Seems like a good time to bring this up.

I wasn't anywhere near the Bay Area 15 years ago, but it seems like people mention this game as the one where tension between Cal and furd fans really boiled over.

From what various accounts claim, Cal fans were separated by a fence. After furd won, their fans ran up to the fence and started taunting the Cal crowd. Until the enraged Cal fans tore down the fence and ran after the furd students, who immediately ran away. The Cal fans then proceeded to tear down one set of goal posts, one of the few times that was done by the losing fans.

Was anyone there? Did it really go down like that? If so....wow. That says a lot about furd and its fans.

as far as I was concerned, the fence was pretty insulting. Long past my student days, but I still thought it was bullshit.

510Bear;841978362 said:

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Seems like a good time to bring this up.

I wasn't anywhere near the Bay Area 15 years ago, but it seems like people mention this game as the one where tension between Cal and furd fans really boiled over.

From what various accounts claim, Cal fans were separated by a fence. After furd won, their fans ran up to the fence and started taunting the Cal crowd. Until the enraged Cal fans tore down the fence and ran after the furd students, who immediately ran away. The Cal fans then proceeded to tear down one set of goal posts, one of the few times that was done by the losing fans.

Was anyone there? Did it really go down like that? If so....wow. That says a lot about furd and its fans.

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I went on the field to get me some furd

EDIT: HUGELY interesting points to me:

• Adam Rittenberg of ESPN's Big Ten blog went on the field with me, and we were pretty close to the last to get kicked off (just remembered)
  
• Most fans kill people by crushing them when fences are involved. Cal Students grabbed the fence and rocked back and forth until it broke...
  
• The Furd team went over to the Furd Students to celebrate
  
• The furd section ALSO had a fence (it was not just cal fans). Furd opened a section for the Furd Students to go on the field, presumably to celebrate with their team
  
• Furd Students RAN PAST their own team to taunt Cal Students
  
• As you recall, it is one of the few (only I know of) where the LOSING team tore down the goal posts at an AWAY game
  
• This was the game before Furd started marching in Riot police to "guard" the Cal student section, and likely the cause for a generation of Riot stormtroopers surrounding Cal.
  
• Furd did in fact turn tail and try to get back in the stands the moment the fence broke.
  
• The limited number of cops on hand for this game did their best to try to get the Furd students to return to their team.
  
• Cal could not do anything with the uprights, so they took them into the stands, and presumably thought better than to throw it over the top...
  

510Bear;841978362 said:

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Seems like a good time to bring this up.

I wasn't anywhere near the Bay Area 15 years ago, but it seems like people mention this game as the one where tension between Cal and furd fans really boiled over.

From what various accounts claim, Cal fans were separated by a fence. After furd won, their fans ran up to the fence and started taunting the Cal crowd. Until the enraged Cal fans tore down the fence and ran after the furd students, who immediately ran away. The Cal fans then proceeded to tear down one set of goal posts, one of the few times that was done by the losing fans.

Was anyone there? Did it really go down like that? If so....wow. That says a lot about furd and its fans.

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I recall that is exactly what happened!

510Bear;841978362 said:

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Seems like a good time to bring this up.

I wasn't anywhere near the Bay Area 15 years ago, but it seems like people mention this game as the one where tension between Cal and furd fans really boiled over.

From what various accounts claim, Cal fans were separated by a fence. After furd won, their fans ran up to the fence and started taunting the Cal crowd. Until the enraged Cal fans tore down the fence and ran after the furd students, who immediately ran away. The Cal fans then proceeded to tear down one set of goal posts, one of the few times that was done by the losing fans.

Was anyone there? Did it really go down like that? If so....wow. That says a lot about furd and its fans.

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Except the Cal side was closely guarded, and sedate, until the unchecked local's rooting section poured out on the field and came a'calling.

Btw, the fence came down almost by accident imo, bear's frustrated rhythmic pushing doing unexpected magic; hilarity ensued.

#dark times better forgot (Cal dint win)

Found this:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/1997/december3/biggame123.html

I was at the game and remember it being pretty much how everyone described. However, there were also the yellow jacket security guys also there looking tough and basically taunting the fans. When we broke down the fence and were storming the field, one "brave" security guard tried to body slam one of my female friends. That didn't go well when he was then jumped by a bunch of other CAL fans.

