RIP, Eddie. Before I clicked on the link in Moraga's post, I was thinking of the photo of him sitting on the rim, after we snapped the streak against UCLA. One of the most iconic shots in the history of Cal Basketball: And there it is, at the top of the article!

I'm saddened to hear of his passing. Eddie Javius was an energy guy, a glue guy, a good guy.

While a lot of fans remember Eddie best for sitting on the rim after the UCLA win as shown in the photo in the linked article, the image seared into my mind is the USF game at Harmon 19 days before the UCLA win.

USF was in its first season off the self imposed death penalty, and Cal was supposed to win no problem. But late in the game, Cal was down slightly. After a timeout, Cal had the ball and six players went on the floor. Eddie was supposed to be on the floor, another player wasn't, but when Eddie realized Cal had six, he tried to sneak off the floor and onto the bench. Unfortunately, the refs figured it out, Cal got hit with a T, USF got 2 FT's and possession. As a result, Cal got into a pretty good hole.

A little while later, it looked like Cal was toast, down 3 with little time left, no 3 point shot available, and USF Center Peter Reitz going to the line for a 1 and 1. I met Reitz in June 2004, and he said that he was in the zone, he knew he'd hit the FT's, until USF Coach Brovelli yelled, "Hey Pete!" Reitz looked over, and Brovelli yells, "Make these!" And that yanked Pete out of the zone. He misses the front end. Still, Cal can't really win, Chris Washington goes and hits a layup with one second left AND GETS FOULED. Can you have a dumber foul that that? Washington misses the and one that would have tied the game, but Leonard Taylor tipped it in for the win (Reitz made clear that Taylor was on the opposite side of the lane from him).

I was sitting in the front row right across from Eddie when he tried to sneak off, and while Leonard Taylor's winning tip in at the buzzer was memorable, even more memorable for me was the look on Eddie's face of wise, calm determination to try to get the team out of someone else's mess. It didn't work, but he was a smart guy who knew what was going on and was going to do his best to try to get the team get out of it.

In a lot of ways, Eddie was the ideal of Cal athletics, a walk-on who contributes and gets a scholarship and then goes on to do good with his life.

Dang, pancreatic cancer sucks. RIP, Eddie.