Jump into a time machine and...

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blungld
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In the spirit of pre-season musings, if you could jump into a time machine and travel to these four scenarios, how would you answer?

1) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again? Meaning, it's your brain now transplanted into your body at the time of an experience you had in the past to witness it again as your current self.

2) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again as you were then? Meaning, it's you living that moment again exactly as you experienced then as your former self.

3) What Cal moment that you DID NOT experience would you like to go back in time and witness live?

4) What very specific Cal moment/play would you like to change even at risk of disrupting the space time continuum?


My answers:
1) Me as a freshman in 1982, brunch at the Claremont Hotel the day after The Play with everyone still abuzz over what had happened, newspapers in hand, celebrating with my family, and talking football with my late father. The chance to talk to him again and that moment made me a Cal fan for life.

2) The 3 OT victory over USC with my wife and son moving back and forth in the stands with each extra period and witnessing the triumphant win.

3) The Chuck Muncie game.

4) Rodgers completes TD pass on 4th and 7 as the game ends in the Coliseum.
The Bear will not quilt, the Bear will not dye!
Jeff82
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blungld said:

In the spirit of pre-season musings, if you could jump into a time machine and travel to these four scenarios, how would you answer?

1) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again? Meaning, it's your brain now transplanted into your body at the time of an experience you had in the past to witness it again as your current self.

2) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again as you were then? Meaning, it's you living that moment again exactly as you experienced then as your former self.

3) What Cal moment that you DID NOT experience would you like to go back in time and witness live?

4) What very specific Cal moment/play would you like to change even at risk of disrupting the space time continuum?


My answers:
1) Me as a freshman in 1982, brunch at the Claremont Hotel the day after The Play with everyone still abuzz over what had happened, newspapers in hand, celebrating with my family, and talking football with my late father. The chance to talk to him again and that moment made me a Cal fan for life.

2) The 3 OT victory over USC with my wife and son moving back and forth in the stands with each extra period and witnessing the triumphant win.

3) The Chuck Muncie game.

4) Rodgers completes TD pass on 4th and 7 as the game ends in the Coliseum.

1) One of Steve Sweeney's game-winning catches in the 70s. A great, underappreciated Cal player. I'd like to slow the play down to see how it developed.

2) Ending the streak against UCLA. The sound in the gym when Chris W. intercepted that inbounds pass and laid it in is still the loudest I've ever heard at a sporting event. It was basically thousands of people simultaneously realizing we were finally going to beat them and end a lifetime of frustration.

3) 1959 Final Four. Beating Oscar Robertson and Jerry West on consecutive nights. My mother always said the game against West Virginia was the greatest college game she ever saw.

4) Second Rodgers completing the pass against USC. Definitely a trip to the Rose Bowl if we win that game.
JSC 76
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2) Ending the *other* streak against UCLA, 1990. When the team entered the field by coming down through the student section and the packed house lost their minds.

4) Oregon, 2007. Nate Longshore avoids the hit and stays healthy all year. Sigh.
blungld
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Jeff82 said:

1) One of Steve Sweeney's game-winning catches in the 70s. A great, underappreciated Cal player. I'd like to slow the play down to see how it developed.

2) Ending the streak against UCLA. The sound in the gym when Chris W. intercepted that inbounds pass and laid it in is still the loudest I've ever heard at a sporting event. It was basically thousands of people simultaneously realizing we were finally going to beat them and end a lifetime of frustration.

3) 1959 Final Four. Beating Oscar Robertson and Jerry West on consecutive nights. My mother always said the game against West Virginia was the greatest college game she ever saw.

4) Second Rodgers completing the pass against USC. Definitely a trip to the Rose Bowl if we win that game.


I was almost going to pick the same first three answers you did. Great choices. That UCLA basketball game was insane. The celebration in that packed gym was a sports euphoria that is impossible to recreate...the velvet jacket!
The Bear will not quilt, the Bear will not dye!
Jeff82
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A number of years ago, I played golf and my father and I got to have dinner with Steve Desimone, the former Cal golf coach, who also played basketball for Cal in the late 60s. My dad is in the Class of '57, I'm in the class of '82. At one point during dinner, Des looked at me and said, "Wow, you really know a lot about the history of Cal sports." I said, "from a lifetime of aggravation. That's why I don't have most of my hair."
HearstMining
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blungld said:

In the spirit of pre-season musings, if you could jump into a time machine and travel to these four scenarios, how would you answer?

1) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again? Meaning, it's your brain now transplanted into your body at the time of an experience you had in the past to witness it again as your current self.

2) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again as you were then? Meaning, it's you living that moment again exactly as you experienced then as your former self.

3) What Cal moment that you DID NOT experience would you like to go back in time and witness live?

4) What very specific Cal moment/play would you like to change even at risk of disrupting the space time continuum?





1) Cal-USC game - 1975. There was electricity in the air from the moment we entered CMS. I had a horrible hangover and puked in the bushes just before we walked into the student section (would rather not relive that part) but the adrenaline rush as the Cal Band entered wiped it away. Wow - now 50 years ago.

2) This is an obscure one. 00:01 left on the clock against Penn St in 1965. Jim Hunt to Jerry Bradley for a winning TD. I don't recall how many yards, but it was a definite Hail Mary. I was ten years-old and truly felt I had just seen a miracle.

3) The Ferragamo/Sweeny catch in the 1972 Big Game

4) Bruce Snyder electing signing a new deal to remain at Cal instead of leaving for Arizona.
Big C
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blungld said:

In the spirit of pre-season musings, if you could jump into a time machine and travel to these four scenarios, how would you answer?

1) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again? Meaning, it's your brain now transplanted into your body at the time of an experience you had in the past to witness it again as your current self.

2) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again as you were then? Meaning, it's you living that moment again exactly as you experienced then as your former self.

3) What Cal moment that you DID NOT experience would you like to go back in time and witness live?

4) What very specific Cal moment/play would you like to change even at risk of disrupting the space time continuum?


My answers:
1) Me as a freshman in 1982, brunch at the Claremont Hotel the day after The Play with everyone still abuzz over what had happened, newspapers in hand, celebrating with my family, and talking football with my late father. The chance to talk to him again and that moment made me a Cal fan for life.

2) The 3 OT victory over USC with my wife and son moving back and forth in the stands with each extra period and witnessing the triumphant win.

3) The Chuck Muncie game.

4) Rodgers completes TD pass on 4th and 7 as the game ends in the Coliseum.


Was "the Chuck Muncie game" the one where we beat U$C 28-14, or the one where we beat Stanfurd 48-15?

As I go through people's answers, I'm realizing I've been to most all of the really big Cal football and basketball moments over the past half century, at least the ones in Berkeley, so maybe I will just rest on my laurels and thank my lucky stars.

Oh wait, it would've been fun to have been at the Jason-Kidd-beats-Bobby-Hurley game!
blungld
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Big C said:

Was "the Chuck Muncie game" the one where we beat U$C 28-14, or the one where we beat Stanfurd 48-15?

5 TDs in Big Game.

Can you imagine if SC had tied or beaten UCLA (which they should have) then that '75 team would have been in the Rose Bowl and you would have had Muncie vs Griffin the Heisman 1 vs 2? That team and "we" deserved to have that game played. How in the world do they end up with a #13 ranking and the #1 offense in the country and the #2 Heisman vote getter, and not get to even play in a bowl??? Only Cal gets screwed like that.
The Bear will not quilt, the Bear will not dye!
calumnus
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Jeff82 said:


4) Second Rodgers completing the pass against USC. Definitely a trip to the Rose Bowl if we win that game.


We would have been undefeated, having beaten the previous #1 Team on their home field and easily #1 in the computers, lead the nation in rushing and had the leading rusher (Arrington) in the country with a star backup in Marshawn and a projected #1 pick at QB in Rodgers (who broke the NCAA record in consecutive completions in beating #1 USC) with a Top 10 defense so a pretty good chance we play Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl for the National Championship. Arrington or Rodgers gets the Heisman instead of Leinert.

