Final 2005 Big Game Week Thoughts

I had a chance to see a portion of the video produced by Stanford students that generated controversy. Although it was intended to be funny, was actually a little disconcerting. An article about this 10-minute video appeared in the Oakland Tribune, which summarized it as such:

So for the sake of the "CalSucks" spirit, the Latino community is all about tacos, the black community is all about athletics and the Asian community have eyes that don't open all the way. Is this a rivalry? Or racism?

This is a Big Game prank that probably went a little too far. While the video authors believe they were making fun of stereotypes, it can further create hostilities, and that's not good for the image of an institution of higher education.

The ideal of the University of California, and all higher education public and private institutions, to be representative of the general population is something I fully embrace. It's good for Berkeley; it's good for California. Chancellor Birgeneau stated earlier this year:

Only through experience with and appreciation of other cultures can our citizens navigate today's globalized society. This is but one reason our student body at Cal must reflect the majestic tapestry of cultures and peoples that constitutes California. We must remember that education is a public good, not a private right.

As I said earlier this week - honor the Big Game and its traditions. Plus, always remember the University's motto - Fiat Lux! Let There Be Light! Don't allow that light to be covered.

California, here's to Thee;
Honor to thy name;
Alma Mater, carry on
To fortune and to fame.
Queen beside the Western Sea
Rule our destiny;
Stand for right,
Let there be Light,
California, Here's to Thee.
Written in 1956 by James Murray Hunt; arranged by Howdy Brownson.

Go Bears!

We've Got The Axe!

You all know the story.

But if you need a quick refresher course, check out a brief history summarized by the Berkeleyan a few years ago.

Go Bears!

Daily Cal opinion

I think we all think this way...

Maybe my peers at Stanford will end up making more money than me, maybe their school is ranked higher and maybe that girl got a better score on her LSAT than me, but I'll be damned if I let them be better fans.

I believe the most beautiful moment in the entire world is when the card stunts are over and the student section throws the cards up in the air and for a second, everything is color and excitement and time is suspended. It's like the moment when the needle on the record player hits the record but before the music starts, and you hear that quiet crackle-for a split-second, everything in life is right.

And the cards will come down, at which point we might be losing the game terribly and you'll go back to worrying about your midterm on Monday, but for a second, nothing can touch you and everything is perfect and we have the best team in the country and there is world peace.

And that's why we play the Big Game, and that's why we hate Stanford so much more than they hate us: We know we need to protect every Cal moment like that which is good and holy and flawless and has the ability to change the world, if only for a second.

So here's to the Campanile, to the parking spots, to the card stunts. May they never cease to make you proud to be a Golden Bear.

Rumored jokes at the Guardsmen Lunch

I finally got a list of jokes from G2. See if these make any sense:

Is that (SF Chron reporter) Glen Dickey’s real beard, or he’s just being Amish?

On Pappy Waldorf winning 3 big games in a row - that hasn’t happened to Cal since Pappy invented his famous salad.

On (Cal’s player) Bishop against the Cardinal, haven’t seen that since Vatican II.

Marvin Philip (Cal) telling interviewer Joe Starkey that it’s been good to go to a bowl game the last 2 years, looks forward to going again. [he looks over a stanfurd side of the head table] Wishes Stanfurd Good Luck in their remaining games to increase their chances of going to a bowl game ... cuz he knows that they haven’t been to a bowl game ... (pause) ... in awhile.

On the USC team players having played for so long together, that some of them have already been nominated for the Pro Bowl.

On UC Davis having beat Stanfurd, that Standurd played so badly that day that they could have been beaten that day by (radical professor) Angela Davis.

Big Game Pranks

In today's SF Chron - True to form, UCRC is not giving very much credit to any pranks attempted by furd this year:

UC Berkeley student leader Nate Hedberg says he likes a good prank as much as the next guy, but the stunts he's been hearing about during this year's Cal-Stanford Big Game run-up strike him as scarcely worthy of the name.

Dumping Cardinal-red Kool-Aid in a fountain on the Cal campus. Splashing red paint on the big "C" on the hillside over Memorial Stadium. Infiltrating a Cal fraternity to reclaim home plates allegedly lifted from Stanford baseball fields over the years.

"If they could pull off something impressive that was entirely legal and didn't destroy anything, especially in broad daylight, I'd give them credit," said Hedberg, who chairs Cal's school-spirit-boosting Rally Committee.

The latest pranks are "pretty much old hat," he said.

[snip]

And some of the stunts aren't considered very entertaining, such as a video that a group of Stanford students posted on the Web this week in an attempt to make fun of their Cal counterparts.

