BeggarEd said:

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calumnus said:

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Cal88 said:

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ferCALgm2 said:

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LunchTime said:

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SLTX Bear said:

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Don't care about the bear territory chant or any hurt feelings that may come from it. To me it is more celebratory than disrespectful, although I could get some sensitive people, especially those unfamiliar with us, taking it that way.

One chant I could really do without though is the repeated "F*** You Stanford" one. I'm not sensitive about language personally (ex sailor), but I really hate my young kids hearing that as I just think it's a bad look. I also brought some friends with kids to the last home Big Game and was cringing internally when it went down.

Lesson learned, for the big game I'll sit back on the alumni side when I have the kids as I've never really noticed it much on that side.

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I am opposed to defining yourself by what you aren't or what you dislike.

Safety School, 1-800-Be-At-Cal, F*** you Stanford, etc. is all the same. Its defining yourself through what you dislike. Its small, and giving power to what you don't like.

I get that people dislike something else more than they like anything about themselves... but I just dont like it.

Bear Territory chant is about us. It is us celebrating us. Its focused on us being Bears and being victorious. Thats why I like it.

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Exactly! I also can't stand the "over-rated" chant after beating a ranked opponent. But BTC is about us celebrating our win. It's original.

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It didn't start as a celebratory cheer chanted once the victory was sealed, it was originally a "regular" mid-game cheer, invented by a player who took the microphone and led the student section sometime in the late 80s IIRC.

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Early 80s.

And it was accompanied by the Cal Band drum line.

The thing I don't like now is at some point in the last decade the players sped it up and garbled it. It should not be so hyper. It is better much slower and more of a call and response.

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Sometime in the early to mid-2000's, yelling "What?" between every line started... I call it the "Lil Jon effect." I like/liked the classic version shown here better, but I'm an old fart now anyhow so don't mind my opinion!

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Anderson in the video says it was an early addition. But it only works if it is chanted slowly as a call and response. This hyper version with everybody garbling all the parts trying to rush through it is not nearly as good.

Somebody came up with that terrible chant in the 80s? That's just sad. It needs an update. Keep the "What?" and "Bear Territory", but ditch the "story" and "whole world"part

TummyoftheGB said:

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I was picking up my kid at school last week, parked near the football field, and I heard something vaguely familiar--it was the high school cheerleading squad was practicing their adaptation of Bear Territory. It occurred to me that I never heard another school doing that cheer--granted, I don't attend many high school football games these days--but if it's made it to suburban San Diego teenage cheerleader squads, it must be fairly widespread by now.

In addition to sanitizing it ("damn world" changed to "wide world") and changing the team name, they had some clever variations on the call and response that changed the rhythm and cadence (e.g "You know it" -- "Yeah , alright already"; "You tell the story"--"A bedtime story??"). Hard to be upset at this kind of frivolity if you were the opposing team or fanbase.

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Piedmont High does a version of it, but pretty close in proximity to Berkeley

Would rather hear people complain about our guys singing it than hear our fans complain about the circumstances (losing) that lead to them not singing it.

BarcaBear said:

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Old alums don't get it, and wish everybody was still into the dorky old days, but our Berkeley songs are cheesy. With all the lyrical talent of our rappers in the Bay we should pay them to create some new songs for Cal. Nothing wrong with being arrogant and calling someone else stadium Bear Territory, it just the rhyme scheme is corny.

and I'll add our mascot looks like he belongs in a pedo lineup. Oaki should keep his head but needs a new change of clothes, this isn't the 1950s.

If you disagree it doesn't really matter, just telling you how things come off with younger generations. Call it the Nike effect, if you'd like, but it all matters. You can die on the tradition hill if you'd like, tho

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Oski and the Cal fight song lyrics have seemed like "something from a previous generation" for many generations. Keeping some that is fine, it seems like*, but it should also be augmented with a lot of new stuff that current students can relate to. JMO.


* retaining some of the older stuff hopefully makes students feel like they are tied to a long, proud history

BearGreg said:

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Sebastabear said:

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You see the elderly idiot in the Hawaiian shirt and the blue cap in the lower left-hand corner of this video? The one sitting on (and eventually jumping into) the equipment cart to escape the massive players jumping up and down right next to him? Well I am just going to say that no one else posting on this thread has almost lost their life as a result of the Bear Territory chant. So if I am still willing to say it is awesome, it is absolutely awesome.

