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.

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.

Schedule

Rankings

Game summaries 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."Bruins in Romp: Fast TDs by UCLA Win, 32–7," Pasadena Independent, Sept. 26, 1954, p. 25.

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.Dick Hyland, "Bruins Run Wild Again, Win 61–0," Los Angeles Times, Oct. 24, 1954, part 2, pp. 6, 9.

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.

Personnel Roster 1954 UCLA Bruins FootballHalfbacks 12 Doug Bradley– Sophomore 15 Sam Brown – Junior 16 Gerry McDougall – Sophomore 19 Primo Villanueva – Senior 30 Jim Decker – Junior 32 Bruce Ballard 33 Johnny Hermann – Junior

Fullbacks 26 Doug Peters – Junior 27 Bob Davenport – Junior 28 Don Shinnick – Sophomore

Quarterbacks 40 Terry Debay – Senior 44 Bob Bergdahl – Sophomore 46 Gerry Okuneff – Senior Centers 50 John Peterson – Senior 52 Jack McKay – Sophomore 53 Steve Palmer – Junior

Guards 60 Hardiman Cureton – Junior 62 Tom Thaxter – Sophomore 63 Jim Brown – Junior 64 Jim Salsbury – Senior 66 Mike Riskas 67 Sam Boghosian – Senior 69 Richard Braunbeck Tackles 71 Gil Moreno – Junior 74 Preston Dills – Junior 75 Warner Benjamin – Senior 77 Jack Ellena – Senior 78 Joe Ray – Senior

Ends 81 Bob Long – Senior 82 Rommie Loudd – Junior 83 Bob Heydenfeldt – Senior 84 Roger White - Junior 85 Russ Hampton 86 John Farhood 90 Clarence Norris – SeniorSources:

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. NamePositionYearsat UCLAAlma mater (year) Henry "Red" SandersHead coach6Vanderbilt (1926) William F. BarnesEnds coach5Tennessee (1939) Deke BrackettAssistant coach5Tennessee (1933) George W. DickersonAssistant line coach8UCLA (1936) Jim MyersLine coach6Tennessee (1946) Tommy ProthroBackfield coach6Duke (1941) Johnny JohnsonFreshman coach6UCLA (1946)

Statistics

Team UCLAOpp Points per game40.84.4 First downs15195   Rushing11935   Passing3158   Penalty12 Rushing yardage 2,578659   Rushing attempts 454314   Avg per rush 5.62.1   Avg per game 286.473.2 Passing yardage 7211,049   Avg per game 80.1 116.6   Completions – attempts 52-107 (48.6%) 92-216 (42.6%) Total offense 3,2991,708   Total play 561470   Avg per play 5.93.7   Avg per game 366.6195.3 Fumbles lost 23–1232–21UCLAOpp Punts – yards 40-1497 (37.4 avg)57-1932 (33.9 avg) Punt returns – total yards 32-588 (18.4 avg)23-271 (11.8 avg) Kick returns – total yards 16-323 (20.2 avg)58-862 (14.9 avg) Onside kicks Avg time of possession per game Penalties – yards 34-40041-355   Avg per game 44.439.4 3rd down conversions 4th down conversions Sacks By – yards Total TDs 456   Rushing 352   Passing 104 Field goals – attempts 0-0 (0%)0-0 (0%) PAT – attempts 37-55 (67.3%)4-6 (66.7%) Total attendance 317,707134,178   Games – avg per game5 – 63,541 4 – 33,544

Scores by quarter

Offense

Rushing Name GP-GS Att Gain Loss Net Avg TD Long Avg/GBruce Ballard 8-0 18 141 19 122 6.8 2 15.3Doug Bradley 9-1 31 116 27 89 2.9 1 9.9Sam Brown 8-2 23 165 30 135 5.9 5 16.9Bob Davenport 9-9 105 505 26 479 4.6 11 53.2Jim Decker 9-8 47 523 15 508 10.8 4 56.4Johnny Hermann 9-1 23 171 16 155 6.7 2 17.2Bob Heydenfeldt 9-3 1 0 8 -8 -8 2 -0.9Rommie Loudd 9-6 3 7 3 4 1.3 5 0.4Gerry McDougall 8-0 43 254 28 226 5.3 2 28.3Clarence Norris 9-0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0Doug Peters 9-0 42 193 12 181 4.3 2 20.1Don Shinnick 9-0 28 210 0 210 7.5 1 23.3Al Tanner 2-0 1 11 0 11 11 0 5.5Primo Villanueva 8-6 87 544 58 486 5.6 4 60.8*Bad Center Pass 1 0 20 -20 -20 Total 115-36 454 2,860 262 2,578 5.7.6 42 22.4

Passing Name GP-GS Effic Att-Cmp-Int Pct Yds TD Lng Avg/G Doug Bradley 9-1 31-20-2 0.645 229 2 25.4 Sam Brown 8-2 12-3-1 0.25 54 1 6.8 Bob Davenport 9-9 1-0-0 0 0 0 0 Gerry McDougall 8-0 14-6-0 0.429 38 2 4.8 Primo Villanueva 9-6 49-23-7 0.469 400 5 44.4 Total 107-18 107-52-10 0.486 721 10 6.73

Receiving Name GP-GS No. Yds Avg TD Long Avg/GBob Ballard 8-0 2 36 18 1 4.5Terry DeBay 9-8 1 12 12 1 1.3Jim Decker 9-8 4 78 19.5 0 8.7Russ Hampton 7-0 5 60 12 1 8.6Johnny Hermann 9-1 5 73 14.6 2 8.1Bob Heydenfeldt 9-3 6 110 18.3 1 12.2Bob Long 9-9 11 157 14.3 0 17.4Rommie Loudd 9-6 13 157 12.1 4 17.4Clarence Norris 9-0 3 21 7 0 2.3Gerry Okuneff 8-0 2 17 8.5 0 2.1 Total 86-35 52 721 13.9 10 8.4

Defense Name GP Tackles Sacks Pass defense Interceptions Fumbles Blkdkick Solo Ast Total TFL-yds No-Yds BrUp QBH No.-yds Avg TD Long Rcv-Yds FFBruce Ballard 8 4-60 Warner Benjamin 9 1-9 Bob Bergdahl 8 1-8 Doug Bradley 9 2-31 Richard Braunbeck 5 1-5 Sam Brown 8 1-21 Bob Davenport 9 1-64 Terry DeBay 9 3-73 Jim Decker 9 2-91 Russ Hampton 7 1-0 Johnny Hermann 9 2-44 Bob Long 9 2-37 Rommie Loudd 9 1-6 Gerry Okuneff 8 2-5 Steve Palmer 9 1-0 Doug Peters 9 1-30 Primo Villanueva 8 2-21 Total 142 28-505

Special teams Name Punting Kickoffs No. Yds Avg Long TB FC I20 Blkd No. Yds Avg TB OBDoug Bradley14242 Sam Brown413433.5 Bob Heydenfeldt26103839.9 Gerry McDougall24522.5 Primo Villanueva723834 - Total 40 1,497 37.4

Name Punt returns Kick returns No. Yds Avg TD Long No. Yds Avg TD LongBob Ballard11717 Doug Bradley512725.412323 Sam Brown1026226.212828 Bob Davenport47418.5 Jim Decker1181822914.5 Jack Ellena15050 Johnny Hermann242 Rommie Loudd11515 Gerry McDougall12929 Clarence Norris12121 Doug Peters11818 Primo Villanueva121068.848020 Total 32 588 18.3 9 313 34.7

(Statistics compiled from individual NCAA game summaries)

Awards and honors All-American 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)