Is it the governor Jerry Brown or former governor and Supreme court justice, Earl Warren? Or maybe it's a scientist and nobel prize winner like Steven Chu or Glenn Seaborg?
My guess is Aaron Rodgers by a landslide. (yes, technically, he didn't graduate) Even the casual sports fan knows he went to Cal. Until a Cal grad becomes the president of the United States, I think he will be that one person people associate the school with. Thoughts?
Most famous person who is a Cal alumnus? Or person who is known as a Cal alumni?
It might be Rodgers if the latter. But if the former, then there are a lot of folks more famous than Rodgers. Steve Wozniak. Gregory Peck. Or if you are flat out going for the most numbers, Ali Bhutto who was the Prime Minister and President of Pakistan before being executed and was the father of Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated by car bomb and who would be known by pretty much every single person in Pakistan, which at 180 million people makes him more famous than Rodgers by far...
You make a very reasonable point. I would estimate that if 1 in 10 Americans watched football every week, then that would be about 30 to 35 million people who would know Aaron Rodgers which is considerably less than the 180 million from Pakistan. Ali Bhutto could possibly be the most famous Cal alumnus that ever lived, although I'm not sure how many Pakistanis know what or where Berkeley is. I, on the other hand, did not know who Ali Bhutto was.
Did y'all know who Ali Bhutto was? Which Unit did he live in?
My guess is Aaron Rodgers by a landslide. (yes, technically, he didn't graduate) Even the casual sports fan knows he went to Cal. Until a Cal grad becomes the president of the United States, I think he will be that one person people associate the school with. Thoughts?
I think you overestimate, perhaps grossly, the easy with which football fans, much less casual sports fans would connect AR and Cal.
Is it the governor Jerry Brown or former governor and Supreme court justice, Earl Warren? Or maybe it's a scientist and nobel prize winner like Steven Chu or Glenn Seaborg?
My guess is Aaron Rodgers by a landslide. (yes, technically, he didn't graduate) Even the casual sports fan knows he went to Cal. Until a Cal grad becomes the president of the United States, I think he will be that one person people associate the school with. Thoughts?
Honestly, I bet few people have heard of Earl Warren or Steven Chu or Glenn Seaborg.
Perhaps people have heard of Jerry Brown, but then again so many people can't identify our current vice president.
The case can be made for Aaron Rodgers because 100 million-plus people watched him in the Super Bowl, but the overwhelming majority of those people were watching for the ads or because it was the Super Bowl.
Before I was really got into football, I'd watch the Super Bowl not knowing who the QBs were. Yes, even Troy Aikman.
I had to Wikipedia Ali Bhutto, and just a few months ago I saw a PBS documentary on his daughter. I actually did know he attended Cal, but I forgot who he was.
Steve Wozniak has appeared on 2 high-rated shows -- The Big Bang Theory and Dancing with the Stars, so he might be pretty well-known, especially because Apple is such a world-famous brand.
My vote, though, would go to William Hung.
William Hung is one of the most famous names to come out of the No. 1 show in the United States from the past decade. The episode with his first appearance was watched by about 30 million people. He also appeared on the season finale, which was watched by 29 million people.
There have been other notoriously bad singers, but William Hung has become synonymous in pop culture for his bad singing.
Also keep in mind that American Idol -- yes, our American Idol -- is broadcast around the world, from Australia to China to the Philippines to Canada to England to Ireland to Germany to India to Brazil to Argentina to Armenia to France to South America to Iran.
So, unlike Aaron Rodgers, William Hung is world famous.
Hung is/was also big in China, which by the way has a lot of people.
Here's a Chinese commercial starring Hung.
He also filmed a movie in Hong Kong.
Here's video of him in Hong Kong earlier this year. Yup, he's still famous.
So, yes, William Hung is the most famous Cal alum.
Most famous person who is a Cal alumnus? Or person who is known as a Cal alumni?
Or if you are flat out going for the most numbers, Ali Bhutto who was the Prime Minister and President of Pakistan before being executed and was the father of Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated by car bomb and who would be known by pretty much every single person in Pakistan, which at 180 million people makes him more famous than Rodgers by far...
He was just plain 'Al' to his friends when he went to school here. We didn't know that he would later have 180 million Twitter followers.
For sports types, AR is probably the most recognizable.
Rube Goldberg would have been a good choice a few years ago.
There are quite a few famous businesspersons, but they really don't fit the famous tag in today's society, unless you are talkiing Steve Jobs or Bill Gates level (both college drop outs).
Is it the governor Jerry Brown or former governor and Supreme court justice, Earl Warren? Or maybe it's a scientist and nobel prize winner like Steven Chu or Glenn Seaborg?
My guess is Aaron Rodgers by a landslide. (yes, technically, he didn't graduate) Even the casual sports fan knows he went to Cal. Until a Cal grad becomes the president of the United States, I think he will be that one person people associate the school with. Thoughts?
For sports types, AR is probably the most recognizable.
Rube Goldberg would have been a good choice a few years ago.
There are quite a few famous businesspersons, but they really don't fit the famous tag in today's society, unless you are talkiing Steve Jobs or Bill Gates level (both college drop outs).
Cher Wang, the head of HTC and richest person from Taiwan, is very well know across Asia and China. Even if just a fraction of Chinese people know her it would be in the multi-millions.
Robert Oppenheimer, not a grad but a professor, is well known as a historic figure due to him leading the manhattan project (a-bomb).
And of course the entertainers and athletes as mentioned.
If we are going with tech business people, I'd put Andy Groves above Schmidt and the Woz. Time Man of the Year in 1997.
Though Schmidt gets a bump for being the boss of the two google co-founders. I remember some jackass holding a cardboard sign in 1997 @ Furd that said 'you will work for us'. suck it furd, your richest alumni now work for a Cal alum. (also, I'm sure that furddie ran like a little beotch when that fence came down in 97).
Woz is slightly weird. Cult following, yes. But come on, the guy plays segway polo.
