1954 UCLA Bruins football team

The 1954 UCLA Bruins football team was an American football team that represented the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Pacific Coast Conference during the 1954 college football season. They played their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and were coached by Red Sanders. It was Sanders' sixth season as the UCLA head coach; the Bruins finished 9–0 overall, and were Pacific Coast Conference Champions with a 6–0 record. In nine games, UCLA outscored their opponents, 367 to 40.

The Bruins were not eligible to play in the Rose Bowl vs. Ohio State (ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll) because of the PCC's "no repeat" rule, in effect for most of the decade, after California lost a third straight Rose Bowl in January 1951. Since UCLA had played in the 1954 Rose Bowl, they were excluded from the 1955 event. The game likely would have made for a de facto national championship game, but thus, rival USC (whom the Bruins soundly defeated 34–0) went instead, and lost 20–7 to Ohio State. Following the outcome, UCLA and Ohio State split the national championship.

UCLA was selected national champion by NCAA-designated major selectors of Dunkel, Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), Litkenhous, National Championship Foundation, and United Press International (Coaches Poll), and co-champion by both Football Research and Helms. This consensus national championship is claimed by the school. Ohio State was selected national champion by the AP Poll among other selectors.

Comparing the games against two common opponents, UCLA defeated California and USC by larger margins than Ohio State and the coaches of those schools both stated that they felt UCLA was better

During the season, the Bruins debuted their powder blue uniforms, referred to as "powder-keg blue" by head coach Sanders, that featured two white stripes around the shoulders. The white uniforms with blue stripes were used the previous season during the game against USC but this was the earliest known instance of the stripes becoming a regular part of the UCLA uniform.

San Diego Navy
The Bruins had originally scheduled Santa Clara to open their season but after the Broncos suspended football, the San Diego Naval Training Center was scheduled as a replacement. Although the San Diego NTC featured players such as All-American Bucky Curtis from Vanderbilt and All-PCC Earl Stelle from Oregon, UCLA was favored three touchdowns.

Primo Villanueva scored the first two touchdowns of the game and the Bruins led 13–0 within 7 minutes. Bruce Ballard, Sam Brown, Villaneuva, and Bob Davenport would each score another running touchdown giving the Bruins a 40–0 halftime lead. Davenport, Gerry McDougall, and Doug Peters would each score three more running touchdowns and Ronnie Loudd would score a passing touchdown from Gerry McDougal to give UCLA a punishing 67–0 victory.

Kansas
The Bruins scored three consecutive touchdowns in the first quarter. Kansas player Ralph Moody scored the first Kansas touchdown on an 82-yard punt return. Jack Ellena would score on a 50-yard punt return in the fourth quarter. A 73-yard run by reserve fullback Don Shinnick down to the 9-yard line would set up Gerry McDougall for UCLA's final score of the day.

Maryland
Maryland were the 1953 national champions. Bob Davenport gained 89 yard on 23 carries and scored both of UCLA's touchdowns. Maryland's Howard Dare scored a touchdown on a pass from Charley Boxold to give the Terrapins the lead early in the fourth quarter. Davenport scored the go ahead touchdown in the middle of the fourth quarter to give the Bruins the victory.

Washington
Bob Davenport scored two rushing touchdowns, Primo Villanueva scored one rushing touchdown, and Johnny Herman converted all three extra points to give UCLA a 21–0 led midway through the third quarter. After Bruins Coach Sanders replaced his starters with his second and third string players, Washington quarterback Bob Cox threw a passing touchdown to Dean Derby and Bob Dunn converted the extra point to reduce UCLA's lead to 21–7 at the end of the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Sam Brown fumbled which allowed Washington to recover at the UCLA 25. Cox threw another touchdown, this time to Corky Lewis but Dunn missed the extra point kick. Brown fumbled again for a 13-yard loss and Washington scored another passing touchdown on a 56-yard drive. Dunn's extra point reduced the UCLA lead to 21–20 with 2:30 minutes left. The Bruins would hold out to win the game.

