BearBoarBlarney;842364465 said:

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...but this brotherhood sucks. :bawl:

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Haha come on man it's a long, suffering, deep bond. Like Red Sox fans pre-2004.

I would put the brutal Cal losses I remember in three categories: "Excruciating losses we experienced while trying to get to 6-0 for the first time since the Pappy Waldorf Era" (deserves its own category, as we shall see), "Big Game heartbreaks" and "Others."

[U]No 6-0 for you![/U]
Since starting the season 9-0 in 1950, we have gotten as far as 5-0 five different times, only to lose in heartbreaking and/or inexplicably bizarre ways each time. To wit:
1991: Loss to eventual co-national champ UW, 24-17; Cal had ball on UW 20 at final gun. One way to sum up the experience of being a Cal fan is that many Old Blues will point to this game as their favorite Cal game of all time...a loss!
1993: Cal coughs up 23-3 lead to UW after Barr injured, then is blown out in next three games. We were really good when healthy in '93.
1996: Cal driving for lead @WSU when Barnes fumbles; ball bounces off noggin; we finish 6-6. We talked about that game recently. Not fun.
2005: Cal blows 4Q lead @UCLA; Maurice Jones-Drew goes nuts, but we keep finding ways to kick to him.
2007: Win over the Beavers would rank us #1, but Riley tackled on last play; FG would have tied game.

I'm thinking that one silver lining about Saturday's game is now we don't have to worry about getting to 5-0!

[U]Big Games[/U]
During the time since my Freshman year (1982), 1990 is the tops. 1991 was no fun, either. 2010 and 2013 were both brutal, but more in a mind-numbing way than a heartbreaking way.
Also, Leland Rix missing the 30-yard FG that would have put us ahead sucked. (1985)

[U]Others[/U] (in no particular order)
Arizona, 2014
Washington, 2001
Arizona, 2006
USC, 2006 (because we knew going into the game that a win would clinch a RB berth)
Oregon, 2010 (lose in part because of a false start call on our placekicker)

An astoundingly large number of Memorably Painful Losses involve onside kicks. In my mind, the alltime success rate of the Onside Kick (all levels of football) is probably somewhere around 2.5%. When it's Cal on the receiving team, it's probably around 28.7%.

I'd be curious to know what the real numbers are.

But if I was coaching a Cal opponent I'd be tempted to onside kick every damn time.

JSC 76;842364493 said:

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An astoundingly large number of Memorably Painful Losses involve onside kicks. In my mind, the alltime success rate of the Onside Kick (all levels of football) is probably somewhere around 2.5%. When it's Cal on the receiving team, it's probably around 28.7%.

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Well, there was that one game involving a squib kick that turned out okay....

As I told some buddies in Tucson Saturday evening, given our history, the most amazing thing to me about Cal football is that the Play happened [U]for[/U] us instead of [U]to[/U] us.

86Oski;842364477 said:

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I would put the brutal Cal losses I remember in three categories: "Excruciating losses we experienced while trying to get to 6-0 for the first time since the Pappy Waldorf Era" (deserves its own category, as we shall see), "Big Game heartbreaks" and "Others."

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This is like one of those old Jeff Foxworthy routines: "You know you're a Cal fan when you have a classification system for grouping brutal outcomes into the proper category."

Abnormally Painful Cal Loss? Check. Genus? Big Game Losses. Phylum? 1990's.

KoreAmBear;842364474 said:

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Haha come on man it's a long, suffering, deep bond.

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Reminds me of the old old Groucho Marx quip: "Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member."

Deep down, I know this bond of which you speak. But I am sick of "suffering building character."

BearBoarBlarney;842364272 said:

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1990 Big Game was the worst one ever for me. The series of events that had to transpire in that game for Stanford to win were every bit as ludicrous as what we witnessed last Saturday night versus Arizona, only the 1990 Big Game also included even higher highs and lower lows very late in the game, along with what felt like a referee screw job plus the always-popular crowd idiocy.

Sit down awhile young'uns, and I'll tell you tale. A tale of 9 points scored in 17 seconds, and 30 yards in penalty yardage to add insult to injury. Here we go... score: Cal 25, Stanford 18.

