Probably a good thing that fruit projectiles are not part of the game day experience, but are there some who miss the days when this was part of the Big Game experience? Was this a long-standing tradition or a fleeting, abruptly halted trend?

B.A. Bearacus;841978081 said:

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Probably a good thing that fruit projectiles are not part of the game day experience, but are there some who miss the days when this was part of the Big Game experience? Was this a long-standing tradition or a fleeting, abruptly halted trend?

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I think the police in riot gear setting up a wall in front of the Cal section for the 2001 Big Game in the 4th quarter began to chill the fruit throwing tradition. I think they set up because we tore down the goalposts in 1999? Anyway, what evokes sentimental thoughts of a college football rivalry game on an autumn Saturday than police in riot gear, set up specifically with you in mind?

I think the riot gear deal was the 1999 BG, following Cal fans exercising their First Amendment rights in a rather emphatic manner on the field after Cal lost the 1997 BG.

I don't recall seeing much fruit being thrown when I was a student, but chances are I was drunk at the time.

I do recall the 1979 BG at the Farm, when Stanford had lacrosse players around the Stanford banned to catch the fruit and send it back into the Cal rooting section.

86Oski;841978089 said:

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I think the riot gear deal was the 1999 BG, following Cal fans exercising their First Amendment rights in a rather emphatic manner on the field after Cal lost the 1997 BG.

I don't recall seeing much fruit being thrown when I was a student, but chances are I was drunk at the time.

I do recall the 1979 BG at the Farm, when Stanford had lacrosse players around the Stanford banned to catch the fruit and send it back into the Cal rooting section.

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You're right I had the years mixed up. It was the year Furd went to the Rose Bowl, ugh. The year that Deltha O'Neal single-handedly kept us in the game and Boller was out.

KoreAmBear;841978102 said:

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You're right I had the years mixed up. It was the year Furd went to the Rose Bowl, ugh. The year that Deltha O'Neal single-handedly kept us in the game and Boller was out.

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Yep...Wes Dalton starting at QB for the Bears...94 yard TD run by the Cardinal fullback...good times!

86Oski;841978106 said:

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Yep...Wes Dalton starting at QB for the Bears...94 yard TD run by the Cardinal fullback...good times!

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We got rained on too. On all levels.

B.A. Bearacus;841978081 said:

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Probably a good thing that fruit projectiles are not part of the game day experience, but are there some who miss the days when this was part of the Big Game experience? Was this a long-standing tradition or a fleeting, abruptly halted trend?

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It was big when I arrived at Cal in 1980, so my guess is the 70s and early 80's were the golden era of fruit launching at Cal.

in either 79'or 80', at the U$C game, the guy next to me got a smallish grapefruit right into the sousaphone. It was the greatest thing we had seen in awhile. Could not effing believe it cuz the guy was marching at the same time. Good times

Early 70s for sure. The funniest thing I saw was the USC band trying to dodge oranges with numerous band members getting hammered. Cal mechanical engineering great !

I have some personal experience with this one. As a bit of a follow-up to our Phoenix Five heist in '98, a few of us decided to head over to Furd one night about a week before Big Game in '99. Safeway at the time had a massive deal on eggs, so we bought a ton of cartons and brought them with us to the farm. We performed some high tech surveillance (not really) around the stadium to make sure we didn't come into contact with any security guards, scaled the surrounding fence, and stashed all of the egg cartons in the thick ivy that grew all around the stadium perimeter, between the entryways (not sure if it's still there after the remodel.)

Come gameday, we simply brought along empty backpacks, waited until the 4th quarter, and then slyly recovered pretty much all of the cartons and brought them into the Cal student section. I'm sure those in attendance recall the hundreds of eggs raining down on the riot police (I definitely remember fruit being thrown as well), who were guarding the perimeter fence in front of the students. Those were the good old days! For the 2000 game, I remember the administration and police made it clear that they were going to have cameras fixed on the student section to catch people throwing projectiles onto the field. A couple of us also attempted the same egg-hiding prank in 2001, but I was told that they used dogs to sniff them out prior to the game.

GO BEARS!

What's the conference rules on conduct from the home crowd? I think that stopped a lot of, plus after 2001 Cal started to win.

