Stanford University is a private research university in Stanford, California. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford, the eighth governor of and then-incumbent senator from California, and his wife, Jane, in memory of their only child, Leland Jr. The university admitted its first students in 1891, opening as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. It struggled financially after Leland died in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, university provost Frederick Terman inspired an entrepreneurial culture to build a self-sufficient local industry.
The University of California, Berkeley, is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley, it is the state's first land-grant university and is the founding campus of the University of California system.
Big Game is the name given to the California–Stanford football rivalry. It is an American college football rivalry game played by the California Golden Bears football team of the University of California, Berkeley and the Stanford Cardinal football team of Stanford University. Both institutions are located in the San Francisco Bay Area. First played in 1892, it remains one of the oldest college rivalries in the United States. The game is usually played in late November or early December and its location alternates between the two universities every year. In even-numbered years, the game is played in Berkeley while odd-numbered years are played at Stanford.
The Oski Yell is the University of California Berkeley spirit yell from which the school’s mascot, Oski the Bear, derives his name. Although Oski appeared in 1941, the yell was first performed around the turn of the 20th century. The yell's origins are uncertain, although the University of Illinois originated a similar yell in 1899. Another early version is credited to Vince Wirtz, who led a similar cheer beginning in the 1920s at football games for Hamilton, Ontario teams.
Oski the Bear (Oski) is the official mascot of the University of California, Berkeley ("Cal"), representing the California Golden Bears. Named after the Oski Yell, he made his debut at a freshman rally in the Greek Theatre on September 25, 1941. Prior to his debut, live bears were used as Cal mascots. Oski's name, design, and character were developed by William “Rocky” Rockwell, who was the first student to play the role, and Warrington Colescott, an editor of The Daily Californian and famed satirist.
California Memorial Stadium, also known simply and commonly as Memorial Stadium, is an outdoor college football stadium on the west coast of the United States, located on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley, California. It is the home field for the California Golden Bears of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Stanford Tree is the Stanford Band's mascot and the unofficial mascot of Stanford University. Stanford's team name is "Cardinal", referring to the vivid Stanford Cardinal Red color, and the university does not have an official mascot. The Tree, in various versions, has been called one of America's most bizarre and controversial college mascots. The tree regularly appears at the top of Internet "worst mascot" lists but has also appeared on at least one list of top mascots.
Aristides Burton Demetrios was an American sculptor.
The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as California or Cal, the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s Division I primarily as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and for a limited number of sports as a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). In 2014, Cal instituted a strict academic standard for an athlete's admission to the university. By the 2017 academic year 80 percent of incoming student athletes were required to comply with the University of California general student requirement of having a 3.0 or higher high school grade point average.
Tightwad Hill is the popular name for Charter Hill, the hill rising to the east of California Memorial Stadium at the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California, U.S..
The California Golden Bears football program represents the University of California, Berkeley in college football a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference at the NCAA Division I FBS level. They were previously a member of the Pac-12 Conference. The team plays its home games at California Memorial Stadium and is coached by Justin Wilcox. Since beginning of play in 1886, the team has won five NCAA recognized national titles - 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1937 and 14 conference championships, the last one in 2006. It has also produced what are considered to be two of the oddest and most memorable plays in college football: Roy "Wrong Way" Riegels' fumble recovery at the 1929 Rose Bowl and The Play kickoff return in the 1982 Big Game.
The Phoenix Five were a group of five University of California, Berkeley (Cal) students in Theta Chi who stole the Stanford Tree from the Band Shak on the campus of Stanford University in the early morning hours of October 17, 1998. The Phoenix Five held the 10-foot-tall (3.0 m) costume and university's unofficial mascot "hostage" for two weeks, and the reaction to the heist by school administrators fueled a frenzy of media coverage which resulted in the prank being regarded as one of the most famous and notable in the history of the Big Game rivalry between Cal and Stanford. The Phoenix Five used pseudonyms to hide their true identities, going by Mr. Black, Mr. Green, Mr. Orange, Mr. White, and Mr. Yellow.
"The Stanford Jonah" is a fight song of the University of California, Berkeley written in 1913 by Ted Haley as an entry into a song contest held by the Daily Californian. The song gained popularity when the campus glee club traveled to Europe where the song was a hit and it continues to be a hit at most sporting events, but specifically at events between the California Golden Bears and their rival, the Stanford Cardinal. Georgia Tech's "White And Gold", The Naval Academy's "Up With The Navy", and the University of Montana's "Up With Montana" share this tune as well.
Justin Draper Wilcox is an American college football coach and former player. Since 2017, he has been the head football coach of the California Golden Bears. In eight seasons at the helm of Cal football, he has achieved an overall losing record of 37-43 with only two winning seasons.
The California Golden Bears rugby team is the college rugby team of the University of California, Berkeley. The Golden Bears have won 33 championships since the national collegiate championships for rugby began in 1980. Current head coach and Cal alumnus Jack Clark took over the team in 1984, and has achieved prolonged success, leading the Bears to 28 national titles, including twelve consecutive championships from 1991 to 2002, five more consecutive titles from 2004 to 2008, and back-to-back titles in 2010 to 2011 and 2016 to 2017.
The 1963 California Golden Bears football team was an American football team that represented the University of California, Berkeley in the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) during the 1963 NCAA University Division football season. In its fourth year under head coach Marv Levy, the Golden Bears compiled a 4–5–1 record and were outscored 213 to 195. Home games were played on campus at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California.
The 1966 California Golden Bears football team was an American football team that represented the University of California, Berkeley in the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) during the 1966 NCAA University Division football season. In their third year under head coach Ray Willsey, the Golden Bears compiled a 3–7 record, and were outscored 197 to 131. Home games were played at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California.
The 1967 California Golden Bears football team was an American football team that represented the University of California, Berkeley in the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) during the 1967 NCAA University Division football season. In their fourth year under head coach Ray Willsey, the Golden Bears compiled a 5–5 record and were outscored 195 to 155. The highlight of the season was Cal's beating Stanford and winning the Big Game for the first time in seven years. Home games were played on campus at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California.
The 2018 California Golden Bears football team represented the University of California, Berkeley in the 2018 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Bears went 7–6 during Justin Wilcox's second year as head coach. The Bears upset #15 Washington 12–10 and defeated USC 15–14 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles to snap a 15-year losing streak to the Trojans, but at the same time, they also snapped a 18-year losing streak to USC in the Coliseum. They lost 10–7 in overtime to TCU in the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl.
The history of California Golden Bears football began in 1886, the team has won five NCAA recognized national titles - 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, and 1937 and 14 conference championships, the last one in 2006.
