bearister;842735724 said:

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Oskie, Dumpster Muffin or the former Dean of Boalt Hall? That's all I got.

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im 83. graduated in 55. waiting for turnaround. buh and sandy responsible for our problems.

MinotStateBeav;842735592 said:

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Seriously, we haven't been to the Rose Bowl since 59...it's 2016. How do you guys manage to completely keep hope? That's nearly 55 years of bad football sprinkled with 5-6 good seasons? I love my dad (RIP)...but f' me man....he couldn't of just decided i'm not putting my son through this. I mean I'm only 40...so it's not like I got the worst of it. How do you guys do it? I mean we should of accidentally had a good Rose Bowl season by now...Washington F'ing State has been to the Rose man. Aren't sanctions worth it at this point for 1 year of joy? I'm ready for a coaching staff of Tosh Lupoi, Coach Ogeron, Les Miles for More Money and Pete Carroll.

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Well for me it's not so bad because I've only been rooting for Cal for a short time compared to a lot of the old folks on this board. Since 1963. This is only my 54th season.

okaydo;842735607 said:

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I keep reminiscing about our last Rose Bowl victory, which I vividly remember attending in 1938.

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Where were you sitting? I was in section I (the nonsmoking section) above the Coca Cola banner. Still have my rose bowl game day suite and fedora pressed and ready for the repeat.

Our problem is that we feel obliged to stick with a failing coach to the bitter end, when we're absolutely the worst team in the conference with a totally dried up recruiting pipeline, and then we go out to search for a new coach. That adds 4-5 years to anyone's rebuilding effort.

LethalFang;842735740 said:

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Our problem is that we feel obliged to stick with a failing coach to the bitter end, when we're absolutely the worst team in the conference with a totally dried up recruiting pipeline, and then we go out to search for a new coach. That adds 4-5 years to anyone's rebuilding effort.

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:hammer:

When your dad is a Cal grad - you live in Orinda - and he starts taking you to games when you are 8 years old, it's a small seed that is planted and simply never completely finishes growing. What other college or sports team is there? None for me. What's better than a fall day at Memorial even though the cigars and beers and wooden benches have been removed?? Holding dad's hand, walking into the stadium, eyes wide, and Pappy's Boys winning? Cursed be Tedford however. How dare he raise our expectations and to leave us with what we have now? Great character student-athletes representing the finest university in the world and struggling to compete with those who aren't us! For me, it's hoping, dreaming, that someday our gridiron team's excellence will match that of our beloved university!

I don't want my offspring to endure the same torture when they grow up so I watch the games by myself

Never mix hope and expectation. Hope is the lottery; expectation is reality. It may be easier for me since I'm not a donor or ticket buyer and have only been to a handful of games since leaving school so I kind of detached decades ago although I still follow the team closely. I can celebrate successes but rarely agonize over disappointments although once in a while a particularly egregious collapse (see AZ 2 years ago) can still bring some heartburn. I think the fact that the participants, coaches and players have become largely mercenaries, with only a few having a real attachment to Cal, has made it a bit easier to let go emotionally.

tommie317;842735766 said:

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I don't want my offspring to endure the same torture when they grow up so I watch the games by myself

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Same here. Last night was a perfect example - glad I watched the game alone.

59bear;842735771 said:

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Never mix hope and expectation. Hope is the lottery; expectation is reality. It may be easier for me since I'm not a donor or ticket buyer and have only been to a handful of games since leaving school so I kind of detached decades ago although I still follow the team closely. I can celebrate successes but rarely agonize over disappointments although once in a while a particularly egregious collapse (see AZ 2 years ago) can still bring some heartburn. I think the fact that the participants, coaches and players have become largely mercenaries, with only a few having a real attachment to Cal, has made it a bit easier to let go emotionally.

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burritos;842735827 said:

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Class of '76 (Pac Eight co-champions)

Do we have a choice? It is our fate.

burritos;842735827 said:

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Reasonable expectations. I am not sure what my first season was. I have pictures of myself from 1960 wearing a Cal sweatshirt. Never knew anything else. an analogy that works for me is it is like a waiter whose average tip is $10. You've heard about people leaving $100 tips, but never seen one. You expect the $10, should be thrilled when you get a $20 and it makes no sense to melt down every time you open the tab and discover the $100 is not there - again. If it ever happens celebrate. Until then, abide...

