cal athletics

How Cal Golf Went From A Ragtag Team to the Top of the Game

When Collin Morikawa calmly sank his birdie putt on the 18th hole of the Royal St. George’s golf course in Kent, England, last July, he breathed the rarified air of someone who had reached the pinnacle of professional golf. At just 24 years of age, the 2019 Cal grad had captured the sport’s oldest tournament, the storied British Open. In the final round, he shot a 66 to hold off Jordan Spieth by two strokes.  

From the Winter 2021 issue of California.

Safe at Home! Remembering Cal’s Season on the Brink

UNDER DARKENED SKIES laden with humidity and sparked by lightning, Cal’s Devon Rodriquez slowly strode to the plate. It was June 6, 2011, the title game of the NCAA Baseball Regionals in Houston, the Golden Bears’ most crucial at-bat in their most dramatic of seasons—one in which the very existence of the team hung in the balance.

Posted on July 2, 2021 - 1:01pm

Forging Pathways On and Off the Court

Former Cal basketball star Shareef Abdur-Rahim was named president of the G League, the official minor league of the National Basketball Association, in 2018. Per its website, the G League operates as a research and development laboratory to prepare players, coaches, and staff for an NBA career. Under Abdur-Rahim’s leadership, it is also challenging basketball’s status quo with the implementation of a new “professional path program” for elite players who have not yet met the age requirement to be drafted into the pros.

From the Winter 2020 issue of California.

It Was the Best Day of His Life. Then Everything Changed.

The Big Game of 2010 didn’t start off well for Cal fullback Eric Stevens. The Bears lost to Stanford, 48–14.

But on his way back to his apartment he ran into Amanda Glass. They stopped and started talking. And talking. And they discovered they had a lot in common, including sports. She was a defender on the women’s soccer team, and, like Eric, she had a reputation as a tough competitor.

“He invited me to a party that night,” she remembers. “And the rest is history.”

From the Winter 2019 issue of California.

Elite Athletes and the Pregnancy Penalty

Alysia Montaño had just finished a workout when she got the call. It had been only four months since the birth of her daughter, Linnea, in 2014, but she was feeling strong and had her sights set on the 400-meter race at the USA Track & Field Championships in Sacramento. She had worked hard throughout her pregnancy, going to photo shoots in Los Angeles with her sponsor Asics, and continuing to train and race. She said of her mind-set at the time: “I was 100 percent an Asics athlete. Wherever you need me, I’ll be there.”

From the Fall 2019 issue of California.

Freestylin’: Coach Teri McKeever on How to Swim Like a Girl

From her office in Haas Pavilion, Teri McKeever can look down on Spieker pool. She’s been known to yell out the windows if things aren’t going the way she wants—just one of the many ways she’s distinguished herself over three decades of coaching at Cal.

Posted on January 10, 2019 - 3:50pm

Chancellor’s Letter: In the Zone

 When I heard that the theme for this edition of California magazine was play, my thoughts turned to music and sports. Both are forms of self-expression, closely linked in ways that are at once intuitive and surprising. We have many campus programs in each—another way we seek to embrace the fullest possible range of human endeavors and do justice to the essential meaning of “University.”

From the Winter 2018 Play issue of California.

Necessary Roughness

It was a sunny November Saturday at California Field and the stands brimmed with 20,000 boisterous fans. Banners waved, blue-and-gold streamers unfurled, and the usual cheers of “Oski Wow Wow! Whiskey Wee Wee!” went up as players took the field.

From the Winter 2018 Play issue of California.

Go Play! You Can Read This Later.

was during the Great Malaise of the Jimmy Carter years that Zippy the Pinhead, clown prince of non sequiturs, first wondered, “Are we having fun yet?” The questioner was a simpleton, but time has endowed his question with the ring of profundity.

Or is that an alarm bell? A warning from our inner child to slow down, ease off, throw our hands in the air like we just don’t care?

Listen up, America. We are failing at play.

From the Winter 2018 Play issue of California.

Locker Room Talk with the Boys of the Berkeley Gazette

Once upon a time, Berkeley had its own daily newspaper, the Berkeley Gazette, and for a brief, semi-glorious moment, it had two sports-reporting brothers. The paper was small enough that the brothers weren’t exclusively sports-reporters, but being born and bred in Berkeley, with Bear-blood in their veins, they wasted as much ink and newsprint on Cal’s sports program as they could possibly get away with.

Posted on December 3, 2018 - 9:36am

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