In a series filled with odd games, today’s may be the oddest
Both winless, Cal hosts Stanford in one of their most unusual meetings
BERKELEY >> The even-numbered years seem to produce the odd Big Games.
That was the case in 1982, when Cal pulled off The Play that brought lasting infamy to the Stanford band and provided the Bears a once-in- a-lifetime lastsecond victory.
Stanford got revenge in 1990, scoring nine points in the final 12 seconds to win.
Just two years ago, in 2018, the Big Game was postponed (for the first time since President John F. Kennedy’s assassination) for two weeks because the Bay Area was choking on smoky air from the Camp Fire in Paradise.
And here we are again, an evennumbered year and a Big Game at Cal. But 2020, consumed by a COVID-19 pandemic, creates its own set of bizarre circumstances.
Cal and Stanford will kick off at 1:30 p.m. today at Memorial Stadium, with no fans on hand to watch and no wins yet for either team this season.
“It’s different just because of the unique nature of this season but it doesn’t minimize the Big Game to our team, our fans,” said Cal coach Justin Wilcox, whose Bears are 0-2 and have had a game canceled due to COVID-19. “We appreciate it for all that it is, regardless of the circumstances.”
Stanford coach David Shaw, whose Cardinal also is 0-2 and has had a game canceled due to COVID-19, said once his team began preparing to face Cal it felt like Big Game week. But he understands this will be tough on fans.
“I feel awful for them,” he said, including his wife and family in that group. “This is a sport that
was made to be seen by other people. There’s an energy that’s brought in the stadium, home or away, there’s the initial reactions from the crowd, and even when you’re locked in there’s moments where you do hear it and it gives you energy, whether they’re rooting for you or against you.”
Still, it might not be entirely accurate to suggest there has never been a Big Game as complicated or unusual as this one.
In 1918, the planet was in calamitous shape on multiple fronts. World War I was coming to an end and a global flu pandemic raged on, eventually taking the lives of 50 million worldwide.
Against that horrifying backdrop, less than three weeks after the WWI armistice was signed, Cal and Stanford played on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, their first football meeting since 1905. The schools switched to rugby beginning in 1906, but Cal transitioned back to the American game in 1915, a move Stanford waited three more years to make.
Stanford’s team was composed of young men from the resident Student Army Training Corps, many of whom were not Stanford students. Because Cal figured to have such an experience edge, the schools agreed the 1918 Big Game would not be an official contest.
Good thing because Cal won 67- 0 as halfback Pesky Sprott scored seven touchdowns. A crowd of 12,000 watched at California Field, the Bears’ 20,000- seat oncampus facility until Memorial Stadium opened in 1923.
Brick Morse, a former Cal three-sport star in the 1890s and a correspondent for the San Francisco Call, began his game story this way: “The Big Game is over and Stanford has been thoroughly punished for painting the campanile red.”
Morse’s report made no mention of the f lu pandemic or whether fans wore face coverings. But the bands and yell leaders were present, something we won’t see today.
Here are some of the curiosities and restrictions for the 123rd Big Game:
• The Big Game will feature two winless teams for the first time. The schools typically have played more than two games when they meet, many more. Cal has entered the Big Game without a victory only four times (1894, 1897, 1999 and 2001), and on none of those occasions did Stanford arrive winless.
• The Big Game will be Cal’s first home game of the season. Long before we’d heard the term COVID, the home opener was to have been played Sept. 5 against Texas Christian. It was rescheduled for Nov. 7 against Washington, but that game was canceled when a Cal player tested positive for the virus. So a home opener on Friday, Nov. 27 ... against Stanford. Makes perfect sense in 2020.
• There will be no fans, a direct casualty of COVID-19. No parents, family, close friends or anyone else. A crowd of 48,904 watched last year’s game at Stanford Stadium. The record is 94,000 for the 1935 Big Game at Stanford Stadium.
• In addition to no fans, there will be no marching bands, no halftime show, no Oski, no Stanford Tree.
• No access to Tightwad Hill either. The view from above the northeast corner of Memorial Stadium will not be open to fans. The cannon, which Cal fires after a Bears touchdown, has been moved from Tightwad Hill to the east rim of the stadium.
• The Axe will remain part of the occasion, displayed during the game on a platform behind the Cal bench, then presented to the winning team at game’s end.
• All Big Game week activities are either canceled or presented virtually. Cal will present a virtual Big Game rally at 11 a.m. today, replacing the bonfire rally held at the Greek Theater on the eve of the Big Game.
Cal also planned a tree-chopping ceremony and the Big Sing at some point during the week. Stanford is celebrating the game with a virtual train whistle, counting down hourly for 123 hours to kickoff. None of the events will be live.
The old- school gameweek traditions are gone. The Guardsmen charity luncheon in San Francisco was last held in 2015 after a 67-year run, and events such as the Cable Car Rally, Union Square Rally and The Big Sail regatta also are shelved.
Because of the need for social distancing, neither program plans a traditional Thanksgiving team meal, where everyone sits down together to eat. Both Wilcox and Shaw look forward to things perhaps returning to normal before the 124th Big Game.
“We understand people are making sacrifices and we want to be maybe a part of their life that brings them some joy by how we play and give them something to cheer for us,” Wilcox said. “Hopefully next year we’ll be seeing them in person once again.”