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2 comments to Comments

• Bushi Xhindi

  September 1, 2016 at 7:39 pm · Reply

  Hello Keith,

  I really enjoyed reading your book. Mostly I admired your stubbornness, if I can call it like that, for explaining with details the real story of UCLA from the early days of 1881 until 1919 (forgotten past). Good non fiction writer, like yourself, makes sure that the reader will be completely interesting on the story. Good writing is, when the writer, puts timing, his energy and efforts for publishing good book and you have all that on you. Additionally, has beautiful ending that will satisfy readers. After finishing your book, I become fan of UCLA football team. Love football?
  Can’t wait to read another book of yours.

  Bushi Xhindi

• George Burke

  July 13, 2017 at 4:17 pm · Reply

  Keith, the “100th” Anniversary celebration UCLA has planned for 2019 should have taken place in 1981. Your book details the history of the need for, and the development of, higher education in the Los Angeles area in the late 19th and early 20th century, with the Normal School being founded in 1881, the establishment of the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, and the Southern Branch’s subsequent renaming as UCLA. The contemporaneous writings show that the changeover from the Normal School to the Southern Branch was a change in the institution, but was not an abandonment of the Normal School past or the creation from thin air of an altogether separate school. The continuity shown in the faculty, the physical facilities, the student and alumni organizations, the publications, and the traditions from the Normal School to the Southern Branch and to UCLA reinforces this conclusion. You also document (and controvert) the subsequent “revisionist” histories that have led to the popular belief that UCLA as an institution began in 1919. Your Appendix showing how many other schools view their histories is instructive in establishing an “industry norm” for establishing the date of a school’s founding. The fact that so many schools, including schools such as Duke, Tennessee, Florida, etc., claim start dates that are seemingly much less connected than the straight line from the Normal School to UCLA strongly supports the argument that 1881 should be considered the founding date for the school. John Wooden told his players to be quick, but don’t hurry. If UCLA is quick in adopting its lost history, it wouldn’t have to hurry too much to schedule its 150th Anniversary celebration for 2031.