A refuge of normalcy? Try Tightwad Hill during the Big Game
Dozens of fans made the climb to watch the Cal Bears play the Stanford Cardinal
BERKELEY >> Perched high in the hills above Memorial Stadium, the dozens who trekked past barricades and through winding trails to get here had only one thing on their minds: Football. And good times.
Isn’t that so 2019? Not on Tightwad Hill, the proletarian paradise that for nearly a century has provided penny-pinching fans the best view — and atmosphere — in college football. Here, its masked denizens are the only reminder of an ongoing pandemic.
Arin Wise, a Cal freshman from Sacramento, took to the hill Friday for the Big Game against Stanford with two friends she met during orientation. Since then, classes have been entirely remote, the dorms are mostly locked down and attendance at sporting events is strictly forbidden.
“I wish we were in the stadium and able to storm the field,” Wise said, prior to the unfortunate ending for Cal in the 123rd Big Game — a 24-23 loss to Stanford. “It’s kind of nice seeing ever ybody come out here even during a pandemic. I feel like the unique ways people find normalcy is heartening. It makes me feel good about the world.”
The fans who braved the steep hike up the hillside spanned generations, from longtime veterans to firsttime visitors.
Tracy Bosche was another of the newcomers Saturday.
Her son, Parker, plays for Cal, a walk- on linebacker who wears No. 40. Her son didn’t want her on the hill, insisting she watch the game on TV, especially after the school announced access would be closed and policed. She came anyway.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Bosche said. “I was going to wear my big 40 jersey, but I thought, if I get arrested, well, maybe I don’t want to admit that.”
On a typical game day, Bosche would be inside the stadium. But there is nothing typical about 2020.
“I haven’t really seen anyone but my two kids since March, and here I am at a party,” Bosche said. “And I couldn’t be happier.”
In front of them, clad in gold pants, a blue shirt and a straw hat, Tad Dellinger, the so- called 29th Governor of the Hill, made his best attempts to drown out the piped- in crowd noise from below.
Dellinger, who attended law school at Berkeley, has been a mainstay on the hill since 1993 — and proud of it.
“We have a (expletive) hill!” he shouted, in one less explicit but verifiably true example of trash talk that flowed all afternoon.
To his left, a lone group of Stanford fans responded by challenging him to chug another beer.
Of c our se, t hey all obliged. This is Tightwad Hill, after all.