"The video is sophomoric, of questionable taste, insensitive and not very funny, in our opinion," Stanford officials said in a statement Thursday. "It does not accurately represent either Stanford or Cal students."

[snip]

A fourth incident, confirmed by Deputy Ken Bates of Stanford's Public Safety Department, took place at 3:30 Wednesday morning on the Stanford campus. Responding to noise complaints, officers met a caravan of six cars.

"They stopped the cars and found that these were members of the Cal band's trumpet section," he said. "I think we identified about 35 and warned them about disturbing the peace. And they were sent on their way."

The band members were headed for Stanford President John Hennessy's house to jolt him awake with blaring brass, said Stanford junior Kavi Vyas, a resident adviser in the all-freshman dorm.

Go Bears!

Axe Committee - creepy

From the rag they call the sinfurd daily. Full article here.

Silly kids, there’s more to a football game than a football game. The Superbowl has sweet commercials. The Cowboys have sweet cheerleaders. And Big Game... well, Big Game has The Axe Committee.

Think back to freshman year (for you freshmen this shouldn’t be that hard). Remember orientation: the new surroundings, the energetic people, the excitement of your classmates. Now dig a little deeper. Remember the creepy upperclassman wearing an old man Stanford cardigan leading a shockingly morbid cadence about slashing necks or something to that degree? Remember the awkward silence that followed? Well that, my Daily friends, is the Stanford Axe committee, and Big Game Week is their time to shine.

[snip]

But did you know that the handle of the original Axe was made out of Leland Stanford Junior’s wooden leg? And that Axe committee alumni include the likes of Chelsea Clinton, Paul McCartney, and the guy who played Yoda in Star Wars? And that the Axe Committee kidnapped the Lindberg baby? (At this point, our editors would like us to interject that we’re compulsive liars and none of these facts is really “true.” Carry on.)

[snip]

Alright, something true about the Axe Committee: They’re creepy.

'Nuff said.

Proofing Error

You can see a glaring error in this simple one-sentence opinion in today's furd Daily. The correction is "Be at Cal!"

In Memorium - Ralph Edwards 1913-2005

Ralph Edwards '35, the well-known radio and TV host and producer of popular game shows such as "Truth or Consequences" and "This Is Your Life", died Wednesday.

For those of you who didn't know, Mr. Edwards was a Class Yell Leader during his years at Cal. Here are some of his memories from a Cal Band oral history interview:

Yes, three of my four years at Cal, freshmen, sophomore and senior years, I was class yell leader and during my junior year, I was assistant varsity yell leader. Johnny McGill was varsity yell leader and Bill Johnson was the other assistant yell leader.

Now during those freshmen, sophomore and senior years, as the class yell leader, I always tried to make our class of '35, the most lively at the big game rallies at the Greek Theatre, cheering the loudest, we hoped, when the University of California Marching Band came royally marching onto the Greek Theatre stage.

[snip]

Now one of my prize photos is one that somebody took of me at the stadium in my yell leading whites at the base of the rooting section on the long narrow platform, arms outstretched for a yell and three Cal Bandsmen, just below me, resting from their performance, and thousands and thousands and thousands of Cal rooters and their adversaries glued into every seat in the Cal stadium.

Please make a toast to the memory of Mr. Edwards this Big Game weekend. Go Bears!

spamford Daily prediction of Big Game

A prediction of the Big Game is in today's edition of the farm's newspaper, although it has nothing to do with football. Rather, it has to do with attributes from each school.

Cal players begin the game by bragging to Stanford players about the abundant assortment of cheap and greasy off-campus, hole-in-the-wall food joints. They describe wondrous places such as Zachary’s, Top Dawg, Fat Slice, Fenton’s, the Asian Ghetto and more: a murderer’s row (literally, the food in some joints can probably kill you) of eateries. Propelled by the greasy food, Cal rushes off to a quick touchdown. 7-0 Cal.

[snip]

Stanford players realize that University Avenue is a dream...for rich yuppies who wish they were college students. Plus, Berkeley doesn’t just shut down after bedtime. Demoralized by the Bear’s superior off-campus accommodations, the Stanford defense allows another touchdown, making it 14-0 Cal. Wait, I thought Buddy Teevens left Stanford...

[snip]

Throughout their years, Cal players have been told that Stanford looks like a Taco Bell — a really nice Taco Bell. Mystified by Stanford’s actual beauty, the Bears’ defense gives up another touchdown and Stanford rolls into halftime with a 17-14 lead.

