Putting on the Ritz Has Become Bruin Ritual

Two buses wind through the streets of a secluded, serene Pasadena neighborhood early in the evening, then pull into the driveway of a lavishly landscaped hotel. The distinguished guests step off the buses and file into the ornate lobby, greeted by the sight and scents of flowers and the sounds of recorded classical music.

This is a business trip, but these are not typical businessmen. It’s Friday, the day before the UCLA football team plays at the Rose Bowl, and the Bruins have arrived to spend the night at the Ritz-Carlton.

In one of the more curious rituals of college football, UCLA--and virtually every other Division I team--removes its players from campus the night before home games. It’s about bonding, but it’s also about big business, and it’s another example of how the NCAA’s favorite term--”student-athlete”-- can be increasingly anachronistic.

These student-athletes do not enjoy the option of spending Friday night on campus. In an era when bowl games pay participating teams as much as $13.5 million, coaches and schools want to ensure their players have every possible advantage in the quest for victory.

“You’ve got them all together, and they’re not out partying or running in the street,” UCLA Coach Bob Toledo said. “They can focus on football and they don’t have the distraction of their parents being in town or their friends or going to the fraternity parties. I think that’s the biggest thing, to isolate them so they can really start concentrating on the game.”

The players insist they do not mind. Their time is not their own during football season anyway, what with games, practices, meetings and weightlifting sessions--and classes too. Most players say they look forward to the evenings at the Ritz, the culmination of a grueling week of preparation and the last chance to unwind before the game.

“It’s good to get everybody together,” offensive lineman Mike Saffer said. “You can focus your thoughts.

“You get used to a routine every week. You get up on Friday, go to school and you don’t have to worry about anything else except going to the hotel and getting ready for the game.”

Said safety Marques Anderson: “It limits the things that you would want to do but you can’t do. It’s a place to get your mind right. When you’re out, something might happen, or somebody might call you and you might go over to a girl’s house or something. You just don’t need that the day before a game.”

The Bruins selected the Ritz not only for its splendor but for its ability to handle the food, lodging and meeting needs of a large group on a strict schedule, assistant athletic director Mike Dowling said. For seven nights at the Ritz this season, UCLA will pay about $100,000, spokesman Marc Dellins said.

That money might be manna from heaven to the baseball or gymnastics programs. But the football program turned a $3.5-million profit last year, money that helps pay for every other sport, except men’s basketball. The UCLA football program spent $6.6 million last year, with the cost of hotel stays before home games accounting for 1.4% of total expenses. “We do make the school a lot of money,” cornerback Ricky Manning said. “They reward us.”

After the players check into their rooms--two to a room--they assemble in a ballroom for dinner, then in a conference room for pep talks from Toledo and the team captains.

“Guys are almost ready to go play right then after some of the speeches the players give,” linebacker Ryan Nece said. “It gets pretty intense. It’s a great feeling to be in there.”

In another conference room, trainers set up a portable facility that can accommodate players needing treatment. In adjacent rooms, team managers set up video equipment for players and coaches wanting to review game films.

In the hours before a snack and curfew, players also can do homework, join a Bible-study group, peek at the playbook one last time or watch movies in their rooms, free of charge.

“A lot of players like to watch movies,” Nece said. “Everybody has their favorite movie to watch. Mine is ‘The Gladiator.’ It definitely fires you up.”

Fired-up football players would seem to clash with the image of the Ritz, which promotes itself as a luxury hotel with “a tradition of grace and elegance.” But the UCLA players do not trash their rooms or crash debutante balls, said the hotel’s director of public relations, Deanne French.

“It’s not panty raids or a free-for-all,” she said. “They’re here the night before a game, and that’s probably the last thing on their minds. They’re very respectful of the other guests.”

Before one game this season, Nece said, he met former UCLA All-American safety Carnell Lake at the Ritz, a 23-acre oasis of greenery where nightly room rates start at $310.

Lake, who now plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars, looked around, awe-struck. He told Nece NFL players do not stay in such magnificent hotels. (On the nights before USC home games, the Trojans stay at the Regal Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles.)

“It’s a luxury for us to be able to do that,” Nece said.

“A lot of students feel that the football players get so much, and they could just stay at the Motel 6. But it is nice to have a nice place to sleep before a game and get well rested. They take care of us. We work hard. We deserve it.”

The Bruins invite recruits to the Ritz before home games. In the cutthroat world of recruiting, where you never know what might sway a player to attend your school, rival schools cannot scare prospective Bruins away by charging UCLA with skimping on amenities.

So Toledo laughs at the question. Could he ever envision allowing the players on his team to spend Friday nights on campus, with their fellow students, then take a bus to the game on Saturday?

“Sure,” Toledo said. “I could do it if everybody else in the country did it.”