Perhaps a look at the 1931 football season will raise some eyebrows in light of the title chosen for this piece. Entering its 13th year of existence, and its 13th football season, UCLA was still a relative newcomer to the preeminent football conference in the West, the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC). After three seasons in the PCC, the early returns emphasized the steep talent curve for the Bruins and 1931 would be no different. In 1931, UCLA finished with another losing record as they limped toward a 3-4-1 season total. Although a better overall record than the year prior, when the Bruins finished 3-5, this was a clear step-backward from 1930 as the 1931 Bruins failed to win a single conference match-up.
Nonetheless, the Montana Grizzlies finished win-less in the conference also, and with just one win all season long, those “cubs” sat at the bottom of the PCC standings this year. Of course, this all means UCLA and Montana did not play each other in 1931, and so for today, we have to rely on wildly misaligned conference slates to determine that UCLA was the better team that year, and a couple of other match-ups for our review of the The Goal Post from 1931. And for now, we will need to wait another season for UCLA to finally turn the corner and establish itself among the other powerful Western teams in college football.
Western Power: The Gaels of Saint Mary’s College
But maybe I spoke a bit too soon. You see back in 1931, the Gaels were a national football power, on par with the other national powers in the West, Stanford, Cal, and Southern Cal – separated mostly only by the Gaels lack of claim to a national championship.
The feared red and blue from Moraga were led by Hall of Fame coach, Edward Patrick “Slip” Madigan who led the Gaels from 1921 to 1939, with a total record of 117-45-12, and also led the Gaels to its only bowl victory in school history (1 of 3 total bowl appearances) when SMC beat Texas Tech in the 1939 Cotton Bowl. That Slip and his “Galloping Gaels” never won a national championship seems like an historical error, but in the only four seasons Slip’s teams played in a conference, the Northern California Conference, the “Blue Bombardiers” not only won the title, but were undefeated compiling a 12-0 conference record over four years.
And so, imagine my surprise, with this history in mind, when I leafed through this mutilated rag that was once the 1931 commemorative program from UCLA’s and Los Angeles’s celebration of Armistices Day and saw the owner, in apparent jubilant celebration, had handwritten the score 12 U.C.L.A. – St. Mary’s 0. Indeed, the theme of The Goal Post on this day was one meant to prepare Bruins fans for what appeared to be an insurmountable stampede coming down from the North. Still led by Bill Spaulding, the Bruins appeared to remain a talent-poor squad against the elite teams in the Pacific, and especially the powers in California, like St. Mary’s.
Spaulding is in his seventh year at Westwood and in building a reputation for good sportsmanship he has won the admiration and respect of everyone on the Pacific Coast. Hampered by mediocre material, progress has been slow, but his ultimate success is unquestioned.
TODAY’S GENERALS, below.
Unquestioned success for Spaulding and his squad came this day when the Mighty Bruins rose up to take down the indomitable Gaels in a 12-0 shutout. If previously cubs before, they truly became Bruins this day, taking down a St. Mary’s team that would finish the season #5 in the country and making a statement in front of 50,000 fans, 15,000 more than their second biggest crowd in Chicago when the cub-like Bruins were blanked by the Wildcats of Northwestern (I told you there were a lot of Wildcats).
Well, not everyone had written the Bruins off entirely before the game started. And the impact of this game would change the tenor of discussion for this 1931 Bruins squad and provided a glimpse of how bright the future for UCLA football could be. If this gutty bunch could stop the stampede of the great Galloping Gaels, then UCLA could compete with anyone when at its best – perhaps the enduring description of Bruins Football. A sleeping giant still waiting to be awoken. A UCLA team, not unlike St. Mary’s, that when looked at with the full context history at your disposal, it is surprising to some that it has achieved such tremendous success in college football given its current national reputation, while others, credibly argue that perhaps no other team has under-performed at the nationally elite level given its relative success and proven capability for success, than the same UCLA Bruins.
A sleeping giant still waiting to be awoken.
But as I was saying, not everyone wrote the Bruins off entirely this day. Leave it your loyal official sponsor to provide the glimmer of hope the fans crave!
WHILE St. Mary’s has defeated U.C.L.A in every engagement played between the two teams by at least three touchdowns, there those who say that this is the Bruin’s year to win.
And so next, the Bruins took on the Ducks from Oregon 10 days later, and we will explore how the narrative of the 1931 Bruins was transformed with a single upset win over the juggernaut that was Slip Madigan’s St. Mary’s College Gaels.
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