Just to get a little perspective on the state of the board and it's posters.

For me, it was Coach Joe Kapp

Holmoe.

I suspect most of the folks on this board are younger and have only known Tedford.

Define "following."

I was raised a Cal fan, so it's tough to say exactly when I started "following" them. I just always rooted for the Bears.

The first I remember being conscious of was probably Joe Kapp, so I'll go with him.

Kapp

Joe Kapp

Following is defined as 1) you began referring to yourself as a Cal fan and 2) you started watching games, knowing who the coaches and players were, and caring whether the Bears won.

Pete Elliott in 1957.

DAMN! I knew I missed one.

Snyder

Ray Willsey.
First Game in CMS: Sept 1965. Bring back the Gremlin!

Gilbertson

SoFlaBear;588675 said:

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DAMN! I knew I missed one.

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Aside of the Rose Bowl year's record of 7-4, Pete's other two seasons were 1-9 and 2-8.

Synder doesn't get more run since he was one of the most successful? Certainly in the modern era. Kind of strange, I picked up Cal football in the White era(successful but maybe not how we would like it)which was a success but so was Synder. I would have thought he would have had a larger following?...

Go Bears!

"Theder/White" is something like "Holmoe/Tedford" or "Snyder/Gilbertson."

I would have loved to be a fan of Cal when White was coaching. Those were some great teams and great players. Instead I was a freshman and new fan of Cal when Theder was at the helm.

Holmoe.

My first year at Cal, Gilbertson was the coach, Dave Barr was out QB, and we won our bowl game against Iowa.

Little did I know that that year (1993) would be the last winning season at Cal until Tedford arrived, so I think I'm more inclined to cut JT a little more slack.

k9dog1;588767 said:

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Synder doesn't get more run since he was one of the most successful? Certainly in the modern era. Kind of strange, I picked up Cal football in the White era(successful but maybe not how we would like it)which was a success but so was Synder. I would have thought he would have had a larger following?...

Go Bears!

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This came up in an earlier thread about age groups on this board and the unusual dropoff of people my age, who arrived at Cal during the Snyder years. My theory is that after enjoying initial success, the following years of Gilby and Holmoe were just too difficult. I know a lot of sports fan Cal alumni from my classes who only minimally follow Cal football. They never got over the post-Snyder crash.

White - the Joe Roth team

Marv Levy. Never had a winning record at CAL.

Pete Elliot-watched on TV as Iowa thumped us. Ray Willsey when I was at Cal but I really fell in love with Cal football during the Mike White era-golly those teams could score & we had such talent:gobears:

Take your pick...Urban Meyer, Arthur Godfrey or Coach Waldorf.
Do you like Ukes?

nt

Ray Willsey, 1968. First game in Berkeley was against Michigan State.

Ray Wilsey- 1967. Amazed at how the poll's going- almost evenly divided between those who started before and after Joe Kapp.I knew this board skewed old, but I didn't realize we were *that* old.

Interesting to reflect that, when I was a kid first watching those Wilsey teams and falling in love with all things Cal, a similar poll of the people I was sitting with in what was even then the "donor" section, would probably have shown mostly people who started well before Pappy.

Mike White. Attended first game in 1973.

The great Pappy Waldorf. I learned football from the book he wrote before coming to Cal. He was professor Waldorf for me.

okaydo;588642 said:

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Define "following."

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Are you a lawyer?

My freshman year was Willsey's last year, but I wasn't much of a fan then (didn't even go to the Big Game!). But the next year I became hooked for life, so I checked Mike White....Bartkowski, Muncie, Roth, Wesley Walker, Ferragamo-to-Sweeney.

Roger Theder.

Mootch.

Pat Barnes and Tony G FTW!

cjbarker;588943 said:

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Ray Wilsey- 1967. Amazed at how the poll's going- almost evenly divided between those who started before and after Joe Kapp.I knew this board skewed old, but I didn't realize we were *that* old.

Interesting to reflect that, when I was a kid first watching those Wilsey teams and falling in love with all things Cal, a similar poll of the people I was sitting with in what was even then the "donor" section, would probably have shown mostly people who started well before Pappy.

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Just like anything today, Baby Boomers dominate the numbers. There are just so many more of us. It would have been better to re-build CMS during the Snyder years. It would have been paid off by now.

BTW: Here are historical Cal scores. It would be a good sticky for the site. I remembered my first game against ND but forgot the score, Thought we lost 56-3, but nah, that was later that year against UCLA.

http://www.jhowell.net/cf/scores/California.htm

If you were to poll Cal fans in 1967, I'd bet that the preponderance of Cal followers would have started under Smith, Allison and Waldorf, with a smattering of Frank Wickhorst and Buck Shaw. No disrespect to Nibs Price or Navy Bill Ingram, but I have the feeling that they, like Roger Theder and Steve Mariucci, would be viewed as mere links in the long chain of Cal football head coaches.

Growing up in the East Bay, I was very aware of Cal and the team while in High School during the Mike White era but I was a Raider/NFL fan then. When I arrived @ Cal, Theder had replaced White and I started following Cal... It was a long drought until Snyder arrived.

pluse 1
Except for me it was 1958. I was still in high school and mostly followed the 49ers. The guys in my classes who followed college football talked endlessly about Joe Kapp,, thhat got me started following Cal.