365Bear;842735603 said:

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Believe me, it hasn't been easy, and the temptation to bail has arisen more than once. But my early college days were about fall colors and glorious wins at Memorial captained by Joe Roth with a great team and coach behind him. This had been burned into my genetic code to a degree that just walking from my car through the falling leaves and past my fraternity brings those extraordinary feelings back. Almost overwhelming sometimes. Then the occasional, truly uplifting win comes (Cal 42, UCLA 13) but more often the loss, and I console myself at the faculty club and Top Dog and, godammit, I get sucked in for the next game, the next season, the next decade of waiting...

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I think for those of us who experienced Joe, its a great motivation, helps us to keep going. The Citrus Bowl win over Clemson helps too. There has been greatness, just not Rose Bowls.

I grew up in Berkeley and my first Cal football game was when I was 4 or 5 in maybe 1959. My parents never went, but I'd go with other friends and family. Among all those losses, there was Jerry Bradley catching a TD on the final play against Penn St, Morton against Staubach, Penhall playing his ass off to beat Stanford in 1970, and sitting in the Berkeley Jr Traffic Boy section. I rarely sat in good seats, but roamed the end-zone when tickets were $1 for kids. Bartkowski, Muncie, Roth, etc got us close while I was a Cal student in the mid-70s, but still no cigar. Honestly, I didn't really enjoy going to Cal that much, but now I always park on the North Side and re-trace my steps from the Ridge Rd. co-ops where I lived to the engineering buildings (where I suffered). And once I see the stadium, I'm 10 years old again. 2013 and 2014 were nightmares, but last year's ASU win gave me a boost. My wife and I froze our asses off, but stuck it out and the victory made the long drive home to Roseville worthwhile. My advice is, don't try to be rational about Cal football. Remember, "fan" is short for "fanatic".

Even Todd Marinovich (a heroin addict) has won a Rose Bowl.

How do you older Bears do it?

Lowered expectations, patience, alcohol, substances, enhanced ability to not take it so seriously, resignation, perspective...

mbBear;842735879 said:

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I think for those of us who experienced Joe, its a great motivation, helps us to keep going. The Citrus Bowl win over Clemson helps too. There has been greatness, just not Rose Bowls.

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That was a great game against Clemson. I always liked Mike Pawlawski, he should have been a Trojan.

goldenokiebear;842735891 said:

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How do you older Bears do it?

Lowered expectations, patience, alcohol, substances, enhanced ability to not take it so seriously, resignation, perspective...

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This! I will admit however, that the forces of TV (weeknight games, long commercial breaks, easy out NOT to attend in person) - are mitigating my primary reason for season tickets; Tailgating with friends.

Also, none of my progeny were able to attend Cal, so maybe there is hope for the future.

:gobears:

I'm not a Cal fan by choice. BI helps a lot. In fact, it and Mr. Bourbon are the best parts of most seasons. Just face the facts, if you went to Cal and are a football fan you are in for a Chicago Cubs like existence. Some day it will end...hopefully before we die. Hey, I went to Sacred Heart high school. Go check out their football record. They make Cal look like Notre Dame.

BeachedBear;842735900 said:

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This! I will admit however, that the forces of TV (weeknight games, long commercial breaks, easy out NOT to attend in person) - are mitigating my primary reason for season tickets; Tailgating with friends.

Also, none of my progeny were able to attend Cal, so maybe there is hope for the future.

:gobears:

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Spot on! Pregame visit/beers with old friends is the highlight for me as well. And at-game experience definitely diminished with seemingly endless commercials, challenges, etc. - there seems to be no "flow" to college football games any more.

The Rose Bowl and major bowl drought for Cal is quite unbelievable. I am old so major bowl to me always comes back to Rose, Sugar, Cotton, and Orange. I guess you should add Fiesta to that list. The term major bowl has change somewhat over the years but these five remain the benchmark. I wonder how many schools from power conferences are in a similar situation. I may be wrong but I don't think that many schools are in the 50+ years without list.