On the other hand, maybe Tedford still calls an uninspired, conservative game at Southern Miss, and takes a knee at the end instead of having Marshawn take it in for another score, there are still shenanigans with the coaches poll, one of the other unbeaten (Auburn say) jumps us and we do end up in the Rose Bowl in front of an all-Cal crowd which we possibly lose like the Holiday Bowl. Rodgers and Arrington split their Heisman votes and someone from one of the Orange Bowl teams wins instead…. We would still celebrate that season like none other.
Big C
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blungld said:

Big C said:

Was "the Chuck Muncie game" the one where we beat U$C 28-14, or the one where we beat Stanfurd 48-15?

5 TDs in Big Game.

Can you imagine if SC had tied or beaten UCLA (which they should have) then that '75 team would have been in the Rose Bowl and you would have had Muncie vs Griffin the Heisman 1 vs 2? That team and "we" deserved to have that game played. How in the world do they end up with a #13 ranking and the #1 offense in the country and the #2 Heisman vote getter, and not get to even play in a bowl??? Only Cal gets screwed like that.


Not only can I imagine, I spent much of my freshman and sophomore years doing just that...
HearstMining
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blungld said:

Big C said:

Was "the Chuck Muncie game" the one where we beat U$C 28-14, or the one where we beat Stanfurd 48-15?

5 TDs in Big Game.

Can you imagine if SC had tied or beaten UCLA (which they should have) then that '75 team would have been in the Rose Bowl and you would have had Muncie vs Griffin the Heisman 1 vs 2? That team and "we" deserved to have that game played. How in the world do they end up with a #13 ranking and the #1 offense in the country and the #2 Heisman vote getter, and not get to even play in a bowl??? Only Cal gets screwed like that.

That was my senior year at Cal and I considered it payback for all the boring (albeit with generally ironclad defenses) Willsey years. Does ol' Ray's ghost sit on Wilcox's shoulder? Their records are remarkably similar.

Anyway, the particularly interesting thing about that UCLA-OSU Rose Bowl was that UCLA was a primarily running team during the season, Schiarra completed less than 50% of 126 attempts, yet they beat OSU by passing them silly. Joe Roth & Co. would have shredded the Buckeyes and once Muncie avoided the DL, nobody would have caught him.
HearstMining
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HearstMining said:

blungld said:

In the spirit of pre-season musings, if you could jump into a time machine and travel to these four scenarios, how would you answer?

1) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again? Meaning, it's your brain now transplanted into your body at the time of an experience you had in the past to witness it again as your current self.

2) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again as you were then? Meaning, it's you living that moment again exactly as you experienced then as your former self.

3) What Cal moment that you DID NOT experience would you like to go back in time and witness live?

4) What very specific Cal moment/play would you like to change even at risk of disrupting the space time continuum?





1) Cal-USC game - 1975. There was electricity in the air from the moment we entered CMS. I had a horrible hangover and puked in the bushes just before we walked into the student section (would rather not relive that part) but the adrenaline rush as the Cal Band entered wiped it away. Wow - now 50 years ago.

2) This is an obscure one. 00:01 left on the clock against Penn St in 1965. Jim Hunt to Jerry Bradley for a winning TD. I don't recall how many yards, but it was a definite Hail Mary. I was ten years-old and truly felt I had just seen a miracle.

3) The Ferragamo/Sweeny catch in the 1972 Big Game

4) Bruce Snyder electing signing a new deal to remain at Cal instead of leaving for Arizona.

Wait! I'm changing my answer to #4!
4) Cal hires somebody other than Jim Knowlton as AD when Mike Williams left.
NO Knowlton >> NO Fox and NO extension for Wilcox plus any savvy AD with major college experience would have made Carol Christ understand the impact of a successful football program. Cal would have fared better during the Pac-12 implosion.
GivemTheAxe
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blungld said:

In the spirit of pre-season musings, if you could jump into a time machine and travel to these four scenarios, how would you answer?

1) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again? Meaning, it's your brain now transplanted into your body at the time of an experience you had in the past to witness it again as your current self.

2) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again as you were then? Meaning, it's you living that moment again exactly as you experienced then as your former self.

3) What Cal moment that you DID NOT experience would you like to go back in time and witness live?

4) What very specific Cal moment/play would you like to change even at risk of disrupting the space time continuum?


