History of California Golden Bears football
The history of California Golden Bears football began in 1886, the team has won five NCAA recognized national titles - 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, and 1937 and 15 conference championships, the last one in 2006.
[2] Aside from the first season's matches against Hastings Law College, Cal primarily played against local clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area.
From 1886 until 1903 California home games were held at West Field, at the current campus location of the Valley Life Sciences Building.
Cal's first win against Stanford came in 1898, while coached by newly hired Garrett Cochran, a Princeton alumnus who was recruited immediately after his graduation.
Cochran successfully implemented the tactics of his alma mater, finishing the season with eight wins, zero losses and two ties; all opponents were outscored 221–5.
[5] That season also included Cal's first out of state football game - when it traveled to Portland, Oregon to defeat Multnomah Athletic Club.
[2] That year's Big Game was played on Thanksgiving Day at the Recreation Park stadium in the industrial section of San Francisco.
[3] Beginning in the 1890s, American football was becoming increasingly violent - the ball carrier would often be pushed and pulled up the field by his own players in massive formations that often resulted in serious injuries.
[11] That year President Theodore Roosevelt lobbied the elite private schools to alter the game in order to eliminate or at least reduce its prevalent injuries.
[18][n 2] The same year Smith hired former Cal rugby player and San Diego high school football coach Nibs Price.
Price was essential to recruiting southern California's Brick Muller, Albert "Pesky" Sprott, Crip Toomey and Stanley Barnes, who became the key players of Smith's dominating squads that became known as Wonder Teams.
With the emergence of the talented squads, Smith also became known for trick plays such as the classic lateral to the halfback, followed by a long forward pass.
Brick Muller, both an offensive and defensive star, became known for completing 50-yard passes that were previously thought impossible - at the time the game was played with a plump, rugby-like ball.
From 1920 to 1925, The Wonder Teams went 50 straight games without defeat, made three trips to the Rose Bowl, and won four national titles as determined by various selectors - 1920, 1921, 1922 and 1923.
The Big Ten declined to send its champion Iowa, and a little known team from Pennsylvania, named the Washington and Jefferson Presidents were invited.
Cal's quarterback Benny Lom was able to catch up to and stop Riegels at the 3-yard line, where they were immediately tackled by Georgia Tech players.
Some schools like Stanford paused their football programs, and out of the nine PCC conference teams only Cal, USC, UCLA and Washington participated in the 1942 and 1943 seasons.
[39] Known as "Pappy's Boys", the teams of 1947–1950 won 33 consecutive regular season games, earning three conference championships and three Rose Bowl berths.
He was also a pitcher and a center fielder for the baseball team, and twice an All-American, led Cal to win the inaugural 1947 College World Series.
It was led by linebacker Ed White a consensus All-American and future member of College Hall of Fame, relying on its defense Cal went 7–3–1 and ranking as high as 8th in the AP poll.
[53] The Bear Minimum still holds Cal's records for opponents' average gains per play – 3.60, as well as the fewest rushing touchdowns per season – 5 (same as the Thunder Team).
[58] In 1975, behind an NCAA-leading offense anchored by All-Americans Joe Roth, Chuck Muncie, Wesley Walker, Steve Rivera, and Ted Albrecht, the Golden Bears were co-champions of the Pac-8.
Led by quarterback John Elway, Stanford made a field goal with four seconds left in the game, leading Cal by one point.
In the ensuing kickoff return, Cal used five lateral passes to score a touchdown and turn certain defeat into a 25–20 victory, running into Stanford's marching band's celebration.
Part of Snyder's success was due to him being able to recruit a number of outstanding players, such as Russell White, Mike Pawlawski, Sean Dawkins, Troy Auzenne, David Ortega, away from football powers such as USC and UCLA.
[76] 1994 was the first year of the future Cal and NFL legend Tony Gonzales, who played both as a tight end and forward for the Golden Bears basketball team.
California played their 2011 home games in San Francisco Giant's AT&T Park due to the massive reconstruction of the Memorial Stadium.
[112] By 2018, all sports programmes would be required to have at least 80 percent incoming athletes comply with University of California system's general admission standard - a high school GPA of at least 3.0.
[114][115] The college career of future NFL star - quarterback Jared Goff, can be considered as one of the few positive highlights of the Dykes era.
In his three years under Dykes' Air Raid, he set 26 team records that included, season and career: touchdowns, yardage gained and lowest percentage of interceptions.