Heading into the second half, Cal fans bring the crazy. They absolutely hate us. You can wear a Go Cal shirt here; you probably shouldn’t wear anything resembling red at Cal. Stanford has some crazy sports fans (see Sixth Man Club), but even if we win Big Game, I can’t see Stanford fans tearing down the goalpost, running it down University and performing in some animalistic ritual like Cal fans did three years ago. Fearing slaughter from their fans, the Cal offense runs down the field for a 21-17 lead.

They probably deserve another field goal because I expect some Cal kid to assassinate me once he reads this full column. 24-17, Cal.

[snip]

To start off the quarter, Jeff Tedford shows his team a clip of “The Play,” and on another extremely odd, special teams play involving the Stanford Band, the Bears reach the endzone. But like its 1982 counterpart, this play should have been nullified thrice. The ball doesn’t lie. Cal misses the extra point. Cal 30-25.

[snip]

Stanford remembers it is “Quarterback U” and thus brings in the retired John Elway to lead a march for a game-tying field goal.

But Cal uses the Axe to cut through the Stanford defense. 37-30 Cal.

Cal is about to ice the game when former Stanford provost turned Secretary of State Condelezza Rice uses her connections with the CIA to kidnap Tedford and replace him with Tom Holmoe. Holmoe does what he does best and lets the Cardinal score an easy game-tying touchdown.

The Big Game goes to overtime, and Stanford is on offense first.

Then the author goes off on some preposterous prediction that the farm will win in overtime. Someone's gotta tell the author that traders at tradesports.com are assigning a 63% probability that the Bears will win.

Good help is hard to find, part II

This "gig" showed up on craigslist:

Distribute flyers to people and post cards on car windows during the California Vs. Stanford Big Game this Saturday November 19. Very easy work. Get tanned, see the big crowds of crazy fans, talk to people and get paid $10 per hour cash from 2:30 to 6:30. Must be 18-25, energetic and have own transportation.

As long as they don't drink wine, expect to see flyers on your car windows on the farm. If they do drink wine, expect to see the wrong flyers on your windows.

Good help is hard to find

You get what you pay for.

You see, I've been in Washington DC for the past few days for a series of meetings I am responsible for (apologies to my two dear DC friends - I had no time to schedule a visit. Next time.). Since I couldn't go to the Guardsman lunch, I hired a correspondent - for free - to supply choice quotes from the event.

So the correspondent, code name: G2 ('85), claims to have written down quotes on the event program, but took home the wrong program. She blames the wine. Hopefully it wasn't red wine.

Blondes in the Bleachers

Two Cal students write a weekly article in the Daily Cal titled Blondes in the Bleachers. As the title suggests, the two are blondes and describe themselves "with at the very least a minimal interest in sports". In their latest installment:

Our favorite holiday is fast-approaching, people. No, not Thanksgiving-Big Game Day.

So for this column, we decided to go out into the Berkeley community to see what some notable Berkeley denizens thought about the upcoming contest.

[snip]

Who's more of a Berkeley character than the Hat Lady? You know the one-she hawks her wares on Telegraph and Durant in front of Smart Alec's. She also claims to know 465 languages, many of which she invented herself.

BB: Hi, how's it going?

Hat Lady: I hate white people. I was working and pregnant when I went to Cal. I was on roller skates and my daughter was coming out of me right there in the back of my Portuguese class in Dwinelle. And then I nursed her all through my Italian class and my Russian class and my Chinese class.

BB: Tell us what you think about Stanford.

HL: Oh, Stanford. When I was applying to school, obviously I wanted to go to Oxford and Princeton and Yale, but after that my number one was UCLA and my number two was Stanford. I was going to say USC, but they're snobs. And Stanford, they're snobs too, but they have class. Tiger Woods went to Stanford.

BB: So you're rooting for Stanford in this week's Big Game?

HL: Is it here? (We shake our heads "no") Damn! Suicide would be better.

I'm glad things never change in Berkeley.

Big Game Quiz!

The CoCo Times (registration required) generated a Big Game Quiz for 3 Cal players and 3 'furd players, as well as for Jeff Tedford, Sandy Barbour and 'furd associate athletic director Darrin Nelson (I guess everyone else at sinfurd figured they'd pass the quiz due to the rampant grade inflation there). For those of you with Cal educations, you can take the quiz and compare your results.

Sample Questions:

1. Who won the first Big Game?

2. The 1910 game featured what innovation by the Cal student section?

8. In 2000, what happened for the only time in the series?

17. This player won the Heisman, but his team lost 22-14 in the 1970 Big Game. Who is he?

12. What did the Immor_al Twenty-One do in 1930?

19. Who said "The Play" ruined his senior season?

Answers are available at the CoCo Times on Wednesday.