It was big in my day (1985-89). We would take oranges from the dorms for a week leading up to the game. I miss those days.

prospeCt;841978148 said:

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keep your friends close, but your melons closer?

calumnus;841978111 said:

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It was big when I arrived at Cal in 1980, so my guess is the 70s and early 80's were the golden era of fruit launching at Cal.

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70s and 80s, for sure. One poster above referenced the LSJU Lacrosse team protecting their stupid band for a few years. Ironically, it just brought attention to the whole thing and turned their whole show into a fruit-throwing game. Probably an improvement, though...

Gotta say, I played in the Cal Band and was once hit by a projectile. It can be really bad, especially for players of brass instruments (metal mouthpiece smashed into face). The poor folks in the marching band are trying to play while watching the director and march while staying in allignment: They really don't need to be dodging projectiles, as well. I wouldn't wish this on any bandmember, not even LSJUMB, or even U$C.

People throwing crap have never been on that field themselves, I bet.

Mid 80's was awesome . Wasn't just $c or BG either .... The complex structures people snuck in to launch the fruit was truly impressive. Everything from fruit-a-pults to super-sized surgical-hose sling shot launchers. It got to be where the technology allowed you to make it essentially across the field ...

It's just a rumor that I may or may not have been involved in some fruit slingshot hijinks in 1986. Surgical tubing!

(I do know I was on the field right after the game, high-fiving Oski and taunting those LSJU beeyotches.)

txwharfrat;841978257 said:

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Mid 80's was awesome . Wasn't just $c or BG either .... The complex structures people snuck in to launch the fruit was truly impressive. Everything from fruit-a-pults to super-sized surgical-hose sling shot launchers. It got to be where the technology allowed you to make it essentially across the field ...

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some guys were launching golf balls at the SC band in '87 from the student section... They bounced 30 feet high once they hit the turf, and much lower after hitting a band member.

Late 70's and early 80's the fruit rained down.. I think it was 1980 when the Stanfurd band came out and spelled the word FRUIT and they were rewarded with a rain of fruit! They had guys with lacrosse sticks trying to catch it and fling it back at us but the pile they ended up raking up on the field was huge. :-)

Gremlins were the item of choice in the 60's, orange juice cups, till they stopped selling them sometime in the later 60's I believe.

73-76 for sure.

Crutches? Check
Surgical tubing? Check
Empty cool whip container? Check

Ready, aim, fire!!!!

might still be in the rooting section if fruit was not used as alternative projectiles in the late 70's/early 80's.

Stunt cards have been flying for over a half century....and still fly.....albeit with rounded corners.

No worries now.....no drinking fountains.

I remember it being water balloons launched by surgical tubing in the mid 70's which then changed over to oranges by the late 70's. I thought the water balloons were much more dramatic but assumed that it must have been too difficult to smuggle in enough loaded balloons. I do remember in the 1975 game against USC (which we won 28-14, I believe- Joe Roth, Chuck Muncie, et al.) a water balloon splashed just a few feet behind John McKay as he walked along the sideline. He stopped and glared across the field toward the student section. I was astonished at the range and accuracy of the artillery, but right then I thought, wait a minute, this is not going to be so much fun if they actually hit someone, especially the opposing coach!

kirklandblue;841978474 said:

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I remember it being water balloons launched by surgical tubing in the mid 70's which then changed over to oranges by the late 70's. I thought the water balloons were much more dramatic but assumed that it must have been too difficult to smuggle in enough loaded balloons. I do remember in the 1975 game against USC (which we won 28-14, I believe- Joe Roth, Chuck Muncie, et al.) a water balloon splashed just a few feet behind John McKay as he walked along the sideline. He stopped and glared across the field toward the student section. I was astonished at the range and accuracy of the artillery, but right then I thought, wait a minute, this is not going to be so much fun if they actually hit someone, especially the opposing coach!

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Smuggle?
Hardly.....unless you were one that looked guilty while bringing in a bag of balloons (usually 50 in a bag).
Then 2 or 3 people would go down to the bottom of S or T, place the balloon opening over the drinking faucet.....fill 'er up.
No problem.
Harmless fun.

kirklandblue;841978474 said:

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I remember it being water balloons launched by surgical tubing in the mid 70's which then changed over to oranges by the late 70's. I thought the water balloons were much more dramatic but assumed that it must have been too difficult to smuggle in enough loaded balloons.