510Bear;842735637 said:

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It's not just about the results, but how you go about pursuing them. No matter how many 4th-quarter leads our FB team coughs up, Cal is still an awesome place with an amazing culture and amazing people. We're smart, but not pretentious. We're the people's university. We believe in making the world a better place. And we do it with our own unique flair.

Our football team reflects that, and attracts student-athletes and even coaches (yes, that means Dykes) who buy into that. Our administrators and faculty are the Achilles' heel, the group who get in the way of our revenue sports delivering the results a great university like Cal should have, but at the same time, the latter group also add to what makes our university special, so....we just need to go to group therapy and sort out our issues somehow.

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So I don't want to flame this post but - I think that this mentality is part of the problem. We (and by WE I mean many posters on this board) believe that we are somehow special because of our academic standing. And while I do think that since we are a university and academics is the most important thing, its also the single greatest argument that holds us back.

We need to revise our thought processes regarding hiring a coach who can recruit and make us competitive again. I guess Admin has two choices:

1. Go for it like other schools have and hire a big name coach to recruit and fill the stadium and try to compete for P12 North title, possible P12 Championship, upper tier bowl game or Rose Bowl and top 10 ranking...or;
2. Do as much we can to go 8-5, 7-6 each year with some 9-4 years every so often, beat SC, UCLA or Stanfurd every 4-7 years and be content with it.

I don't know. I think that our belief that Cal is somehow above the fray is what holds us back. We cry and howl over programs that hire people that we deem have questionable ethics or we just don't like and so forth. But at the end of the day - they are winning. We're not.

philly1121;842735983 said:

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1. Go for it like other schools have and hire a big name coach to recruit and fill the stadium and try to compete for P12 North title, possible P12 Championship, upper tier bowl game or Rose Bowl and top 10 ranking...or;
2. Do as much we can to go 8-5, 7-6 each year with some 9-4 years every so often, beat SC, UCLA or Stanfurd every 4-7 years and be content with it.

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A "big name" coach means big money. Unless we pick up a coach like that on the cheap under unique circumstances (like Les Miles now or Bobby Petrino a few years back), we are not in the picture for a Tom Herman unless we have a $3-4 million floor currently, which is where Oregon and UCLA are around. We hire cheap and hope the coach can succeed to earn the big-time money (like Shaw at Furd), because unless Ron Rivera decides to come knocking we are not putting out $4-5 million.

philly1121;842735983 said:

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So I don't want to flame this post but - I think that this mentality is part of the problem. We (and by WE I mean many posters on this board) believe that we are somehow special because of our academic standing. And while I do think that since we are a university and academics is the most important thing, its also the single greatest argument that holds us back.

We need to revise our thought processes regarding hiring a coach who can recruit and make us competitive again. I guess Admin has two choices:

1. Go for it like other schools have and hire a big name coach to recruit and fill the stadium and try to compete for P12 North title, possible P12 Championship, upper tier bowl game or Rose Bowl and top 10 ranking...or;
2. Do as much we can to go 8-5, 7-6 each year with some 9-4 years every so often, beat SC, UCLA or Stanfurd every 4-7 years and be content with it.

I don't know. I think that our belief that Cal is somehow above the fray is what holds us back. We cry and howl over programs that hire people that we deem have questionable ethics or we just don't like and so forth. But at the end of the day - they are winning. We're not.

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I believe we are building towards #2 but have been hindered because of a house-cleaning resulting from poor APR and attitudes. I do think we should throw big money at a DC this offseason. We need a DC with the credibility to bring us some recruits. We have poor depth and overall talent on D.

Strykur;842736002 said:

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A "big name" coach means big money. Unless we pick up a coach like that on the cheap under unique circumstances (like Les Miles now or Bobby Petrino a few years back), we are not in the picture for a Tom Herman unless we have a $3-4 million floor currently, which is where Oregon and UCLA are around. We hire cheap and hope the coach can succeed to earn the big-time money (like Shaw at Furd), because unless Ron Rivera decides to come knocking we are not putting out $4-5 million.

