The University of California Los Angeles has long been on the cutting edge of innovation. UCLA is the “birthplace of the Internet. From world soccer championship robots to stem cells that can destroy HIV to discovering a black hole in the middle of our galaxy” (UCLA, 2017). The University has also been on the forefront of civil rights. Isolating the year 1939, the following athletes broke down many walls:

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• Jackie Robinson, who would break the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947 and become a prominent advocate of racial equality after his baseball years.

• Kenny Washington, who took down the color barrier of the National Football League when he played for the Los Angeles Rams in 1946.

• Woody Strode, who would join Washington with the Rams and later become an accomplished actor in movies such as Spartacus, Sergeant Rutledge, and The Professionals.

• Ray Bartlett, who would go on to serve on the Pasadena police department (at that time, only the second African American) and as a prominent Los Angeles area civic leader.

• And then there was the fifth, Tom Bradley, who would transform Los Angeles into a global city during his 20 years as mayor. He also would make history as L.A.’s first black mayor, and the first in a major city that had a white majority (Johnson, 2018).

 

The installation of a virtual reality system with the UCLA Football Team will bring innovation to athletics. The following outline will describe the process of incorporating a virtual reality system into the program:

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I. Design – November 2018

a. Research football virtual reality systems

Purposes

i. Student-athlete immersive training

ii. Recruiting virtual tours

iii. Development facility tours

b. Research specific application

i. Spatial accuracy

ii. Good graphics

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II. Approvals – December 2018

a. Program Approval

i. Head Football Coach

-Staff meeting presentation

-Paperless visual aid

-Relevance to training and improvement

-Expected outcomes

ii. Associate Athletic Director for Football

-Sign-off for proposal to Department

b. Department Approval

i. Senior Associate Athletic Director

-Request to Development Department for donor funding

ii. Athletic Director

-Sign-off for funding through Chief Financial Officer

-Process funds through Finance Manager

III. Construction - January 2019

a. Map venues

i. On-campus location

-Practice facility

-Mobility - Loading dock

ii. Rose Bowl location

-Transportation

-Parking

-Game day security

b. Fire code approval

-Blueprint for Fire Chief

-On-Campus

-Rose Bowl (Pasadena FD)

c. University campus approval

-Sign-off for aesthetics and safety code

d. Build mobile unit

IV. Instruction and Assessment

a. Install content

i. Offensive playbook

ii. Defensive schemes

-By opponent

-By front and coverage

-Randomized

b. Initiate training plan

c. Assess playbook proficiency

d. Assess practice and game productivity

V. Other Uses

a. Recruiting

-Content and programming for Rose Bowl tour

b. Development

-Content and programming for Wasserman Football Complex tour

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Work Cited

Campus Innovation Guide. (2017). Retrieved from http://techandinnovation.ucla.edu/guide

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Fanatical Futurist. (2017). Globalfuturist.org: StriVR Uses Virtual Reality To Train #NFL Quarterbacks. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwnjjUDOets

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Johnson, J. (2018). "How UCLA Helped Break the Color Barrier in College Athletics". Retrieved from http://www.whatitmeanstobeamerican.org/identities/how-ucla-helped-break-the-color-barrier-in-college-athletics/

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Sports VTS. (2018). QBSIM: Revolutionary Tech For Training Quarterbacks. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=209&v=4xbAi_h7taw

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