Idle hands are the devil's playground

According to the stanfoo daily:

The rivalry between Stanford and UC-Berkeley was unleashed last week in anticipation of Saturday’s Big Game when groups of Stanford students recaptured several baseball home plates lost to a Cal fraternity, turned a Cal fountain bright cardinal and painted red the letter C on a Bear hillside.

[snip]

The same group later attempted to recolor the letter C on the grassy hillside near Bowles Hall, the participant said. Three-quarters of the letter had been sprayed from yellow to red when they had to flee because some Cal students discovered the action and were calling the police.

Although the mission was not fully accomplished, the student seemed content with his groups’ achievements.

“The rivalry [between Stanford and Cal] has been pretty one-sided,” he said, referring to the lack of response on Stanford’s part to Berkeley’s repeated pranks. “The Cal kids are the ones who really care about the rivalry. But we decided to get back at them this year.”

Slow news day on the farm, I guess.

They have to give stuff away to promote furd sprirt.

A Daily sinfurd article is practically begging students to show their spirit this week. The ways they are attracting people?

- The "Beat-a-Bear" giveaway, where teddy bears are given away in order to be destroyed.

- Gaieties, which is now being advertised to run under two-hours and a better sound system which will enable attendees to hear jokes about the farm's uber-donor, will feature free beer and wine for "over-21 seniors".

- After the Gaities show on Friday evening is the rally at Hoover Tower, "with free food and T-shirts and appearances by the Band and football team. This event experienced a complete transformation last year and went from approximately 100 attendants to 1,300. It promises to be even more popular this year."

With free food and t-shirts, you hope they get more than 1,300. At our rallies, we get anywhere between 8,000 to 13,000 people. Do the math.

Big Game Odditites plus bowl scenarios

Today's SF Chron stated: "Logic often takes a vacation during Big Game week, and apparently it caught a flight out of town Saturday night."

You will note that furd already incurred "devastating losses" at home to the two UC schools they played this season - UCLA and UC Davis (yes, you read that right, UC Davis). Time for a UC-sweep.

As for the bowl scenarios - as always, too confusing to figure out. Read the article if you are interested.

The Play

Happy Monday of Big Game Week.

My annual Monday of Big Game Week has traditionally been a reposting of Joe Starkey's famous call in 1982 of "the most amazing, sensational, traumatic, heart rending... exciting thrilling finish in the history of college football! California has won...the Big Game...over Stanford." I still get goose bumps when I hear it.

I won't repost this year, but it's absolutely amazing that 23 years later, it still has a huge following. Perhaps it's because it was ranked #18 in ESPN's 100 most memorable moments.

The full text of The Play can be found here and here.

A Wikipedia entry of The Play can be found here, which also links to attributed quotes from that day. Well worth visiting.

RealOne Player videos of The Play can be found here, with audio at Joe Kapp's site.

If you want eyewitness accounts, I can refer you to at least 10-12 people out of the 150,000 who claim to have been there.

Go Bears!

Blue & Gold Red Staters

The California Patriot, "Berkeley's Conservative Voice" came out with its November edition of its magazine, with a few articles about Big Game (check out the pdf version with cooler graphics). One of them is entitled Study yields unsurprising results; Evidence points to Cal’s superiority, Stanford’s deficiencies.

The widely anticipated 19-year study by the Foundation to Understand the Ridiculously inDisputable (FURD) concluded last week. Scientists and educators were left duly amused upon hearing the conclusion announcing UC Berkeley as indeed better in every aspect than Stanford. Many complained about having to attend the ceremony because such results had been anticipated from the very start, according to the survey “Is FURD necessary?” in October 2000.

According to the study, 76.5 percent of Stanford students felt that “they were better serving their school by wiping floors and serving slop.” When students at Berkeley were asked if they agreed with this statement, only 3.8 percent would even stop to answer in the negative; the remainder had to be taken to Berkeley Alta Bates Hospital for a lack of oxygen from laughter.

In the Cal vs. Stanfurd fact section:

Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab have discovered 13 chemical elements since 1940, including, of course, berkelium, californium, lawrencium and seaborgium. Two additional elements, americium and curium, were discovered in Chicago by a Berkeley team. Stanfurd has discovered a nice, round zero-nium.

These articles almost made me re-register as a Republican.

New Stadium Plans

The new Memorial Stadium Plans were announced yesterday.

The stadium plan and the new law and business building, along with a landscape design and public open space improvements, are the key elements in a renaissance of the southeast corner of the campus.

