Big Game Saturday

Despite being way too early in the season, Cal and Stanford battle today in the 115th Big Game. A game like no other game. Stanford issued a challenge to Cal in 1892 and the rivalry was on. These were the days before Memorial and Stanford Stadiums so that first game was played on a field at Stanyan and Haight in San Franciso. When I found that intersection now I found old Kezar Stadium. The location of the first Big Game was the site of the eventual home of the San Francisco 49ers. That might only interest me. Somehow, Stanford won the first Big Game by a score of 14-10. Cal had been playing football for just over a decade at that point. Since the two schools hadn't played before then, I assume that football was a fairly new thing in Palo Alto. So that first Stanford win might have been one of the bigger upsets in the rivalry. Personally, I find every Stanford win fairly upsetting. Including that first one. The schools didn't play for the axe back then. That didn't start until 1933. Things are right in the world only when that axe is sitting in Berkeley. That should happen today.

I've seen a bunch of Big Games. In all of those games three individual performances stand above the rest. In the 1990 Big Game Cal running back Russell White and Stanford running back Glyn Milburn had an epic duel. Milburn ran for 196 yards. White ran for 177 yards. It was an incredible "whatever you can do, I can do better" performance from both backs. Stanford upset Cal 27-25. Perhaps the greatest individual performance that I've ever seen from a football player was that of Cal cornerback/returner Deltha O'Neal in the 1999 Big Game. Cal was taken apart by Stanford 31-13. At times it looked like the game was Stanford vs O'Neal rather that Stanford vs. Cal. O'Neal did everything possible to keep Cal in the game. He returned a punt 58 yards for a touchdown. He returned a kick 100 yards for a touchdown. He intercepted a pass in the end zone. I've never seen a team so rattled by one player in a game that they won so easily.

Anything can happen in this game. Don;t turn away. Even if it's in October.

Go Bears!!! Beat Stanford!!!