And if other teams don't like their stadiums turning into Bear Territory, then they should stop losing to us. Scoreboard.

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Elderly? Not by a long shot.

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You are kind to say. You may be correct but only in the sense that in the land of the old the slightly less old is king.

Big C said:

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BarcaBear said:

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Old alums don't get it, and wish everybody was still into the dorky old days, but our Berkeley songs are cheesy. With all the lyrical talent of our rappers in the Bay we should pay them to create some new songs for Cal. Nothing wrong with being arrogant and calling someone else stadium Bear Territory, it just the rhyme scheme is corny.

and I'll add our mascot looks like he belongs in a pedo lineup. Oaki should keep his head but needs a new change of clothes, this isn't the 1950s.

If you disagree it doesn't really matter, just telling you how things come off with younger generations. Call it the Nike effect, if you'd like, but it all matters. You can die on the tradition hill if you'd like, tho

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Oski and the Cal fight song lyrics have seemed like "something from a previous generation" for many generations. Keeping some that is fine, it seems like*, but it should also be augmented with a lot of new stuff that current students can relate to. JMO.


* retaining some of the older stuff hopefully makes students feel like they are tied to a long, proud history

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I've stated this many times on this board in the last 25 years or so:

Most of the original Cal fight songs were written by Cal students as part of competitions in the early 1900s.

We should revive that tradition and have rap competitions in front of the student section to come up with new Cal anthems with monetary prizes. Cal students and local rappers welcome. Kind of like American Idol (maybe only finalist perform at CMS?). Maybe with the Cal Band accompanying? Get the students and casual fans involved, maybe voting on line?

BeggarEd said:

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Sometime in the early to mid-2000's, yelling "What?" between every line started... I call it the "Lil Jon effect." I like/liked the classic version shown here better, but I'm an old fart now anyhow so don't mind my opinion!

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Like those that don't like the "Woooo" before "Rocky Top Tennessee!"

Sebastabear said:

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BearGreg said:

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Sebastabear said:

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You see the elderly idiot in the Hawaiian shirt and the blue cap in the lower left-hand corner of this video? The one sitting on (and eventually jumping into) the equipment cart to escape the massive players jumping up and down right next to him? Well I am just going to say that no one else posting on this thread has almost lost their life as a result of the Bear Territory chant. So if I am still willing to say it is awesome, it is absolutely awesome.

And if other teams don't like their stadiums turning into Bear Territory, then they should stop losing to us. Scoreboard.

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Elderly? Not by a long shot.

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You are kind to say. You may be correct but only in the sense that in the land of the old the slightly less old is king.

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I'm currently taking a class on gerontology right now so I can do better at caring for, or dealing with - whichever they'll allow, my parents.

And what I've learned already is that, while I have no idea who is shown wearing the Hawaiian shirt, my professor would give Greg an A and send him to the head of the class!

This is Bear Territory !!!

You actually made my point.
I later said to chop it up. Some parts of the chant are okay, others are corny.

Sampling means chopping up the original and only taking a small piece.

In any case, what song of his samples Bear Territory?

Sorry, but you're wrong. You are an exception to the rule. I have rarely met anyone that grew to like the chants.

Roll on You Bears was the one folks liked the best.

As to the age thing, I'm pushing 50, so, you're also wrong on the whole thing about what connection you feel to future students is outdated songs. The team sports and the laundry are what connect you.

Whether you were 13 years old or 60 years old, its the game and players that connect folks. It's Kevin Moen showing Gary Tyrrell the business end of a football. It's Beastmode ghost riding the injury cart. Marcus Ezeff popping the Ducks Colvin at 1 yard line.

Sidenote that Ezeff hit led to a spontaneous chant from Cal fans that will probably never be heard again, "It's raining in Autzen. It's raining in Autzen!". For those that don't know, the Ducks announcer before the game would do a weather announcement where he would say something after describing the weather like, "what does that mean Duck fans?". Then they would all say "it never rains in Autzen stadium". Coincidentally, as Ezeff popped Colvin we began feeling large drops of what we thought was water, hence the chant, but in reality was probably beer that Ducks fans were throwing at us. In either case, it was raining in Autzen.

