as the last — "Number 88 was just as important as was number 21 and number four."

Emily Feher, goalkeeper on the women’s water polo team that won championship No. 99 (as well as number 96) for UCLA, said the atmosphere on campus is electric.

"(The campus) is so full of excitement. It’s been recognized not only at the school, but just walking around, people come up to you and talk about it," she said. "I think the whole tradition of UCLA is really coming alive right now because we’re so close to the landmark. It’s really exciting for everybody, not just the athletes."

That excitement has even filtered to the conference level. Not only is UCLA on the brink of its 100th championship, but the No. 2 and No. 3 schools on the all-time championships list, Stanford University (93) and the University of Southern California (85) respectively, also call the Pacific-10 Conference home.

Pacific-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen said the institutions in the conference have a combined total of 350 championships — 100 for women and 250 for men.

"We win them across a broad array of sports. Obviously, we have an outstanding Olympic sports program, and UCLA has really epitomized that," he said. "It has a really broad program. I think that’s probably the most remarkable thing (about UCLA) in addition to the sheer number, but to win them in so many different sports."

Hansen said UCLA’s strength rests in the depth of its program. It fields championship-caliber teams in a wide variety of men’s and women’s sports, including prominent ones such as men’s basketball.

He attributed the championships success of the Pacific-10 to a number of factors, including the weather conditions many member institutions like UCLA enjoy. But that is only part of the picture, he said.

"We’ve had outstanding coaches. If you look over the years from John Wooden and on down, we’ve had outstanding coaches and excellent traditions in a large number of sports," he said. "We’re exceptionally strong in a number of them, such as softball and women’s volleyball, where it’s not unusual for us to play Pac-10 versus Pac-10 for the national championship."

UCLA has taken part in many of the conference-dominated championships, most recently the 2005 women’s water polo championship, in which the Bruins defeated rival Stanford.

Toth said the importance of reaching 100 championships at UCLA has many different facets.

"We have been enormously successful in a reasonably short period of time, given that our first championship wasn’t won until 1950," Toth said. "Really, it’s the last 35, 40 years that we’ve taken off like a rocket."

In fact, UCLA teams have won more than a quarter of the institution’s 99 NCAA titles in the last decade, including 12 women’s gymnastics, softball and women’s water polo crowns.

But the other meaningful aspect of being "First to 100" is sealing the institution’s commitment to excellence in all areas of education, including intercollegiate athletics.

"It’s extremely satisfying from an institutional standpoint that we can say that we’re the most accomplished athletics program in America, but that statement can’t be taken by itself," Toth said. "UCLA as an institution really does endeavor to be best. It’s not just an athletics statement when we claim to be a pre-eminent institution. We love the synergy and the association that goes along with the academic side of things."

Personally, the athletics success has made coming into work every morning more fun, Toth said.

"There’s an intrinsic satisfaction just in competing, whether you finish first or last, which is why we do it in the first place," he said. "But there’s no question that an enhancement to that endeavor is winning. To me, the ultimate achievement of being a national champion in a particular sport is just one more step of satisfaction. And to take a cumulative look at what the department has done collectively, it just causes you to step back a little bit and say, you know, we must be doing something right."