22 seconds remaining: Stanford at the Cal 19. Stanford QB Palumbis looks downfield and locks in on Glyn Milburn. Cal's DB breaks perfectly, has both hands on the ball for a sure-fire interception. Dropped. Play clock: 17 secs.
17 seconds remaining: At the Cal 19. Palumbis finds WR Ed McCaffrey for the TD. Now it's Cal 25, Stanford 24. Play clock: 12 seconds.
12 seconds remaining: This was pre-college OT rules, so Dennis Green elects to go for 2 and the win. Cal's DB Hardy intercepts a well-designed roll-out pass at the back of the endzone. Cal 25, Stanford 24.
12 seconds remaining: Cal fans, apparently forgetting the lessons of 1982, storm the field (cosmic football Gods are now on high-alert, just waiting for the right moment). After order is restored, a 15-yard penalty is enforced. (I always assumed that Cal's bench got flagged for storming the field, or was it possible for the refs to penalize Cal for the home crowd storming the field?)
12 seconds remaining: with the 15-yard penalty enforced, Stanford's onside kickoff is moved up to the 50-yard line. Our beloved favorite son, Russell White, up there on the "Cal Hands Team" dives in late with a great angle on the loose ball near the sideline. Of course, it skitters away, and Stanford recovers at the Cal 37.
9 seconds remaining: Stanford tries one last quick-hitter, as they don't want to attempt a 54-yard FG try. Palumbis rolls out, the pass is incomplete, and instead of party time, wait a second, what's that yellow hanky? The Cal defender is flagged for a late hit on Palumbis. This one has always bothered me, because it felt pretty ticky-tack to flag that defender on a clean hit that arrived just a half-second late. Now, full-blown ruh-roh! 5 seconds to go.
5 seconds remaining: with the penalty, the ball is snapped from the 22 yard line, and of course Stanford's John Hopkins nails the 39-yard attempt, and Cal falls 27-25.

All I can remember is that I was sitting way up high, like 65th row of the student section or so. And when it went through the uprights, I quickly confirmed that there were no flags (because of course there weren't) and then I had to get out of there. I was so bitter and so angry that I knew I had to get away from the Stadium as fast as possible because if a Stanford wuss said anything to me, I might have lost it. So, I scrambled out of the student section as fast as I could, and just ran -- I ran like the wind. I was Forrest Gump before the movie existed. "I was run-nnnning." I was living in Rockridge at the time and to this day I maintain that I set a land-speed record getting from Memorial back to Rockridge. Usain Bolt, chile' please. Luckily, my mad full-on sprint got me in the clear, and I went home and just sat in my apartment, sweat dripping everywhere, just sitting in disbelief.

That 1990 Big Game was my worst. 1991 Big Game was awful too, with all the Cal yapping during the week before getting bludgeoned down on the Farm. But 1990 was the lowest of the low.

Last Saturday night was bad, really really bad. 1990 was even more gut-wrenchingly awful. And Cal was favored. And it was to the Furds.

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Wow, the vivid description brought that game's closing moments back to life in my mind. I Lost one night of sleep after Saturday's game, and this is now going to make me lose another night.

KoreAmBear;842363333 said:

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1990 Big Game was the worst. I could hear a pin drop walking back to my dorm from CMS. How did we lose this game?

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Yeah, I agree.

The worst part was that I was pussy whipped by my girlfriend and she wanted to beat the crowds by leaving with one minute left in the game, and I dutifully agreed given that the game was in hand.

I still remember my panic hearing the renewed crowd noise as we walked down the hill. Then the sick feeling as we sat in Intermezzo (sharing a SALAD!) and I realized something dreadful had gone wrong.

I continued to stay with her for several more years. :headbang

93gobears;842364619 said:

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Yeah, I agree.The worst part was that I was pussy whipped by my girlfriend and she wanted to beat the crowds by leaving with one minute left in the game, and I dutifully agreed given that the game was in hand.I still remember my panic hearing the renewed crowd noise as we walked down the hill. Then the sick feeling as we sat in Intermezzo (sharing a SALAD!) and I realized something dreadful had gone wrong.I continued to stay with her for several more years. :headbang

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Sounded like she made the right decision