Lol, you turned getting dumped on into a party!!

See, I knew your post belonged in Growls and not OT after all. People had fun wit this thread.

By the way, I was in memorial in 82. That was a lifelong moment!

And separately…
Back then, there was no "what?" After "you know it".

BarcaBear said:

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You actually made my point.
I later said to chop it up. Some parts of the chant are okay, others are corny.

Sampling means chopping up the original and only taking a small piece.

In any case, what song of his samples Bear Territory?

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Right. You said:

Quote:

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Somebody came up with that terrible chant in the 80s? That's just sad. It needs an update. Keep the "What?" and "Bear Territory", but ditch the "story" and "whole world"part

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Snoop disagrees LOL. He literally changed what you say to keep and stole the part you say is corny.

Also thanks for the lesson on what sampling is LOL. I didn't say he sampled it. I said he "sampled" it. He stole the lyrics wholesale and made a derivative work by changing a few.

Could not have said it better.

BarcaBear said:

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Sorry, but you're wrong. You are an exception to the rule. I have rarely met anyone that grew to like the chants.

Roll on You Bears was the one folks liked the best.

As to the age thing, I'm pushing 50, so, you're also wrong on the whole thing about what connection you feel to future students is outdated songs. The team sports and the laundry are what connect you.

Whether you were 13 years old or 60 years old, its the game and players that connect folks. It's Kevin Moen showing Gary Tyrrell the business end of a football. It's Beastmode ghost riding the injury cart. Marcus Ezeff popping the Ducks Colvin at 1 yard line.

Sidenote that Ezeff hit led to a spontaneous chant from Cal fans that will probably never be heard again, "It's raining in Autzen. It's raining in Autzen!". For those that don't know, the Ducks announcer before the game would do a weather announcement where he would say something after describing the weather like, "what does that mean Duck fans?". Then they would all say "it never rains in Autzen stadium". Coincidentally, as Ezeff popped Colvin we began feeling large drops of what we thought was water, hence the chant, but in reality was probably beer that Ducks fans were throwing at us. In either case, it was raining in Autzen.

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Team sports only matter if there's something deeper connecting you to the team. I'm a Cal alumnus and a Cal sports fan. I know some folks who are Cal alumni who are not Cal sports fans (frankly, they don't care about sports and never have). I also know a few Cal fans who are not Cal alumni. These latter, however, aren't as steeped in all the Cal traditions as we alumni. They enjoy the sporting and entertainment aspects of the teams but they don't feel the ties to our alma mater.

As for the incidents you mentioned, they are meaningful for those who witnessed it; for younger generations who didn't, they mean little, if anything. Even "The Play," which has rightfully become a part of Cal lore is over 40 years old. Today's Cal students today just won't have the connection to it that fans 40 years ago do. (I didn't even know about it until Big Game Week and it, along with the Big Game Titration, was shown during a lecture for Chem 1A.)

Unlike schools like Notre Dame where the uniform has remained the same seemingly forever, at Cal the uniforms change on an almost annual basis. The Joe Roth uniforms look entirely different from the uniforms worn last Saturday and the Saturday before that. Heck, this year's uniforms even look different from last year's! The uniforms don't keep us connected. They can't because they're not even the same from one year to the next.

Similarly, the players are constantly changing. Kids today won't remember Deltha O'neal, Joe Igber, Adimchinobi* Echemandu, Scott Fujita, or Nnamdi Asmougha. But those are all players who stand out in my memory because they played when I was a student. (Unfortunately, I also remember Justin Vedder as the starting Cal quarterback.)

Even today's young alumni may not know who Pain Train is or which Cal running back** rushed for 2000 yards in a season. They may not even be old enough to have watched Marshawn Lynch truck opposing defenders and then ask for a breather so his fellow running backs could get some playing time.

Heck, were it not for the willingness to share the stories of older Cal greats like Joe Roth, Chuck Muncie, and Russell White, I wouldn't have known who they were either. For that matter, I wouldn't have known who Joe Kapp was, either without the older Cal alumni's stories. While I can appreciate them and their place in Cal history, I don't feel that same connection to them as guys who watched them perform live.

