UCLA Fans May Yet Have Reason to Cheer at End of This Season

Year after year, Bruin football fans traverse the season on the same emotional trail.

First, they hope UCLA goes undefeated and wins the national championship. That dream is usually squelched the first or second week.

Then, they wish for a Pac-10 championship and Rose Bowl trip. But as soon as that light fades, true Bruin fans get down to their most passionate desire: that the Bruins LOSE EVERY GAME the rest of the year and finally get Terry Donahue fired!

Take heart, Bruin fans, 2-9 might be just what we need.

RICK WALLACE

JONO MITCHELL

Malibu

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Question: What do these three colleges have in common:

1. Alabama (hired Homer Smith from UCLA).

2. Colorado (hired Rick Neuheisel from UCLA).

3. Texas A&M; (fired Bob Toledo and recommended him to UCLA).

Answer: Each is undefeated and in the top 10.

STEPHEN BROWN

San Luis Obispo

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Those long-suffering Bruin fans who continue to desperately hope that the UCLA athletic hierarchy will fire Terry Donahue are doomed to endless disappointment. From 1989 to 1991, Donahue’s record was 17-16-1. The response of (Chancellor Charles) Young and (Athletic Director Peter) Dalis was to give him a three-year contract extension. Since then, Donahue has gone 16-14, and his contract now runs through 1998.

Time and again, the athletic administration has shown that it combines stupidity with stubbornness in unparalleled measure. The only possible hope is an absolute revolt from the heretofore sullen but acquiescent alumni and boosters, and the implosion of the entire athletic program. Maybe then a phoenix can rise from the ashes of this once-proud program.

WILLIAM PLATT

Sherman Oaks

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It has long been commonly known among the Bruin football faithful that Terry Donahue has worked tirelessly at lowering the high expectations of his players and UCLA fans.

Somehow, in 1988, the Bruins held the No. 1 spot for 13 short days until they blew a 27-6 third-quarter lead, at home, to Washington State and lost, 34-30. Since that bleak day, Donahue has gone on to accumulate a stellar record of 36-31-1, which has certainly taught all UCLA fans a lesson and killed any such foolish talk of striving to win a national championship.

As at all other schools, the football program generates the income to field all the other men’s and women’s teams. However, as revenues have continued to drop at UCLA, Pete Dalis, instead of going out and getting a top-notch coach, has inexplicably decided to eliminate entire programs.

For the last 30 years, UCLA has routinely won NCAA titles in virtually every sport, yet somehow accepts mediocrity in the one sport that never wins a national title and carries the burden of funding the entire athletic department.

Enough is enough.

GREG HUYSMAN

Fullerton