West Coast Conference
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The West Coast Conference is an NCAA collegiate athletic conference consisting of eight member schools in California, Oregon, and Washington. It was founded in 1952 as the California Basketball Association by a group of five schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, and became the West Coast Conference in 1956. All of the current members are private, religiously-affiliated institutions; four of the eight are Jesuit, and only Pepperdine is not Catholic. It is also a remarkably stable union in the constantly changing world of college athletics. The WCC has not had a school join or leave the conference since 1980. Only two conferences, the Ivy League and the Pac-10, have remained unchanged for a longer period of time.
The WCC participates in NCAA Division I and is considered to be one of the better mid-major conferences in the country. The conference sponsors 13 sports but does not include football as one of them. In fact, San Diego is the only conference member that still plays football at any level; the rest have all dropped the sport, some as early as the 1940s, before the conference existed (Gonzaga and Portland), and one as late as 2003 (Saint Mary's). The WCC's strongest sports historically have been soccer (nine national champions, including back-to-back women's soccer titles in 2001 and 2002) and tennis (five individual champions and one team champion). The conference has also made its presence felt nationally in men's basketball, with San Francisco winning two consecutive national titles in the 1950s with all-time great Bill Russell, Loyola Marymount's inspired NCAA tournament run in 1990 following the tragic death of Hank Gathers during that season's WCC championship tournament, and most recently Gonzaga's rise to national prominence since 1999's Cinderella run to the Elite 8. Gonzaga has made it to the NCAA tournament each year since then.
Current members
| Institution | Location | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Year Joined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gonzaga University | Spokane, Washington | 1887 | Private/Catholic | 5,043 | 1979 |
| Loyola Marymount University | Los Angeles, California | 1865 | Private/Catholic | 7,104 | 1955 |
| Pepperdine University | Malibu, California | 1937 | Private/Church of Christ | 6,053 | 1955 |
| University of Portland | Portland, Oregon | 1901 | Private/Catholic | 3,000 | 1976 |
| Saint Mary's College of California | Moraga, California | 1863 | Private/Catholic | 4,536 | 1952 |
| University of San Diego | San Diego, California | 1949 | Private/Catholic | 6,452 | 1979 |
| University of San Francisco | San Francisco, California | 1855 | Private/Catholic | 7,487 | 1952 |
| Santa Clara University | Santa Clara, California | 1851 | Private/Catholic | 8,047 | 1952 |
Athletic logos and nicknames
Former members
- University of the Pacific (1952-1971)
- San Jose State University (1952-1969)
- California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) (1955-1957)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (=UCSB) (1964-1969)
- University of Nevada (1969-1979)
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) (1969-1975)
- Seattle University (1971-1980) eventually joined the NCAA Division II ranks
Sports
The WCC sponsors intercollegiate competition in men’s baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, men's and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis, women's rowing, and women’s volleyball.
Famous athletes
Some of the famous athletes who played collegiately in the WCC include:- Basketball:
- *Bill Cartwright, former NBA player and head coach, current NBA assistant (San Francisco)
- *Dan Dickau, current Portland Trail Blazers player (Gonzaga)
- *Dennis Johnson, former NBA star (Pepperdine)
- *K. C. Jones, Basketball Hall of Famer (San Francisco)
- *Adam Morrison, drafted third in the 2006 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Bobcats (Gonzaga)
- *Steve Nash, current NBA superstar and 2005 and 2006 NBA MVP (Santa Clara)
- *Kurt Rambis, former NBA player and coach (Santa Clara)
- *Bill Russell, Basketball Hall of Famer (San Francisco)
- *John Stockton, former NBA superstar and likely future Hall of Famer (Gonzaga)
- *Ronny Turiaf, current Los Angeles Lakers player (Gonzaga)
- Soccer:
- *Brandi Chastain, member of the USA national team that won the 1999 Women's World Cup (Santa Clara)
- *Kasey Keller, USA men's national team goalkeeper (Portland)
- *Shannon MacMillan, also a member of the 1999 Women's World Cup winners (Portland)
- *Tiffeny Milbrett, also a member of the 1999 Women's World Cup winners (Portland)
- *Christine Sinclair, a current star for the Canadian women's national team (Portland)
- Baseball:
- *Jason Bay, current Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder and 2004 National League Rookie of the Year (Gonzaga)
- *Tom Candiotti, former major-league pitcher (Saint Mary's)
- *Mike Scott, former major-league pitcher (Pepperdine)
Conference Arenas
| School | Basketball Arena | Arena capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Gonzaga | McCarthey Athletic Center | 6,000 |
| Loyola Marymount | Gersten Pavilion | 4,156 |
| Pepperdine | Firestone Fieldhouse | 3,104 |
| Portland | Chiles Center | 5,000 |
| St. Mary's | McKeon Pavilion | 3,500 |
| San Diego | Jenny Craig Pavilion | 5,100 |
| San Francisco | War Memorial Gymnasium | 5,300 |
| Santa Clara | Leavey Center | 6,000 |
External links
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