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True. I agree with that. I guess that's why I always bring Jim Tressel's name up. No way we can afford Les Miles or a Bobby Petrino. Not sure we could afford Tressel either.

philly1121;842736028 said:

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True. I agree with that. I guess that's why I always bring Jim Tressel's name up. No way we can afford Les Miles or a Bobby Petrino. Not sure we could afford Tressel either.

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Tressel insists he is done with coaching, don't know why he would leave a job he can have forever for a coaching gig in Berkeley.

Going back to campus, tailgating with friends, taking my parents (now in their 80s) and spending time together is what makes it worthwhile.
Would be nice to have better results and more wins, but what I really wish is that our game experience was not dictated by TV.
Afternoon games in the sunshine, less marketing crap, fewer lengthy TV time outs, shorter game times and the like would be almost as good as winning 10 plus games a season.
Have hung in there so far, but another 7:30pm game that goes to midnight -- even if it is a good game that we end up winning -- and I will be sitting in our seats by myself as wife, parents, etc. no longer willing to be involved in late night games like that.
Unless something changes forsee I will be watching home games by myself on the couch at home, shouting at the screen and drinking too much -- in other words what I do currently for away games.

Strykur;842736037 said:

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Tressel insists he is done with coaching, don't know why he would leave a job he can have forever for a coaching gig in Berkeley.

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Don't want Tressel.
Send him back to Youngstown Stu.

When the Bears do finally win it will be glorious.

The university will not have compromised our academics / morals.

Us long time fans will have sat through decades of weak to mediocre teams. We don't have band-wagon fans these days. Easy to back the font runners. Cal fans are loyal in spite of the overall W-L record.

Strykur;842736037 said:

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Tressel insists he is done with coaching, don't know why he would leave a job he can have forever for a coaching gig in Berkeley.

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Yeah he says that alot. He's got it made at Youngstown State. I don't know. Maybe go back to coaching to stick it to the NCAA?

oski003;842736025 said:

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I believe we are building towards #2 but have been hindered because of a house-cleaning resulting from poor APR and attitudes. I do think we should throw big money at a DC this offseason. We need a DC with the credibility to bring us some recruits. We have poor depth and overall talent on D.

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What kind of DC wants to work for a head coach who's on the hot seat himself? 90 snaps/game won't help his defensive stats either (which makes it a bad springboard for his next job).

LethalFang;842736119 said:

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What kind of DC wants to work for a head coach who's on the hot seat himself? 90 snaps/game won't help his defensive stats either (which makes it a bad springboard for his next job).

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I hate to break it to you, but he is not on the hot seat.

And I hate to break it to you but it's nearly 80 years. Eighty. The goal is to win a RB, not attend one as losers again.

LethalFang;842735740 said:

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Our problem is that we feel obliged to stick with a failing coach to the bitter end, when we're absolutely the worst team in the conference with a totally dried up recruiting pipeline, and then we go out to search for a new coach. That adds 4-5 years to anyone's rebuilding effort.

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The reason Cal sticks with coaches is that Cal will never get into paying a coach a boatload of money. There is a hope that the mid tier hires Cal has made will somehow "make it" and get Cal into a winning way. There are just too many other sports at Cal, and the commitment is not made to football. Yet football pretty much pays for the vast majority of the other 30 sports on campus.

Cal tries to be everything to everybody, but the administration pretty much has been non supportive of football for decades.

What "big time" coach do you really think Cal could lure here under those conditions?
None.
So, we get finalists as candidates like Sonny (who I like and admire and think he's doing the best he can) and McIntyre who has won a total of 3 Pac 12 games in 3 years at Colorado. Two guys from smaller programs that have had some success. No successful big time coach (from a Power 5 school) would ever come to Cal with the way Cal currently treats football.
I laugh at suggestions here of who Cal should hire. Never gonna happen until the Chancellor says Cal has to in order to compete, win and get the exposure and revenue to support a bloated, underfunded department.

DrDanger;842736319 said:

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What "big time" coach do you really think Cal could lure here under those conditions?
None.

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And it cascades from there. What big time ambitious assistant wants to hitch their wagon to a "long shot" at a school with no history of success? This is why I think the "fire Sonny" crowd is unrealistic. That is not how we will get to the promised land. For us it will be a long, slow climb - if it happens at all.