Until 1982, the University of San Francisco had one of the richest traditions and highest profile programs in Division I men's basketball, boasting three national championships (in 1949, the NIT won by the Dons was still considered the more prestigious tournament), fifteen of the first thirty West Coast Conference championships, and a sixty-game winning streak from 1954 to 1956, which netted consecutive NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956 behind all-time great Bill Russell. By the 1970s, John Wooden and his UCLA Bruins had caught and eclipsed San Francisco as the premier West Coast power; nevertheless, the Dons remained an elite program well into the early 1980s, perennially ranked in the top 20, and had captured six consecutive conference titles from 1977 to 1982.