But the traditions, the songs we all heard (and many learned) at Cal, the chants, etc. that's something that is shared across the generations. That's what has stayed the same. That's what connects us all, year after year, generation after generation. That's what makes us members of the same Cal community. That's what keeps us coming back and rooting for the current Golden Bears squad year after year.

*I even remember that he went by Joe Echema, initially, but wanted to go by his real name later. That resonated with me because I know what it's like to use an Anglicized name (and not the name you're given at birth) in order to fit in to the US.

**For those who don't know, it was JJ Arrington. He pulled that off in 2004. Yet, he wasn't even shortlisted for the Heisman Trophy.

Sonny brought the chant back to locker room after victories right?

The best Bear Territory chant I've heard was after the 2003 Big Game victory 28-16 at Stanfurd. As we were leaving the stadium, I could hear it BOOMING out of the visitors locker room which was at that time, adjacent to the stadium. Nothing better and it needs to stay forever! Go Bears!

I suppose they could bring back the practice of planting the California flag into the hosting team's 50-yard-line logo. That was always well-received. Remember when the Ole Miss coach tried that in Berkeley but the announcers rushed him off with introductions?

APT43Bear said:

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okaydo said:

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Not my opinion. This is a New Yorker writer who lives in Berkeley->

Nevertheless being on a college football team must be so fun.

— kang (@jaycaspiankang) September 8, 2024

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Gonna have to take this one back. Wasn’t aware that cal football had a meme army with a chaotic energy not seen since Weird Celtics Twitter. Also my kid’s flag football coach is number 63 in the video. Hopping on the bandwagon. https://t.co/FY6PPp8x4H

— kang (@jaycaspiankang) September 11, 2024

haha, looks like the Cal burner accounts have made him see the light. He's on the Cal bandwagon now lol

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lmao wtf how am I getting cooked by Cal football fans. Need to reassess some things https://t.co/VR9CqEuG4N

— kang (@jaycaspiankang) September 10, 2024

I’ve enjoyed the ‘we won bc of woke’ claims as well

— kang (@jaycaspiankang) September 10, 2024

hmm you know I might just do that. Haven’t been in a couple years

— kang (@jaycaspiankang) September 10, 2024

Lmaooo trust me man I get enough of that around town

— kang (@jaycaspiankang) September 10, 2024

Three pack of Critical Race Theory is crazy 😂😂😂 https://t.co/s4awl7kxpB

— kang (@jaycaspiankang) September 10, 2024

So the guy live in Berkeley, writes professionally about college football, and hasn't been to a Cal game in 2 years?!?

Cal88 said:

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So the guy live in Berkeley, writes professionally about college football, and hasn't been to a Cal game in 2 years?!?

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/14/opinion/california-housing-renters.html

Our movie on Michael Chang comes out July 29 at 7 EST on ESPN and will be available immediately on streaming. Here’s a preview on a letter Arthur Ashe sent to Michael when he was 15. https://t.co/uSSkHrCL81 pic.twitter.com/g2tiqxghQq

— kang (@jaycaspiankang) July 25, 2024

Thanks for exposing these idiots, Okaydo

Alkiadt said:

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calumnus said:

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AZ Bear said:

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calumnus said:

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The thing I don't like now is at some point in the last decade the players sped it up and garbled it. It should not be so hyper. It is better much slower and more of a call and response.

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^ This.

I also much prefer the slower, clearer way this chant was done when Tedford was coach. I believe Tedford led the chant on some occasions...

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It started long before Tedford, in 1982 first year of Kapp. It was perfected under Snyder. It is the Wilcox teams that started this hyper version even though Wilcox was a coach for a couple of years under Tedford and should know better.

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Ahmad Anderson, a DB from Richmond on Kapp's 1982 team invented this yell. That fact was confirmed a year or so ago when he was recognized by the Cal HOF for inventing it.
Ahmad's mother was at one time the mayor of Richmond. Ahmad is currently running for the Richmond City Council.

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I know what chant his friends should start as he takes the state at his election night victory party.