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From the past and present success of Bruin athletics to the Undie Run, UCLA students are drawn to the traditions that define university and student life.

But even as traditions abound, students seem eager to add their own flair to the collection of rich and lively rituals that already exists.

Take Branden Brough, a graduate student in mechanical engineering who has been camping out before UCLA basketball games for at least the past six years.

Along with other students, Brough is planning to produce a newsletter for Bruin basketball home games, designed to keep students and fans informed of traditions, chants and player information.

Brough said he hopes it would “stick.”

“All of us (at UCLA) are small fish in a big pond – and it would be nice to leave some impact,” he said.

Family ties to the university have also helped create UCLA sport traditions within families.

Dario Soto, a fourth-year history student, said he remembers when his older sister took him to a UCLA-USC game over 12 years ago.

Soto said the aura surrounding the winning tradition of UCLA athletics drew him to the university.

“The great athletic tradition of excellence really inspired me to come to UCLA,” he said, adding that he plans to attend UCLA games after he graduates for years to come.

Besides sports, some students said they felt the UCLA tradition of diversity and intellectualism was another aspect which made the school unique.

Kiran Baig, a fourth-year psycho-biology student and a member of the Muslim Student Association, said UCLA’s ethnic, religious and academic diversity appealed to her.

“The diversity and academics – it really helped me in my decision to come here,” she said.

Ernesto Esqueda, a fourth-year history and Chicano/a studies student, said he felt that a strong activist tradition has helped make UCLA a distinct and thought-provoking campus.

“I find that at UCLA there are resources that facilitate and encourage you ability to critically analyze the world,” he said.

Ednna Acevedo, a fourth-year sociology student, said the 13-day hunger strike by students and university administrators in 1993, which resulted in the establishment of the Chicano/a Studies department, is part of a lesser-known tradition of struggle.

“I think there is a tradition of struggle for equality and access,” she said

She pointed to the deaths of activists on campus as proof, referring specifically to Bunchy Carter and John Huggins, two Black Panthers who were were slain at Campbell Hall 35 years ago.

Even in the face of administrative repression, there seems to be no end to UCLA students’ ability to invent traditions, even wacky ones.

Take the Undie Run.

Midnight Yell, a student-initiated ritual of yelling every midnight during finals week, began steadily fading last year when authorities at the university apartments and dorms began discouraging the practice.

Partially in response, 150 students jogged down Gayley Avenue last June and fall quarter of this year for a stress-reducing study break.

Put together, these traditions provide every UCLA student with a lifetime of memorable experiences.