I suspect this may entail the removal of some of the trees in the immediate area. Last year I mentioned this in one of my daily e-mails:

For those of you who don't know, "Moen" is a Monterey Pine. When it was a seedling, it was acquired by Ken R. '82 through a Happy Meal, or equivalent, promotion at McDonalds. (Yes, I kid you not - he actually got four, and as a true Blue & Gold forester, named them after the ball handlers in The Play.) Moen was planted circa '82-'83 near the Bear statue (near the North Tunnel). It is now quite large and the only Monterey Pine in the immediate area - you can't miss it.

While overall he's happy with the Stadium renovation, Ken is a little bummed that "Moen" may be mowed down. I can't say I blame him...Moen has been nutured and revered by many early 80's Rally Comm alums as a living reminder of "The Play". Since construction is not slated to begin until December 2006, Moen should be able to enjoy at least one more Big Game in Berkeley.

For those who plan ahead...

The UC Rally Committee is a little busy in getting their Big Game schedule up, but here's an unofficial guide to UCRC's hectic schedule next week:

BIG GAME WEEK ACTIVITIES

11/14/2005, Around Noon, Exact Time TBA: Cable Car Rally @ Embarcadero Cable Car Turnaround (SF)- Join us and the band as we ride cable cars while playing fight songs all the way to Powell and Market for a big rally in Union Square!

11/15/2005, 9:00pm: Night Rally @ Bowles Hall- The rally travels through the streets of Berkeley and culminates at Sather Gate

11/17/2005, 12:00pm: Tree Chopping Rally @ Sproul Plaza- We have the Cal Logging Team showing off their skills and letting everyone know exactly what we think about the Stanfurd mascot.

11/18/2005, 7:00am: Bonfire Building @ Greek Theatre

11/18/2005, 6:00pm: BONFIRE RALLY- This is the biggest rally we put on all year and it is SO amazing now. It's a family friendly event so bring your kids also!

11/19/2005, 4:30pm: THE BIG GAME (Kickoff Time) @ Stanfurd Stadium- No need to explain.

B*g G*me B*nf*re Fu*l

A true blue Cal grad, Peter Roizen, will be bringing some alternative bonfire fuel to the Axe Rally on the eve of the Big Game...the Official Scrabble Dictionary!?!

Roizen is the inventor of the WildWords Crossword Game. Unlike Scrabble(r), WildWords permits any word in English, no matter how long, to be played. The game relies on wild asterisk tiles and wild squares that can represent any series of one or more letters. Thus the play of "INF*TORY" could be the word "INFLAMMATORY" with the asterisk representing "LAMMA." Roizen claims the game promotes functional English and creative skills.

"I personally took Bonehead English twice as a freshman," says Roizen. "I can't say for sure that playing Scrabble(R) and relying on the Official Scrabble Dictionary in high school was the root cause, but it didn't help any. It's not easy writing a thoughtful essay relying on short, odd, foreign words like 'SOUK' and 'AALII'."

"WildWords must be played with a bona fide reference dictionary," states Roizen. "You will play and learn useful words." Roizen says he will be bringing his copy of the Official Scrabble Dictionary to the Cal Big Game rally. He invites other Golden Bears, and college students and alumni across the country to do the same at their rallies.

"Everyone from every school is invited to participate and join the cause," he says, "except Stanford."

Um...yeah. I can hear the chanting now..."Freshmen more dictionaries!" Does Rally Committee know about this? Hopefully the dictionary is red. Check out the full press release.

Prince Charles is a Cal Fan!!!!

Check it out...The Prince of Wales is a Cal Fan!! He was in Berkeley this week visiting Alice Waters' '67 Edible Schoolyard...from the SF Chronicle this week...thanks to Peter M. '68 (emphasis added):

Charles and Camilla were dressed in outfits that were a similar shade of blue. A press secretary described the hue as "Air Force blue." Charles wore a tie given to him on his last visit to the Bay Area nearly 30 years ago. It was a blue and gold UC Berkeley tie. His suit was by his Saville Row tailor, Turnbull & Asser, and his shoes by John Lobb. Camilla's wool crepe dressing coat was by British designer Roy Allen.

A man of impeccable taste. Here's the link.

2005 Introduction

Cal Fans...

Here's my introductory foray into my 2005 Big Game Week Daily Newsletter, now courtesy of a Weblog which will allow YOU to comment on the happenings of this special week.

I'm starting a little earlier than usual because a) I'm new at this and b) I'll be away from the Bay Area during Big Game Week for business. Yes, unfortunately I'll also be missing the Big Game. So I am relying on Cal Fans to keep everyone informed.

My request for this Blog - keep your comments clean and honor the Big Game and its traditions, although making fun of the jr. university is always required. Go Bears!