Which game was it that the Furd Axe Committee didn't us the Axe after we won? We waited in the stands forever and never did see the exchange.

Was it the game when all the storm troopers were on the field? My memory is hazy on that.

Calfans;841978381 said:

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Which game was it that the Furd Axe Committee didn't us the Axe after we won? We waited in the stands forever and never did see the exchange.

Was it the game when all the storm troopers were on the field? My memory is hazy on that.

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..the next day after the handoff Fail it was revealed/claimed both Axe Committees had agreed to exchange the Axe out of sight of partisans (if necessary).

#worst innovation evah

GranadaHillsBear;841978380 said:

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I was at the game and remember it being pretty much how everyone described. However, there were also the yellow jacket security guys also there looking tough and basically taunting the fans. When we broke down the fence and were storming the field, one "brave" security guard tried to body slam one of my female friends. That didn't go well when he was then jumped by a bunch of other CAL fans.

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I know when I am surrounded by angry people, first thing I do is use force on a woman to show my dominance and manliness... Never has failed.

pingpong2;841978372 said:

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Found this:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/1997/december3/biggame123.html

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That's a surprisingly accurate description from the furdies.... though the douche of stanfurd shines through in some of the writing and their big game tradition descriptions.

why was it that only cal fans knew you have to take the fence down before charging... stanford students were trampling their own. f$ucking retarded to have a fence around the field third world style. And I guarantee you those b1tches would not have come over and taunted like they did w/o a fence. And if that doesn't happen no one from Cal charges the field.

I also didn't know they greased the goalposts. haha. Only other thing I can add is that when cal grabbed the goalposts, they used is as a makeshift battering ram and that's when the the furdies really scattered.

1997 was only year 2 of some pretty crazy Big Game post game shenanigans. 1996 - mic man says 'kill the tree' after Cal loses and students charge, beat and rip the tree apart. 1998 - stanford wins again @ CMS and Cal students vow not to let the furdies take the field after. When they do, there's another 20 minute melee, but cal has hundreds of security guards on hand to prevent real problems. 1999 - Stanford brings out the Santa Clara Sheriff Dep't in full riot gear. They march out in the 4th quarter and push the cheerleaders and mic men aside. I doubt there would have been too much of an incident, but they try to clear the section out... and some leave and some don't. I just remember some guy who really wasn't doing much getting clocked with a water bottle in the head, bleeding everywhere, and then grabbed and taken to the paddy wagon. kinda of a bad way to end the day....

pingpong2;841978372 said:

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Found this:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/1997/december3/biggame123.html

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At least six people were arrested and several were injured during a melee that lasted about 30 minutes as Stanford students ran over to the Cal section and taunted vanquished Bear fans until they tore down a fence and charged the field. About 50 police officers kept the sides apart; as a result, Niemeyer said, there were few casualties for a mob of 10,000 people. When Cal fans couldn't grab the Axe, some turned their attention to the north goal post, which was dismantled despite being greased in anticipation of post-game foul play.

So Furd remembers it the way we do... Furd Students were jackasses and almost got slaughtered, succeeding only in trampling their own coeds.

Phantomfan;841978390 said:

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..as a result, [U]Niedermeyer[/U] said..

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Based on the Animal House classic, so it's gotta be true..

Pretty much my recollection as well though I remember also the following:

There was a fence all the way around the stadium not just in front of the student sections.

The 'furd football team also came over to taunt the Cal fans who - at the time - were actually leaving. The football team left long before the fence came down. I think some of their coaches pulled them away.

When the fence came down there was a big pause as if nobody could believe the fence would actually fall. Then the 'furd students turned and ran while the Cal students stormed the field.

The yellow jackets and cops eventually had a no-man's-land that ran diagonally across the field with 'furd and Cal fans about 10 yards apart throwingwater bottles and other stuff at each other.

When they had the goalposts up towards the top of the stands there was a huge outcry to NOT through it over. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed.

Read on this board long ago that somebody strapped the goalpost to the top of a van and drove off with it. Didn't see this personally but I believe everything I read on the internet.

ColoradoBear1;841978388 said:

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1999 - Stanford brings out the Santa Clara Sheriff Dep't in full riot gear. ... I doubt there would have been too much of an incident, but they try to clear the section out... and some leave and some don't.

