Cal Golden Bears Football

In celebrating the University of California Golden Bears Football we wanted to point out some of the craziest occurences in the program's history. Some of these are truly bizarre!

As I was preparing the collection of the top posts that tell the history of Cal Golden Bears football history, I came across a post from California Golden Blogs website titled 5 Bizarre Moments in Cal Football. This piqued my interest especially after just covering the 1900 Thanksgiving Day Tragedy recently in a post and podcast. Here are the events that are of the weird, unexpected and mesmorizing variety from any football program, let alone just Cal.

The Big Game of 1900 Catastrophe

As stated we just covered this the other day in the 1900 Thanksgiving Day Tragedy post. It needs mentioned though as 23 people perished and countless others suffered injury when the nearby roof of the Pacific Glass Works roof collapsed as some 400 spectators perched upon it to try and get a free glimpse of the Cal vs Stanford game on Thanksgiving Day November 29, 1900. The falling fans landed on 500 dgree heated glass furnaces and a hard brick floor while fans in the stadium were unaware of the tragic circumstances across Fifteenth Street.

1988 in Corvallis

The 1989 Cal football media guide called it "one of the most bizarre occurrences of the college football season." The Cal gridiron eleven reportedly lost a football game 44 seconds after time expired.

On September 17, 1988, the Golden Bears traveled to Corvallis to play Oregon State. The Bears, jumped out to a 16-3 lead by the time the third quarter clock expired. Cal had the game well under control. The Beaver had other things involved having trimmed the lead to 16-6 early in the fourth quarter, but hey the Bears were still up by double digits. Then one of the craziest time keeping sequences of all-time occurred. With 10:00 left in the game, the clock at Parker Stadium malfunctioned and, instead of moving to 9:59, it showed 10:99 left. The referee ordered the clock re-set. But instead of re-setting it back to 9:59, the Oregon State time-keeper set it to 10:59. Uh oh, I think we see where this is heading! With 15 seconds left on this new extended clock (44 ticks after time would have expired) Oregon State kicked a 23-yard field goal, to win the game 17-16.

The First Big Game

The first meeting of Stanford and Cal happened on March 19, 1892. Okay a spring college game is odd but hey this was the 19th century. It was also weird that this game was played just a year after Stanford admitted their first student to the school. What is extremely weird is that a young team manager, future President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, forgot to bring a ball to the game.  Luckily, a local sporting goods store owner heard the commotion, jumped on his horse and brought the outer shell of a football with a punching bag bladder in it. It wasn't regulation but it was what they had and what they used. The contest was delayed for a bit but was played with a Cardinal victory.

Wrong Way Dude!

The star of the Golden Bears in the later portion of the 1920's was a fella by the name of Roy Riegels.It was in the 1929 Rose Bowl where Riegels picked up a Georgia Tech fumble and instead of taking it the short 30 yards to paydirt, he took off 65 yards the wrong way after getting turned around. The only one that caught him was teammate Benny Lom who stopped him just in time and the Ramblin Wreck players took him down about his own one yardline. Cal was forced to punt themselves out of trouble but GT blockd the punt for a safty. Those two points ended up being the difference that game Georgia Tech the Rose Bowl victory, final score 8-7.

1990 Big Game

Talk about big names in big plays in the Big Game. 199o's Cal versus Stanford contest had everything going for it. Late in the game Wide out Ed McCaffery caught a TD pass in the right corner of the south end zone to bring the Cardinal within 1 point with 12 seconds remaining. Stanford's Head Coach Dennis Green decided to go for the two-point conversion and the win. Before the ball was snapped for the conversion, Cal students ran onto the field of play halting the game for a time. Officials, security and the PA announcer pleaded with folks to clear the field. When play resumed Cal picked off the conversion attempt pass and pandamonium again ensued as Cal was still up 25-24. Flags flew and a fifteen yard penalty followed on the kick-off against Cal. Stanford attempted and recovered the onside kick, as the ball rested on the 37 yardline of Cal with nine ticks of the clock remaining! Time for one more play... Cal sent the pressure and flushed Cardinal QB  Jason Palumbis, as he scrambled he floated an incomplete pass but was two hand tagged by Bears Defensive Tackle John Belli late and fifteen more yards were added with five seconds remaining. Kicker John Hopkins trotted out and nailed a 39 yarder for the come from behind win.

The Stanford Band Play

The Big Game on November 20, 1982 had some memomable players like John Elway participating in it, but the final play was what made it stand out. Stanford had taken a 20–19 lead on a field goal with just four ticks of the clock remaining! The ensuing kick off was booted and then the Golden Bears used five lateral passes on the return to score the winning touchdown in the game's final seconds and earn a 25–20 victory. Stanford Band members that the game was over and that the Cardinal had won so they poured out onto the field in jubilation however the return was still very much in process and players were colliding into and dodging the band members. It is a bit sketchy in the legality of two of Cal's backward pass attempts adding to the drama and the legacy of the one they call "The Play."

The banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the backs for the 1900 University of California football team, Uncited photographer

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites mentioned above.