What is a Bruin?

The word “bruin” comes from the Dutch language, which means brown and describes the color of a bear. UCLA has the official school colors of blue and gold. UCLA has a bruin (or a brown bear) as a mascot. How did this happen?

The history comes from the early part of the 20th century, when UCLA was not very well recognized. The bigger brother was the football team known as the California Bears from northern California, the team representing Berkeley University.

When the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) was first established, the football team became the “cubs” because of being the baby brothers of the team that came before them in northern California. Because the name of the “cubs” seemed weaker and inferior, the team of UCLA wanted to change their name to the “grizzlies.”

Alas, this was not possible because a prior claim to the “grizzlies” came from the University of Montana. Because of this, the team from UCLA opted for the name and mascot of “bruins,” which is a type of brown bears. This was chosen in 1928 and has been the mascot ever since.

The school colors of UCLA are blue, representing the ocean, and gold, representing the state flower of the golden poppy, which are supported by the mascot of the bruin bear, since the bear is California’s state animal and appears on the state flag. The bruin bear had the overwhelming support of the student body of UCLA, because in the 1930s a live bear with his trainer appeared at each home game.

Imagine the possible confrontation today between a real live brown bear, which on its hind legs stands over six feet tall and a person in a mascot suit pretending to be a mascot from the opposing team! Wow! Nevertheless, this is no longer possible. During the 1930s, it became very apparent that having a live animal of such size on the sidelines of a football game, even when under the command of a skilled trainer was no longer feasible. Even though the crowds from the UCLA side loved the real animal, it was clear that it was becoming much too dangerous.

The modern day mascot of the UCLA Bruins is like all the others, a person in a suit that represents the mascot. However, there was a time for UCLA during the 1920s to the 1930s, when their mascot was a real, live, gigantic brown bear.

Sources: 1) Bruin 2) UCLA Bruins | Image provided from Surviving College