Sports

Football team with Sonny

The Right Fit

Sonny Dykes is ready to run a football program, not just an offense. Sonny Dykes, Cal’s new head football coach, had the highest-scoring offense in the country last year as head coach at Louisiana Tech. And for Cal fans coming off a string of lackluster seasons, the promise of big offense is welcome news. “We will […]

Baseball players watching the field

Keeping the Lights On

Cal baseball’s future is brighter but still punctuated with a question mark. Fans who attended the Cal baseball game against USC on March 28 did something that no one had ever done before in the team’s 121-year history: They walked into a ballpark illuminated by artificial light to watch the Bears play a home game at […]

Cal Baseball: An Easter Story

Tonight at 7PM, at Evans Diamond, Cal baseball will take on USC in the Bears’ first-ever home game under the lights. California readers may recall that we wrote about the death of Cal baseball back in 2010, when it was announced that five varsity sports were being cut from the University’s athletics roster. A year […]

Famous Enough

The minor celebrity of Rod Benson The sun hangs low over Manhattan Beach, giving the ocean a SoCal-postcard glow. Inside a fratty, nautically themed bar, Rod Benson is doing shots of vodka with his buddies. As usual, he has drawn a crowd. A fireplug-shaped guy with a tiny, feral mustache tries to impress Benson with his […]

football

Paging Fan X

Will the first man to signal the most famous touchdown in history please come to the courtesy phone? The 30th anniversary of the The Play approaches this fall with its legion of honor seemingly set in stone: The Fantastic Four—Kevin Moen, Richard Rodgers, Dwight Garner, and Mariet Ford—earned their spot in history with a touchdown that […]

Olympian Anthony Ervin

Back in His Element

Once a prodigy, Olympian Anthony Ervin is now the Prodigal Son returned. Anthony Ervin sits in the stands at the Spieker Aquatics Complex and gazes through the dark lenses of his Ray-Bans. At 31, he scarcely resembles the fresh-faced kid who set a world record then won gold and silver in swimming at the Sydney 2000 […]

a black and white photograph of Joe Kapp playing football

The Free Agent

For years, Joe Kapp fought the NFL. Now he’s tackling his memoirs. Joe Kapp is finally ready to get it all down on paper—the whole thing, from his hardscrabble upbringing in Salinas to his heyday in the pros; from his first appearance in Memorial Stadium in 1956 to his return, 25 years later, as the head […]

Esquer Named Coach of the Year

Cal’s dream season on the baseball diamond continues, as the Bears stayed alive in the College World Series with a 7-3 win yesterday over a tough Texas A&M squad. Tomorrow they’ll face the top-ranked Virginia Cavaliers. The Cavs handed the Bears a 4-1 loss in the opening round of the tournament last Sunday, before falling […]

Next Stop: Omaha!

The Cal baseball team was dominant in the Santa Clara super regional this weekend, besting a dangerous Dallas Baptist squad in two straight games, 7-0 and 6-2. Both nights were sold out as Bear fans rallied around the newly restored and suddenly ascendant squad. You’ll recall that this was supposed to be the last season […]

a picture of baseball umpire and baseball player

Extra Innings

Thanks to donors, five Cal Athletics teams have a new lease on life. All five of the athletic teams Cal cut from its varsity lineup last September (see “No Joy in Berkeley,” Winter 2010)—men’s rugby, women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s gymnastics, and baseball—have since been reinstated, and their restoration has about it the feel of a […]

Q and A with Scott Fujita

Former Golden Bear Scott Fujita, now with the Cleveland Browns, was on campus Wednesday for a panel discussion organized by the UC Berkeley Labor Center. The discussion revolved around collective bargaining and anti-trust issues as they pertain to the world of professional sports, especially the current NFL lockout. CALIFORNIA Magazine sat down to talk with […]

The Last Season

The Cal baseball team went 3-0 at AT&T Park last weekend, notching wins over Louisiana-Lafayette, Long Beach State, and #18 Rice. The Bears were the only undefeated team in what was billed as the first annual Cal Baseball Classic. First, and unless something changes, last, that is. While rugby, women’s gymnastics and women’s lacrosse have […]