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Forgot about that. They very slowly and methodically moved through the Cal sections to force people out. We watched until they were in the section next to ours and then left.

Was there that day, but not in the student section (had a great vantage point, though).

Everything posted above is accurate. The 1-2 minutes where the furd students begin to taunt the Cal students, then realize that the fence isn't going to protect them and run away were absolutely priceless.

Furd fans still talk about all these incidents too, as evidence of their view that Cal fans are a bunch of trashy savages. Which I don't get. If they think that about us, what do they think about everyone else in the college football world?

510Bear;841978432 said:

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Furd fans still talk about all these incidents too, as evidence of their view that Cal fans are a bunch of trashy savages. Which I don't get. If they think that about us, what do they think about everyone else in the college football world?

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they wouldn't know as they don't go to the other games....

ninetyfourbear;841978414 said:

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Forgot about that. They very slowly and methodically moved through the Cal sections to force people out. We watched until they were in the section next to ours and then left.

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Yeah, that was bad...


Forcing out everyone (non-students) regardless of age, etc. The cops should have refused.



IMHO, Trying to bully thousands of people with fences and clubs always escalates the situation. The 2009 (exactly 10 years on) BG was exactly how post game enforcement should be. At least they learned... the 1997 choices made by Furd, Police, and Furd students turned into a several years long blood-lust. It got very unfriendly for a while...



What is funny, IIRC, is 1999 is when O'Niel scored every point but one (thanks to a missed extra point). It was a sound thrashing, meaning the cops hyper-aggressive attitude was the only thing reason people stuck around (to see how violent they would get). Every would have otherwise been content to go take Harry to the ferry.

510Bear;841978432 said:

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Furd fans still talk about all these incidents too, as evidence of their view that Cal fans are a bunch of trashy savages. Which I don't get. If they think that about us, what do they think about everyone else in the college football world?

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Yep:
Taunting=good
Bad sportsmanship=Great
Taunting Tiger woods=Bad sportsmanship


Wait... I forgot where I was going with this... hrmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Was there for the 1997 game, well past my student years, and found it troubling, confusing, concerning, and eventually pretty entertaining.

Remember that after the fence was taken down and the Cal students stormed the field, that the security forces - such as they were drew tight around the north end goal post. Took about 1 minute for the students to realize that the south end goal post was basically unguarded and everyone raced to that end to take that one down (Oops - I thought you were taking care of that one). Definitely am not aware of any game where the losing team tore down the goal post - and remember thinking that at the time.

On the way back to the car after the game, had a large section of goal post carried past me by several individuals - not sure where the remnants are these days, but they should make great conversation pieces where ever they are.

And I also remember the much more uncomfortable situation in 1999 when the "preventative measures" were taken to a new level - pretty sad, actually.

ColoradoBear1;841978388 said:

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I also didn't know they greased the goalposts. haha. Only other thing I can add is that when cal grabbed the goalposts, they used is as a makeshift battering ram and that's when the the furdies really scattered.

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I was with some family and friends and ALL MY CAL people sitting pretty close to the fence line that day. No doubt I was pissed once the taunting began right in our faces. My Dad couldn't believe that the Stanford fans were basically allowed to run over and not just taunt, but throw stuff at us too. A few people in our section were hit with water bottles and fruit causing tempers to flare. It felt like being caged while others were allowed to poke us with sticks.

The taunting didn't last long as others have mentioned and indeed the spirits of Cal fans soared when the Stanford fans literally ran away once the fence came down. I have been on fields all over the pac 10 (not 12) many times for various reasons, but there are few times where I felt I HAD to be on the field. Even my rather reserved father joined us on the field and it just felt right. My brother and I had a bonding moment with Dad that day. We didn't fight anyone, but helped break something. We helped break Stanford's spirit that day and we didn't regret it at all.

Like the quoted text above, we laughed for days about the goal post being used like a battering ram. To see the Cal folks running towards the Stanford folks and people fleeing the savage Cal fans was humorous. And then, we had a little party down at Stanfurd, oh we had a little party down at Stanfurd... right there in the middle of the field. I'll never forget

ninetyfourbear;841978409 said:

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When the fence came down there was a big pause as if nobody could believe the fence would actually fall. Then the 'furd students turned and ran while the Cal students stormed the field.

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I love this description.

