Alumni, Babies, Students and Pups Come Together to Celebrate UCLA Football at College GameDay

Bruins of all shapes and sizes packed into Wilson Plaza to make it on ESPN early Saturday morning.

The sun wasn't up yet – far from it actually.

Bruin fans started pouring into Wilson Plaza at 4:30 a.m., and that doesn't include the members of The Den who started camping out at midnight. The sun wouldn't rise until well after 7 a.m., and the fanbase was left waiting in the dark for the show to start.

The energy wasn't all that sleepy, though.

ESPN brought College GameDay to Westwood on Saturday, and although most of the show took place before dawn, it got plenty loud at times. The network estimated that a few thousand fans came out to be part of the experience, with dozens of goofy signs and even more rowdy students filling up the designated area.

Everyone from fraternity and sorority members to toddlers, superfans and even dogs made it out for the first ever College GameDay held in Westwood, and a good chunk of them were going to be heading over to the Rose Bowl for the game between UCLA football (5-2, 3-1 Pac-12) and Oregon (5-1, 2-1). Many young parents decked out in school gear had babies in backpacks, not letting the young ones keep them away from campus on the biggest day of the season to this point.

Coretta Harris, a board member on the UCLA Engineering Alumni Association, came over to campus all on her own, 38 years since she graduated.

"It's indescribable," Harris said about the environment at her alma mater.

Wayne Redfearn and Derrell Butler went to UCLA from 1965 to 1969, witnessing three men's basketball national titles and a Rose Bowl win in their undergrad years.

The Sigma Nu fraternity brothers of over 50 years decided they would be coming to Westwood for GameDay the moment ESPN announced its Week 8 site.

"I came here as a freshman in '65, but whenever you come as an alum, you come back on campus, you feel like you're 17 years old again," Redfearn. "I'm 74 years old, so I don't know if thing will ever happen again in my lifetime."

While Redfearn and Butler guessed they were the oldest fans in attendance, there was an even older man sporting blue and gold from head to toe.

Bernard Jurkowski, while not an alumnus, was a season ticket holder for nearly 25 years. His son Kevin and daughter-in-law Kristina both went to UCLA, and his grandson Kyle just enrolled as a freshman this fall.

The eldest Jurkowski made sure he and his whole family made it on campus this weekend, and he said he wasn't going to miss it no matter how early he had to wake up.

"I said to him 'When I'm 83, I want to come to this stuff,'" Kristina Jurkowski said. "Kyle said 'Seriously? Grandpa's going?' He said YOLO."

The show itself was highlighted by appearances from coach Chip Kelly and Hall of Famer Bill Walton, who predictably picked UCLA to beat Oregon alongside Lee Corso, who donned Joe Bruin's head much to the crowd's delight.

The game itself is set to kick off 27 miles away in Pasadena, and the whole Jurkowski family – along with Harris, Redfearn and Butler – also picked the Bruins to win.

"I think it'll be a hard, tough game," Bernard Jurkowski said. "Whoever makes the least mistakes will really win today."

Highlights of the Show

All Bruins Publisher and Managing Editor Sam Connon was right in the thick of things in Westwood on Saturday, documenting the entire ESPN experience.

Sift through this thread spanning the course of four hours to see the best quotes, signs and moments from the show.

ESPN’s @CollegeGameDay is here, and so am I.

UCLA fans are up (not so) bright and early for this one. Long day ahead, and it starts right here in Westwood. pic.twitter.com/JLttbG44u8

— Sam Connon (@SamConnon) October 23, 2021

Follow Connon on Twitter at @SamConnon
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