The 1966 UCLA Bruins football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in the

Athletic Association of Western Universities The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

(AAWU/Pac-8) during the

1966 NCAA University Division football season The 1966 University Division football season was marked by some controversy as the year of "The Tie", a famous 10–10 game between the two top-ranked teams, Michigan State and Notre Dame on November 19. Both teams were crowned national champions ...

. In their second year under head coach

Tommy Prothro James Thompson "Tommy" Prothro Jr. (July 20, 1920 – May 14, 1995) was an American football coach. He was the head coach at Oregon State University from 1955 to 1964 and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1965 to 1970, compili ...

, the Bruins compiled a 9–1 record (3–1 AAWU, second), and were ranked fifth in the final AP Poll. UCLA's offensive leaders in 1966 were quarterback

Gary Beban Gary Joseph Beban (born August 5, 1946) is an American former professional football player. Beban won the 1967 Heisman Trophy, narrowly beating out O.J. Simpson, and the Maxwell Award while playing quarterback for the UCLA Bruins. He played ...

with 1,245 passing yards, running back

Mel Farr Melvin Farr (November 3, 1944 – August 3, 2015) was an American professional football player and businessman. A native of Beaumont, Texas, Farr played college football as a halfback on the 1965 and 1966 UCLA Bruins football teams that w ...

with 809 rushing yards, and Harold Busby with 474 receiving yards. Heading into the final game of the regular season against

rival A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

, UCLA was 2–1 in conference, 8–1 overall, and ranked fifth in the country. Featuring a "dream backfield" of

All-Americans The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

Beban and Farr, the Bruins lost only one game, at

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

in rainy

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, where Huskies' head coach

Jim Owens James Donald Owens (March 6, 1927 – June 6, 2009) was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach at the University of Washington from 1957 to 1974, compiling a record of in 18 seasons. Owens played college football at the U ...

had devoted his entire season to beating Prothro. UCLA had beaten UW the season before, 28–24, with Prothro's trick play, the Z-streak in which a receiver trots towards the sideline like he's going out of the game and then runs a streak pattern unguarded by the inattentive defender. USC was 4–0 in conference and 7–1 overall, upset on the road by the unranked

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

in late October. The Bruins and Trojans played a different number of conference games due to uneven scheduling caused by the newer AAWU members and schedules made years in advance (neither played

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

; USC shut out

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

). It was widely assumed that only losses would be considered and the winner of the UCLA-USC game would earn the Rose Bowl berth. Beban broke his ankle the week before in the 10–0 home win over

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, but backup Norman Dow, making his only start at quarterback, led UCLA to a 14–7 win over the Trojans. That left USC with a 4–1 conference record (7–2 overall) and #5 UCLA with a 3–1 conference record (9–1) overall. Due to their win over USC, it was widely assumed UCLA would get the Rose Bowl berth. However, a vote the next Monday among the AAWU conference athletic directors awarded USC the Rose Bowl berth. It was speculated that the directors believed Beban could not play for UCLA in the Rose Bowl due to the broken ankle, thereby giving the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

representative,

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

, a better chance to win. As it turned out, Beban could have played, but a bigger reason was that this was to make up for 1964 when

was voted in ahead of USC; the head coach of Oregon State that year was Prothro. Another speculation was the vote was against UCLA out of pure jealousy by the rest of the conference, which voted 7–1 for the clearly inferior team. This vote deprived Prothro of being the first head coach to earn three consecutive Rose Bowl berths and UCLA athletic director J. D. Morgan called it a "gross injustice" and the "a dark day in UCLA and AAWU athletic history." Inflamed UCLA students who had gathered for the Rose Bowl celebration rally, took to the streets of Westwood in protest and actually blocked the

405 Freeway Interstate 405 (I-405) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. The entire route is known as the northern segment of the San Diego Freeway. I-405 is a bypass auxiliary route of I-5, running along the s ...

for a short time. Ironically, Morgan was the force behind establishing a tie-breaking method adopted by the conference one year later in which only loss column counted; the first tiebreaker was head-to-head results, followed by overall record. If there was still a tie, the Rose Bowl berth would go to the team that had not played in the Rose Bowl the longest. But it was too late for UCLA. In their final regular season game the next week, USC made the AAWU decision look bad by getting routed 51–0 at home in the L.A. Coliseum by #1 Notre Dame; they lost 14–13 to #7 Purdue in the Rose Bowl on January 2 and finished at 7–4.

Schedule

Personnel

References

{{UCLA Bruins football navbox

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

UCLA Bruins football seasons

UCLA Bruins football The UCLA Bruins football program represents the University of California, Los Angeles, in college football as members of the Pac-12 Conference at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level. The Bruins play their home games at the ...