This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 1984 Olympic Games
in Los Angeles ““ which are still considered by many to be the
most successful Olympics in history.
Besides being the first Olympics to rake in a large profit, the
1984 games also marketed the Olympiad into as big of an event as it
is today. The United States won a record 83 gold medals that year
and racked up a then-unheard-of 174 total medals.
And UCLA played a big role in the success of those Olympics. The
dorms, normally inhabited by students, housed over 4,000
athletes. The campus hosted the Olympic Village, Pauley Pavilion
hosted gymnastics, and the Los Angeles Tennis Center hosted
tennis.
The university as a whole benefited from hosting these events,
as the school was paid over $6 million for the use of its
facilities, and it received international publicity.
“The Olympics were important, and they got a lot of
publicity for us ““ all good,” former UCLA Chancellor
Charles Young told the Daily Bruin in 1997. “The Games also
had a positive international impact ““ (the event) put our
name on the world stage.”
The dorms were packed, as athletes generally were given
triple rooms ““ and, in one specific case, four
athletes shared a room. Still, many gave positive experiences of
their stay.
But though the memories of athletes’ grazing through
Dykstra Hall’s stairwells may have faded, the one
lasting effect of the 1984 Olympics on campus is the Los Angeles
Tennis Center.
“Selfishly, we were looking forward to the see the new
stadium, which we got to be direct recipients of when the Olympics
were over,” said UCLA men’s tennis coach Billy Martin,
who was an assistant coach back in 1984.
The facility was built, in part, for the Olympics and was a
joint venture between the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee,
the Southern California Tennis Association and UCLA. The Olympics
got to use the facility in 1984, but soon
afterward it became home to the UCLA
men’s and women’s tennis teams. The SCTA has its office
there with a 99-year lease.
“I can honestly say the LATC is one of the top two or
three collegiate facilities in the country,” Martin said.
“It’s mind boggling for some colleges when they come to
town. This is one of the premiere facilities in the country,
overall ““ probably (among the) top 10.”
Stefan Edberg and Steffi Graf were the first stars to christen
LATC by winning the Olympic tennis competition in 1984, but at the
time tennis was a demonstration, not a medal sport.