Sports
Who Knew? Before Becoming a Media Mute, Super Bowl Star was a Publicist’s Dream
In the countdown to Sunday’s Super Bowl, suspense is building over the question on the mind of every devoted football fan: What will Marshawn Lynch say—or, more accurately, not say—to the media after the game? However popular the Seattle Seahawks’ running back is with Seattle fans, he has a lot fewer friends at NFL headquarters, […]
Love, Life and Baseball: A Filmmaker Follows Little Leaguers from Oakland to Havana
There are men of vision, and there are men of vision about men of vision. This is a story about both kinds of men, and about a movie, and about kids, and baseball. If Hollywood were to make a movie about the movie, the opening scene would be in a blue-collar bar in Berkeley, two […]
For Pete’s Sake: The Men Who Won Cal’s Sole NCAA Basketball Top Title Remain United
Their hairlines weren’t much thinner; their waistlines weren’t much thicker; and, with few exceptions, it was hard to tell from their appearance that 55 years had passed since these men won Cal’s only NCAA basketball championship in 1959. They returned last May for a joyous two-day reunion in Berkeley: a banquet at the Lafayette Park […]
Going to Bat for Earl Robinson: “We’ve Got to Do Something to Help Robbie.”
Update: A memorial service for Earl Robinson, who died on Independence Day from complications of congestive heart failure, was held last Friday, July 25, at the site he selected before his death: the Cal Alumni House. The attendees, numbering in the hundreds, used up all the available seats and standing room, finally spilling out onto the […]
The Bear, Re-Branded: Cal Replaces Its Live-and-Let-Live Mascot With Vicious New Model
Like Memorial Stadium, the brand identity of Cal Athletics has recently been renovated. Nothing too radical, mind you; the colors are unchanged and the Cal script remains the chief identifier. The only big change is the new bear logo. Gone is the striding giant of yesteryear, its stately silhouette imparting a certain timeless nobility to […]
Kabam? Ka-Ching: Naming Rights Bring Cash to Campus
Even on a football field it sometimes helps to tread lightly. That’s why as Berkeley administrators were deciding how to pay down the $445 million price tag associated with the retrofit and expansion project at California Memorial Stadium, the idea of selling naming rights to the structure itself was never on the table. “We have […]
Love, War and Football: A Curious Relic from WWII Prison Camp Returns to Cal Athletics
In an office at Cal Athletics sits a special historic artifact—a football autographed by the 1938 Golden Bears football team, co-champions of the Pacific Coast Conference. The ball is flat and the laces are gone, but you can still make out the signatures, including that of team captain (and two-time first-team All-Pacific Coast Conference halfback) […]
Jogs for Jill: Runs Honoring Late Cal Coxswain Net $500,000 to Combat Lung Cancer
More than 1,200 runners, walkers, strollers and joggers are expected to gather March 16th for the fifth annual Jog For Jill, a 5-K course around UC Berkeley’s campus in honor of Jill Costello—a political economy major who died from lung cancer just a few weeks after graduating from Cal in 2010. She has left an indelible […]
Goalball in Blindfolds, Soccer in Wheelchairs: Cal Busts Barriers to Competitive Sports
Ann Kwong could not see the ball hurtling toward her, but she knew who had thrown it—a member of UC Berkeley’s rugby team easily twice her size. Lying on the gym floor, she could hear its insistent rattle and sense the speed. She tensed for the impact as the ball hit her thighs with a […]
Tough Stance: A Q&A With the Authors Who Say Cal Athletics Should Learn from Stanford
All hell was breaking loose over UC Berkeley’s abysmal graduation rates for football and men’s basketball players as California magazine was doing final edits on the Winter 2013 issue. That magazine was to include an in-depth interview with the authors of a paper on the Cal Athletics program, which, in singling out graduation rates and the commercialization […]
Kabam It Is: Cal sells naming rights to Memorial Stadium football field for $18 million
The news hit just like it sounded—with a Kabam. UC Berkeley has struck an $18 million deal with the internet video game maker, granting it naming rights to the gridiron at Memorial Stadium for the next 15 years. No doubt hip mobile game players and tech finance wizards recognize “Kabam” as the name of the […]
Bad News Bears: Report dings Cal’s strikingly low admissions bar for student athletes
If they were winning, the news might not seem so bad. But they’re not. And it is. Cal football is currently 1-10 on the season and has the worst-ranked defense in the country. As of the latest available statistics, they also have the lowest graduation rates of any BCS school—that is, of any major college […]
