During the Mike White era in the 70's the spring game was sometimes a contest between the current team and alumni players. One of the outstanding plays from that era was when Craig Morton, who was helping coach the alumni team, took a few snaps, dressed in his street clothes. Whether or not there was an understanding to not touch him at least one Cal defender did not get the memo and bulled past the offensive line and leveled him with a not gentle at all tackle.

This picture is from halftime of one of the games. I am not positive of the year, probably 1975. This is yours truly catching a pass on the sacred turf. A few of us at halftime just walked onto the field and picked up a football and started passing it around. No one stopped us. Times were more relaxed then. And for Bear Insiders of a more recent vintage people really dressed like that (I am 72 years old).

Larno said:

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During the Mike White era in the 70's the spring game was sometimes a contest between the current team and alumni players. One of the outstanding plays from that era was when Craig Morton, who was helping coach the alumni team, took a few snaps, dressed in his street clothes. Whether or not there was an understanding to not touch him at least one Cal defender did not get the memo and bulled past the offensive line and leveled him with a not gentle at all tackle.

This picture is from halftime of one of the games. I am not positive of the year, probably 1975. This is yours truly catching a pass on the sacred turf. A few of us at halftime just walked onto the field and picked up a football and started passing it around. No one stopped us. Times were more relaxed then. And for Bear Insiders of a more recent vintage people really dressed like that (I am 72 years old).

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Awesome.

6956bear said:

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... Another thing worth considering is did the prior style of DL play a contributing factor in the huge amount of injuries along the DL. Not sure but worth considering. ...

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I'm thinking that when the DB's are in a more static holding position, occupying the OL, they are more vulnerable to devastating knee injuries because any significant hit to the side of the knee which is under tension from the static holding position will cause the knee to buckle laterally causing significant damage. A knee that is moving in an upfield defense would not be subject to the same forces ...

BBB

A note on the "sacred turf" Larno referred to:

Around 1975 (I think) the Bear Rugby team hosted a team from New South Wales/Australia. Cal played rugby in Memorial Stadium those days.

The grass field at Cal was exceptionally sweet when it wasn't wet. After the match, a reporter talked with the NSW Fullback about their experience playing Cal and he said, among other things, that the grass field was so nice, that the Aussies actually looked forward to being tackled on it.

Oh, to have those days back!

Thank you for posting that link!