The football glory days at the University of California were the early 1920s. Head coach Andy Smith knew that the future was bright in Berkeley when the Golden Bears freshman team went 11-1 in 1919. Those players made up the core of the varsity team that posted a record of 27-0-1 from 1920-22, two Rose Bowl appearances (1 win, 1 tie), and three national titles (awarded after the fact). Those football teams were known as Cal's "Wonder Teams." In 1960, the Helms Athletic Foundation named the 1920 "Wonder Team" the best college football team in American sports history. The football success didn't end in 1922. They didn't lose a game until 1925. From 1920-24, Cal posted a record of 44-0-4. Those teams at the end of that run could have been even better if a certain football legend hadn't found his way to that farm a little further south. From Jim Scott's Ernie Nevers, Football Hero.
In the summer of 1922, most all the Western universities had heard of Ernie Nevers through his heroics at Santa Rosa High.
It was assumed that he would go to Stanford for Attorney Finlaw Geary, the persistent Stanford recruiter of Santa Rosa, seldom let Ernie get out of his sight.
But the University of California, whose unbelievable Wonder Team had become a national rage, wasn't giving up easily.
In August of 1922, four of Cal's players invaded Santa Rosa for a selling job on Ernie. Finally, he agreed to take a tour with them of the Berkeley campus.
While they were showing Ernie about Berkeley, they were spotted by Jimmy Lawson, Stanford football star. He phoned his Berkeley brother, who had a car. They managed to make contact with Ernie by phone and, by arrangement, Jimmy's brother sped Ernie back to Attorney Finlaw.
They had told Ernie that Finlaw was having a big barbecue that night, and that Ernie simply had to be there. Once back in Santa Rosa, they received a call from Jimmy that the Cal men were on their way back to Santa Rosa to rescue Nevers.
It was then that Geary remembered "Madge," an attractive widow who had helped him before in his recruiting activities.
Madge, entranced by football heroes, loaded Ernie into her car, and they sped on to the resort area up the California Coast. By the time they had returned to Santa Rosa, the Cal boys had departed.
The impressionable youth considered Madge to be "the most sophisticated, beautiful woman I ever met."
The NCAA was only about two decades old at this point so they were still working out some kinks. Actually, they still are but that's a whole other story. The young NCAA should have had a field day with these shenanigans. A booster doing some shady recruiting, kidnapping, and manipulating an impressionable young football hero with a beautiful widow named "Madge." Stanford's rarely up to any good.
Imagine Cal's later "Wonder Teams" with Ernie Nevers. It's beautiful if you try.
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