86Oski;842404993 said:
I was in school for the fake Daily Cal in 1982, but was unaware of the 1975 prank. Sure enough, the google machine tells me it happened.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ucb.sports/6Nu7mxdlOgs
Although the 1982 fake got more press, the 1975 fake was more believable to students who were hardcore Cal football fans. Anyone who knows football well, who knows the history of college football, knows that the result of a game would not be overturned after the fact like the 1982 fake suggested.
But anyone who knew the state of Cal football in 1975 understood that if the NCAA ever found out what was really going on at Cal, we'd end up on probation. Chuck Muncie not going to class? Of COURSE he wasn't going to class. Damn, those Rose Bowl dreams dashed because we were cheating. Oh well. It was a relief to realize the 1975 was a fake.
When I saw 1982, my first reaction was, "It's a fake, just like 1975." Admittedly, I had the advantage of having read the 1975 fake, but I also had the advantage of knowing football. The classic example of a game that had an ending screwed up by the officials was 1940 Cornell-Dartmouth, the original "5th Down Game." In spite of clear proof, the official outcome stood. Cornell offered to forfeit, and Dartmouth accepted. Whether Cornell and Dartmouth's agreement amounted to anything "official" is still up for debate 74 years later. For those who accept Dartmouth's 3-0 "victory," it is the only game in the history of football where the outcome was determined off the field after the game, and it required the team that officially won on the field offering to give up its win. Cal fans who were around in 1970 knew that undisputable proof that the end of the game was blown doesn't do any good. Dennis Dummit was down, there was proof positive, and it didn't matter, UCLA gets the touchdown and the win. The outcome of the 1982 Big Game was not going to change, no matter what the proof (which, of course, was an obviously faked photo, which made the fake Daily Cal all the more funny).
The fake 1975 Daily Cal was highly distressing. It was believable. And worse yet, for many of us, even after we found out that it was a fake, it highlighted the fact that the essence of what the 1975 paper was reporting WAS true. Cal SHOULD have been caught and put on probation, and been ineligible for the Rose Bowl. We smashed Stanford in the 1975 Big Game, but at some level, we knew that even if SC could tie or beat UCLA and send Cal to the Rose Bowl, it would be a tainted Rose Bowl, because we were cheaters, and the 1975 fake Daily Cal highlighted that.
The 1982 fake Daily Cal cracked me up from the moment I picked it up. I loved it, I kept it, it still cracks me up. I believe the fake Joe Kapp quote was, "Life isn't fair. I swear to God it isn't." Hilarious. The poorly faked photo only highlighted the fact that there was no truthful way to say that Cal shouldn't have won the game, which, as opposed to 1975's fake making us feel worse when we knew the truth, made us feel better about the truth.
Thinking back to 1975 in general, the most painful thing is the realization that, after UCLA beat SC and Cal didn't get the Rose Bowl, many of us thought, "It hurts, but we're good, we'll get to the Rose Bowl soon enough." 39 years later, no Rose Bowl in sight, some of us who had those thoughts are dead and never saw a Rose Bowl.
With no Rose Bowl hopes for this year, I'll just hope that 40 years after Langford kicked the game winning field goal in the Big Game, we can have a reprise, Langford can once again kick the game winning field goal in the Big Game.
GO BEARS!
