The Cal Berkeley Bears? You've Got to be Kidding

We don’t often do editorials at Bear Insider but rather usually just cover the news and maybe flavor it with our opinion. The views expressed here may or may not represent the views of our full staff but they certainly represent this writer’s view along with a large swath of passionate Cal Athletics fans.

We are the University of California. We are the flagship university of one of the most renowned academic institutions in the world and the flag bearer of one of the oldest and most storied athletic programs in the country, yet in one of the goofiest and egg-headed decisions to come down the pike in many years, a 19-member task force released a recent report recommending that the University of California athletic teams rebrand to the name Cal Berkeley.

In the immortal words of tennis legend John McEnroe: Are you kidding me?

Fight For California. Big C. Sons of California. Hail to California. Toast to California. California Marching Song. California Drinking Song. A collection of some of the most heart-stirring fight songs in all of college athletics and all are California. Not Berkeley but California.

Forget that the Berkeley moniker is tied to an 18th-century Irish bishop who ostensibly supported slavery and reportedly purchased as many as five slaves during his brief tenure in the United States. With the progressive nature of our great university, the Berkeley name may well be abandoned at some point near in time and where would that leave our confused and beloved Cal Berkeley Bears?

The recommendation was made to help prevent the confusion that Cal’s many common monikers have engendered over the years. Cal. Cal-Berkeley. UC Berkeley. The University of California. The Univesity of California Berkeley. The list goes on.

People are confused. We get it. What graduate of our great university has not had to offer a second or third version of our university’s name to help quell the confusion of a conversation partner when referring to our university? No rebrand or committee recommendation is ever likely to end that confusion.

Well, let me unconfuse you. Cal Athletics has always been and always should be CAL Athletics. Not Cal Berkeley Athletics. Not UC Berkeley Athletics or anything but Cal, short for California, the flagship school and program of our university. You know, the athletic program that brought you the Big Game rivalry with Stanford that started in 1892. The Wonder Team led by legendary head coach Andy Smith in 1920 that won the Rose Bowl and started a 5-year run of undefeated football. A basketball program started in 1907 and the 1959 team led by legendary coach Pete Newell who won the national championship over a loaded Cincinnati team led by future NBA Hall of Famer Oscar Roberson and national runner-ups the following season. A baseball program that’s been around since 1892 and won two national championships in 1947 and 1957 and has been to the College World Series 6 times overall and the regionals 6 times in the last two decades. Men’s aquatic programs -swimming, water polo and crew who won unprecedented back-to-back national championships the last two years and many more besides that. A men’s rugby program that has won an astounding 33 national championships since 1980. And that’s just for starters.

All of them were won under the banner of California. What makes anyone believe that changing our athletic program’s name to Cal Berkeley - to directly contradict our name of the last nearly century and a half of athletic competition will make people less confused?

This is a bad idea and one that is hopefully destined for the dustbin of bad ideas of history.

Cal, California or bust.