Stanford
The Bruin defense intercepted Stanford quarterbacks Jerry Gustafson and John Neff eight times and returned them for 210 total yards. Sam Brown set a new conference record for punt returns with 132 yards in three returns. Villanueva, Davenport and Brown each scored twice while Decker, Loudd, Heydenfeldt and McDougall scored once each for a total of 10 touchdowns.

Oregon State
Sam Brown scored two touchdowns and Bob Davenport, Johnny Hermann, Primo Villanueva, Doug Peters, Don Shinnick, Russ Hampton, and Clarence Norris each scored a touchdown to give UCLA the 61–0 victory over Oregon State. The Bruins rushed for 498 yards and 593 total yards while holding Oregon State to 88 rushing yards and 111 total yards.

California
Primo Villanueva rushed for two touchdowns in the first half and threw a touchdown pass to Johnny Hermann in the fourth. Cal's Paul Larson set new Bears record for passes (38), pass completions (25), and pass yards (280) and Williams scored the Bears' lone touchdown on a 7-yard run.

Oregon
With the victory, UCLA set a new single scoring record of 333 points, surpassing the previous record of 327 points in just 8 games. Rommie Loudd scored the first points of the game on a 16-yard pass from Primo Villanueva. Bob Davenport, Jim Decker, Doug Bradley, Sam Brown, and Rommie Loudd each scored rushing touchdowns. Oregon only moved passed the 50 yard line two and the UCLA defense limited George Shaw, the country's leading passer with 178 yard per game, to only 29 yards.

USC
A 48-yard pass from Primo Villanueva to Bob Heydenfeldt gave UCLA a 7–0 first quarter lead. The Bruins poured on with four touchdowns in the fourth quarter: Bob Davenport scored from the one-yard line, Villanueva passed to Terry Debay for a 12-yard touchdown, Rommie Loudd caught a pass from Doug Bradley for an 8-yard touchdown, and Sam Brown passed to Bruce Ballard for a 17-yard touchdown. USC had only 5 yards rushing.

Coaching staff
Henry "Red" Sanders returned to coach the Bruins for the sixth season. The Bruin coaching staff included four future college head coaches, including three (Barnes, Dickerson, and Prothro) who would eventually serve as UCLA head coaches.

Special teams
(Statistics compiled from individual NCAA game summaries)

Awards and honors
All-American Coaches' All-PCC UP All-Coast Team AP All-Pacific Coast Team
 * First Team All-American (Consensus)
 * Jack Ellena (AAB, AFCA, AP, INS, NEA, SN, UP)
 * First Team All-American
 * Bob Davenport (AP-2, FWAA, INS-2, NEA-2, UP-3, CP-2)
 * Jim Salsbury (AFCA, AP-3, FWAA, INS-2, NEA-2, UP-2, CP-3)
 * Second Team All-American
 * Primo Villaneva (AP-HR, UP-2, CP-HR, NEA-HR)
 * Honorable Mention All-American
 * Sam Boghosian (UP-HR)
 * Hardiman Cureton (UP-HR, UP-HR)
 * Bob Heydenfeldt (UP-HR)
 * Bob Long (AP-HR)
 * Ronnie Loudd (UP-HR)
 * Terry Debay (UP-HR)
 * Jim Decker (UP-HR)
 * John Peterson (UP-HR, CP-HR)
 * Joe Ray (AP-HR, UP-HR)
 * All-PCC First Team
 * Bob Davenport
 * Jim Salsbury
 * Primo Villaneva
 * Jack Ellena
 * All-PCC Second Team
 * Sam Boghosian
 * Herdiman Cureton
 * Bob Long
 * Jim Decker
 * Joe Ray
 * Honorable Mention
 * John Hermann
 * Terry Debay
 * Gil Moreno
 * John Peterson
 * All-Coast First Team
 * Bob Davenport
 * Jack Ellena
 * Jim Salsbury
 * Primo Villaneva
 * All-Coast Second Team
 * Sam Boghosian
 * Herdiman Cureton
 * Bob Heydenfeldt
 * All-Pacific First Team
 * Bob Davenport
 * Jack Ellena
 * Bob Long
 * Jim Salsbury
 * All-Pacific Second Team
 * Sam Boghosian
 * Herdiman Cureton
 * Joe Ray
 * Primo Villaneva

1955 NFL Draft
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