My answers:
1) Me as a freshman in 1982, brunch at the Claremont Hotel the day after The Play with everyone still abuzz over what had happened, newspapers in hand, celebrating with my family, and talking football with my late father. The chance to talk to him again and that moment made me a Cal fan for life.

2) The 3 OT victory over USC with my wife and son moving back and forth in the stands with each extra period and witnessing the triumphant win.

3) The Chuck Muncie game.

4) Rodgers completes TD pass on 4th and 7 as the game ends in the Coliseum.


My number 1 would be the Play in 1982. It was such an exhilarating experience as a fan in the stadium watching the play again and knowing not just how it ends but all the hoopla that followed

My number 2 would be the 1967 big Game at Stanford. I was on Rally Comm Ex Comm and got to carry The Axe off the field following the Cal victory that broke a 5 year sting of losses to Stanford. That win and all the partying that followed are burned into my memory

My number 4 would be the same as yours I was at the coliseum in Los Angeles and overlooking the corner of the end zone where Rodger's pass hit the dirt as the Cal receiver slipped and fell. So many times I replayed in my memory the Cal receiver slipping as Rodgers let the pass fly.
SLTX Bear
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1. 2007 Tenn game, especially the D-Jax return

2. 2019 Big Game at Furd. Mainly to re-live the joy my son had finally leaving a big game with a W, after years of disappointment.

3. The play, however if we had won the Miami game last year, I would have replaced the Play with the entire Miami gameday experience from 6am to midnight.

4. Any one of the mishaps, bad luck, bad calls in the 2006 Arizona game. We win that game and we are Rose Bowl bound. 2004 USC would make sense but for me, I wasn't a fan yet at that time.
BearlyCareAnymore
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blungld said:

In the spirit of pre-season musings, if you could jump into a time machine and travel to these four scenarios, how would you answer?

1) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again? Meaning, it's your brain now transplanted into your body at the time of an experience you had in the past to witness it again as your current self.

2) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again as you were then? Meaning, it's you living that moment again exactly as you experienced then as your former self.

3) What Cal moment that you DID NOT experience would you like to go back in time and witness live?

4) What very specific Cal moment/play would you like to change even at risk of disrupting the space time continuum?


My answers:
1) Me as a freshman in 1982, brunch at the Claremont Hotel the day after The Play with everyone still abuzz over what had happened, newspapers in hand, celebrating with my family, and talking football with my late father. The chance to talk to him again and that moment made me a Cal fan for life.

2) The 3 OT victory over USC with my wife and son moving back and forth in the stands with each extra period and witnessing the triumphant win.

3) The Chuck Muncie game.

4) Rodgers completes TD pass on 4th and 7 as the game ends in the Coliseum.

1. 1991 vs. USC. That is the only song you know. The way we just humiliated USC and shoved decades of arrogant shyte back in their faces over and over and over again was just awesome.

2. 1982 Big Game. Some of the magic has worn off over the years through overuse, but just an awesome game with a magic ending and sending Elway off without a Bowl and being on the field pointing at the Stanford section pointing and chanting "You effed up" while they seemed totally paralyzed waiting for someone to change the outcome (never seen a losing teams fans stay in the stadium so long) was perfect.

3. Ending the basketball streak with UCLA.

4. Same as yours. We complete that pass we play in the NC title.
wifeisafurd
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Jeff82 said:

A number of years ago, I played golf and my father and I got to have dinner with Steve Desimone, the former Cal golf coach, who also played basketball for Cal in the late 60s. My dad is in the Class of '57, I'm in the class of '82. At one point during dinner, Des looked at me and said, "Wow, you really know a lot about the history of Cal sports." I said, "from a lifetime of aggravation. That's why I don't have most of my hair."

I'm betting if Steve could have just one mulligan, it would be that match against Illinois in the NCAAs with the famous 2012/3 team that won everything but the NCAA championship.

Anyway momments:

I saw the Play, but as a follow-up Cal defeating Stanford, 17-11 in 1986. Cal entered the contest just 1-9 on the season and as a 21-point underdog against No. 16 Stanford (largest upset in Big Game history). Joe Kapp was carried off the field by his players in what was his last game as Cal head coach. RIP Joe.