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I was there '71 - '76 and concur on all points: water balloons were phased out and replaced by fruit; but water balloons were more impressive.

oobay;841978144 said:

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It was big in my day (1985-89). We would take oranges from the dorms for a week leading up to the game. I miss those days.

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My years exactly oobay. Plenty of fruit flying, but felt like it was a tradition that was already in place.

At one big game at Cal sometime between 1975 and 1983 the Cal Student Section started throwing fruit at the Stanfurd "people with instruments." [The term "band" would be an insult to the USC Band, let alone the Cal Band.] Those people with instruments were accompanied by the Stanfurd lacorsse team which hurled the fruit back at the Cal students. I did not throw any fruit, but sitting 25 rows up I got whacked in the head with a grapefruit.

BEAT STANFURD!

any way to reach the field from tightwad with a slingshot and some small water balloons or something smaller than an orange like a tangerine? Of course these days, that's probably a felony, when in the 70's it was just good ol' fun.

Good clean fun as pictured in the official 1972 Cal Pregame Program.

They really fly. But you'd need an elevated position to station your holders as the grade of Tightwad would have you shooting into Stadium Way.

palisadesbear;841978345 said:

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73-76 for sure.

Crutches? Check
Surgical tubing? Check
Empty cool whip container? Check

Ready, aim, fire!!!!

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Yeah, except it was a big dog dish instead of cool whip in our crew. '75 and '76. I think it was one of ours that hit behind McKay in '75 USC game and we did have some hits at that game. And at the UW game,well I better stop there before I incriminate myself...

PRD74;841978934 said:

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Good clean fun as pictured in the official 1972 Cal Pregame Program.

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I was wondering how the fruit that was launched went up so high and went so far...

I was in the Cal Band from 84 to 87. The Cal Band always went first for the halftime shows when we played $C and Stanfurd. It was amazing seeing the volume of fruit raining down on the $C and Furd bands. It was brutal. $C would still do a regular show using the whole field, but the furd would chicken out and only use part of the field and do their halftime show farthest away from the student section fruit launchers to avoid the fruit...Some of the $C band members would just get absolutely blasted in the head from the incoming fruit causing groans from the crowd. Its a good thing the $C band had helmets.

Smoke bomb on cart thing, weaving into band, flipping over to detonate, whatever that was.

I vaugely remember the furd band with a catapult or trebuchet at halftime some years back. I'm pretty sre it was a catapult, I just wanted to use the word trebochet. Not sure if it was a prop or if they intended to return fire.

Big C_Cal;841978196 said:

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70s and 80s, for sure. One poster above referenced the LSJU Lacrosse team protecting their stupid band for a few years. Ironically, it just brought attention to the whole thing and turned their whole show into a fruit-throwing game. Probably an improvement, though...

Gotta say, I played in the Cal Band and was once hit by a projectile. It can be really bad, especially for players of brass instruments (metal mouthpiece smashed into face). The poor folks in the marching band are trying to play while watching the director and march while staying in allignment: They really don't need to be dodging projectiles, as well. I wouldn't wish this on any bandmember, not even LSJUMB, or even U$C.

People throwing crap have never been on that field themselves, I bet.

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From 1970-1974 I was the visiting team locker room attendant and spent most of the time on the sideline in front of the visiting team tunnel. After letting the visiting team in for halftime I returned to the field for halftime. At that time it mostly water balloons and Stanford was launching them as well. By 1973 other object were introduced, mostly fruit like oranges and apples. For a couple of hated rivals like SC and the Furd, golf balls were fired.

Unlike water balloons or oranges, golf balls easily carried the field and into the opposing sidelines and stands. All of a sudden I was in the line of fire and from something more dangerous than a water balloon. I seem to remember them coming into the stands when we went to play at SC and the Furd.
Yeh, the drunks in the stands were having a blast, but in addition to the opposing band they also hit the Cal band and football team staff.

Being on the field alters ones perspective; especially if after you are bombarded with that crap you have to clean it up. Drunk Cal fans aren't nearly as lovable then.