The Very Small Game (Cal-Stanford Soliloquy)
Look, I know what week it is. I know who we’re playing. I know it’s a big deal to every big Cal fan out there, especially those who were graced with the awesomeness of Holmoe. Retain the Axe and all that. Good good good.
I couldn’t care less.
That isn’t because I’m done following the Bears–they’re tattooed onto me for life. But for the rest of this season? I’m out. The collapse of Cal football has left me a sick man. Literally. Ever since Riley slid to the ground, my body decided it would multiply the pain. Viral infections everywhere, week after week. Sidelined from what would have been a disastrous Rose Bowl trip. Standing and shivering during a terrible Wazzu victory. Walking back drenched in defeat from the USC game. That was all topped off by a lovely feverish dream during Thanksgiving weekend involving Zach Follett spitting on me, calling me fairweather for all my disparaging criticism of Cal’s failings, and then walking off into the darkness.
It seemed all the effort I’ve put into writing and following the Bears seems to be all for naught. To say the least, these last six weeks have left me despondent. I’m very very tired of discussing the Bears non-stop. So it’s going to stop. At least to the degree I’ve been going at.
I’ve never been to a Big Game, and this year the trend will continue. The real year to go would have been 2004, when the Bears seemed to be on the verge of the Rose Bowl, but I still had not fully converted myself to the light. After the disastrous finishes of 2005 and 2006, I couldn’t have cared less–I would have just been a zombie, hoping for a beatdown and disappointed by anything else.
The Stanford game means little to me so far, because Stanford has sucked since I came here. Despite the USC upset, they continue to suck. It would probably mean something if I was a little older, but that isn’t the case. It’ll grow into me over time, but for now it barely registers on my radar of important games. Beating them means nothing but bragging rights in our rivalry; losing to them means total, utter pain. This year though, it would just bring total numbness to my limbs. I would turn into the human version of limbo.
You couldn’t pay me to go to the Big Game, even if it is the final regular season game for our seniors. I don’t think I can handle another lackluster effort by the Bears. The probability of a decisive victory is terribly low, so I’m going to cut my losses and look forward to 2009 before closing up shop. It’s just too painful to talk about what we’ve undergone the past seven weeks. #1…and gone. That’s what our season feels like now.
I’ll still be watching. Just with a warier, colder eye. Crush the Cardinal.
How do you feel about the Big Game? Vote in the sidebar.
- None Found
Logging you in...
Still, I'm disappointed in you. How can you claim to be a Bear fan and never have attended a Big Game? Know you not the pain of watching the ugliest mascot in existence dancing to "All Right Now" after a Stanford touchdown? Have you never tried to decipher the meaning behind an incomprehensible and poorly performed LSJUMB show? Do you know the joy of watching pampered rich white boys get beaten down into the turf?
Besides, the 1982 Big Game wasn't particularly meaningful. At least until the last 4 seconds, that is.
Plus I'm literally coughing up germbuckets right now. If I can place a disproportionate amount of my pride and joy in 20-21 year old athletes, I damn well can place my disgust, sickness and anger on them too! It's my American right!
All it'll take is one loss to Stanford, and your heart will fill with the same hatred as the generations of Cal fans who've come before you. In the meantime, their basketball team is pretty insufferable.
As for basketball, our tradition there is even more pathetic than football. Our greatest player turned out to be a wife-beater. Good times.
You make a compelling case.
This is what happens when your freshman year is 11-1. You expect the best. Kinda silly of me.
I think it is important to remember that the Big Game is a season unto itself. As an undergraduate student, I suffered through the Roger Theder era (1978-1981), graduating in June '82. Although I was studying for first semester law school finals down in San Diego, The Play, as executed by Kevin Moen, 11-20-82, was a most liberating conclusion to 4 years of frustration. I remember an '85 Big Game where Cal was down 22-0, scored 21 points in about 5 minutes, and lost as Leland Rix missed a chip shot Field Goal early in the 4th Quarter, and Stanford held on.
1986 was a definite highlight, as a 2-9 team in Kapp's last season beat Stanford 17-11 (it was not that close). It was 3-3 at Half Time, as I recall, 10-3 Cal at the end of the 3rd, and Cal put on a drive midway through the 4th quarter where to my vexation, they kept running left, toward the Cal student section, which was the narrow side of the field. About the fifth or sixth time they did this, Stanford's defense over-committed, the ball went on a reverse to a 160 pound wide receiver named Mike Ford, and at the 50, there was nothing but green grass between him and the South End Zone. I remember yelling so loud my fillings in my teeth rattled. Ford got a key block at about the 30, and ran in untouched. Cal 17, Stanford 3, and the game was essentially over at that point.
In 1988, tie game, Cal got an interception, had the ball inside the 10, four downs, 2 time-outs, and "Cement Head" Bruce Snyder elected to run the clock down for a Field Goal attempt, which Tran Van Le blocked. Stanford kept the axe.
In 1990, an over-enthusastic Cal student body charged the field early after a Stanford
extra point failed. Stanford recovered the onsides kick, John Belli committed a stupid roughing the passer personal foul, and Stanford
kicked a Field Goal to win.
Let's be realistic: Cal is never, and I mean never, going to finish #1 in Football or
Basketball. However, it's a big improvement over my years, where we couldn't beat UCLA in Basketball, or USC in football.
The Big Game exists in a peculiar Twilight Zone. The team's records coming in mean nothing.
Unlikely heroes come from seemingly out of nowhere. God knows bizarre plays and decisions are the norm. The thing has such an accretion of tradition now that it is practically a sin to miss it, if you can go. Geography and other commitments impair many alums from attending. In the future, go and enjoy it for the spectacle of it. There's nothing like it.
I'll be there next year when we get the Axe back.
Best of BN, 2007 at Bears Necessity
Comments by IntenseDebate
Loading IntenseDebate Comments...Contact Us
Got a tip, question or want to advertise with us? Use the contact form or talk to us using the address below:
Subscribe to RSS or E-mail
Copyright © 2025 Bears Necessity &bull Site Feed (RSS)
RockinBiz 3 Column by Nathan Rice &bull Modified by lawvol
Powered by WordPress
Comments are closed.