The 2018 upset of number 15 Washington where Cal didn't score an offensive touchdown. Greatest defensive effort I have ever seen by a Cal team, crowned by a Evan Weaver's incredible interception and touchdown dive t win the game.

Kidd and company upsetting two-time defending champion Duke in the second round of the NCAA tourney with an incredible amount of basketball talent on the floor.

This is cheating with several momments, but Cal Baseball's improbable 2011 College World Series run
oskithepimp
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1) The Desean Jackson Tennessee game. I was living in Panama at the time and my buddies from Cal visited, we searched high and low and finally found a casino that had the game on. When DJax returned the punt for a TD the entire casino went nuts and some random Panamanian guy stood on a chair and screamed "Desean Yacksooooon!!" We partied into the wee hours of Panama City that night. Cal + foreign travel = awesome

2) Big Game 2002. We lost every year when I was in school (thanks Holmoe). I was still in the Bay in 2002 and even though the game was a blowout, we rushed the field, tore down the goalpoasts, and carried it to Sproul Plaza, mowing down stop signs the entire way down Bancroft. I ened up front and center on Stanfurd website holding the goalpost with my lucky yellow Cal shirt on, gigantic hole in the armpit for the world to see.

3) The Play.

4) Mack Brown spontaneously implodes as he's crying into his panties to the media in 2004. We go the the Rose Bowl. A random janitor sweeps up his dusty remains and throws him in a dumpster.
upsetof86
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HearstMining said:

blungld said:

In the spirit of pre-season musings, if you could jump into a time machine and travel to these four scenarios, how would you answer?

1) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again? Meaning, it's your brain now transplanted into your body at the time of an experience you had in the past to witness it again as your current self.

2) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again as you were then? Meaning, it's you living that moment again exactly as you experienced then as your former self.

3) What Cal moment that you DID NOT experience would you like to go back in time and witness live?

4) What very specific Cal moment/play would you like to change even at risk of disrupting the space time continuum?





1) Cal-USC game - 1975. There was electricity in the air from the moment we entered CMS. I had a horrible hangover and puked in the bushes just before we walked into the student section (would rather not relive that part) but the adrenaline rush as the Cal Band entered wiped it away. Wow - now 50 years ago.

2) This is an obscure one. 00:01 left on the clock against Penn St in 1965. Jim Hunt to Jerry Bradley for a winning TD. I don't recall how many yards, but it was a definite Hail Mary. I was ten years-old and truly felt I had just seen a miracle.

3) The Ferragamo/Sweeny catch in the 1972 Big Game

4) Bruce Snyder electing signing a new deal to remain at Cal instead of leaving for Arizona.


I like your #4 a lot, Bruce Snyder was no BS.
mbBear
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upsetof86 said:

HearstMining said:

blungld said:

In the spirit of pre-season musings, if you could jump into a time machine and travel to these four scenarios, how would you answer?

1) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again? Meaning, it's your brain now transplanted into your body at the time of an experience you had in the past to witness it again as your current self.

2) What experience as a Cal fan would you choose to live again as you were then? Meaning, it's you living that moment again exactly as you experienced then as your former self.

3) What Cal moment that you DID NOT experience would you like to go back in time and witness live?

4) What very specific Cal moment/play would you like to change even at risk of disrupting the space time continuum?





1) Cal-USC game - 1975. There was electricity in the air from the moment we entered CMS. I had a horrible hangover and puked in the bushes just before we walked into the student section (would rather not relive that part) but the adrenaline rush as the Cal Band entered wiped it away. Wow - now 50 years ago.

2) This is an obscure one. 00:01 left on the clock against Penn St in 1965. Jim Hunt to Jerry Bradley for a winning TD. I don't recall how many yards, but it was a definite Hail Mary. I was ten years-old and truly felt I had just seen a miracle.

3) The Ferragamo/Sweeny catch in the 1972 Big Game

4) Bruce Snyder electing signing a new deal to remain at Cal instead of leaving for Arizona.


I like your #4 a lot, Bruce Snyder was no BS.


Snyder staying changes a whole bunch of events that followed.
JB was a Chieftain
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Jahvid running wild in the Rose Bowl against the Bruins and me sitting in front of the UCLA student section getting the middle finger by everyone!
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