We need pictures and video.

Are there any pictures/videos? I am loving the stories.

My first Big Game was in 2003 and I was taken back by the riot police lining the field. One poor soul attempted to rush the field and the cops really made an example of him. Now I know why...

to play Cal because they didn't want to get hurt....... What a bunch of wusses.

northendbear;841978444 said:

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On the way back to the car after the game, had a large section of goal post carried past me by several individuals - not sure where the remnants are these days, but they should make great conversation pieces where ever they are.

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I was at the game as well, and I also rushed the field after being taunted by the other side. It was total mayhem and I remember my friends and I feeling an odd mix of embarassment and exhileration when the goal posts started coming down after LOSING the game. While the whole incident didn't exactly reflect well on Cal students, I think the outright cowardice and poor judgement shown by the Tree fans was worse.

A note on the fate of the goalpost: I distinctly recall walking to class the following Monday and seeing one of the uprights laying in front of one of the frat houses, being hacked up into pieces with a hacksaw. I wish I could remember which one it was, but I think it was Acacia or the one that began with a "P" on Piedmont avenue where the swimmers and water polo players lived. Anybody else know anything about this? I really never heard anything more after seeing those guys hacking it up.

I have to say though, none of this was as fun as seeing the Tree get torn to shreds at the end of the 1996 Big Game. I think I still have a piece of the white polyester stuffing somewhere.

http://articles.latimes.com/1996-11-24/sports/sp-2686_1_stanford-playing

Quote:

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"I guess in Los Angeles, you'd call it a riot. They tore me limb from limb," junior Chris Cary said.

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Wow, these stories are awesome. My first BG (and away game) was at Furd in '99 and I remember the storm troopers coming out and us chanting the Star Wars song. I had no idea why we were doing it though and just thought thats how games ended there. I do remember some idiot trying to light a Cal flag on fire and it basically flaring up in his face. Everyone knows the BG has history but we need to find a better way to get it across to our new students.

Too bad this was before everyone had cameras because the mental picture I have of Furd fans fleeing is awesome. That would have definitely made Sport Center Top 10 and we would be refering to that forever.

Pike

An interesting thing about that year was that Tree (Chris Cary) and the ASUC President (Grant Harris) both came from my high school. We spoke to Chris before the game, and he was saying how he wanted to get beat up by Cal fans. Well, he got his wish when the student section swarmed around him. You saw the Tree get sucked under the crowd, pop back up for a second, and then get sucked under never to be seen again. For years after that, the Tree would no longer show up after the third quarter.

HairOfTheBear;841978470 said:

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The taunting didn't last long as others have mentioned and indeed the spirits of Cal fans soared when the Stanford fans literally ran away once the fence came down. I have been on fields all over the pac 10 (not 12) many times for various reasons, but there are few times where I felt I HAD to be on the field. Even my rather reserved father joined us on the field and it just felt right. My brother and I had a bonding moment with Dad that day. We didn't fight anyone, but helped break something. We helped break Stanford's spirit that day and we didn't regret it at all.

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I'm glad this kind of stuff isn't happening at the Big Game these days anymore. None of this is worth anyone getting hurt. (There really is no argument against that.)

That said, I'd like to think Cal fans left furd that day feeling proud that no matter what happened on the field, "it's good to be Cal and not furd". On the flip side, I'll bet that because of their student section's cowardly behavior, plenty of furdies are embarrassed about that Big Game and want to forget it. You know, even though they won. :beer:

northendbear;841978444 said:

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- not sure where the remnants are these days, but they should make great conversation pieces where ever they are ... , actually.

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representin', in the mudflats gallery


















:cheer:Monty:cheer:cheer

what was the year that the furd mascot got beat up and had his costume ripped apart at memorial? was it 96? I remember the next year they had to surround the mascot with police ... priceless!

:rollinglaugh:

ultramantaro;841978556 said:

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what was the year that the furd mascot got beat up and had his costume ripped apart at memorial? was it 96? I remember the next year they had to surround the mascot with police ... priceless!

:rollinglaugh:

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Yeah, '96. I think the highest level of security, though, was at the '98 game (after we had "liberated" the Tree and it was replaced with a new one). I got a huge kick seeing it relegated to about a 10-foot area directly in front of the Furd section, surrounded by about 20 yellow shirt security guards.