[jacket3ree]

Random you kids get off my lawn memories from Big Games of yore. I probably don't have some of the years right.

First (1985) - Fun time in SF the night before hanging with a bunch of Stanford and Cal grad students, because we rode that weird lab bus between campuses together. Rolled directly from the City off-gassing alcohol right into the stadium.  First time Stanford Stadium was full that year, and was it loud. Mostly the Cal section to be candid. Weird game where Stanford was way ahead and Cal came storming back as their fans roared. Cal missed an extra point or something as the gray sky overhead started to really threaten. Checked out parties around campus and realized there really was something different about being a grad student, even if I was younger than some of the undergrads. That gray sky became a full-on monsoon, there was a dance with your date exchange of sorts, things got weird, and I ended up driving a very nice young woman back to Berkeley in my Sirocco. (Amy or Naomi, something like that.) Ended up with a case of mono that lasted through finals. 

First in Berkeley (1986) - I was a working stiff living with grad students at a place we called "The Swamp" and we went over to watch what should have been an easy Stanford win over hapless 1-9 Cal with Zippergate raging and Kapp on his way out.  Hey maybe we'll run into Amy/Naomi.... Fire Jack Elway!

First while dating Calfan (1987) - Easy Stanford romp in beautiful sunshine and a full crowd.  I went over to the Cal section looking for her and her family. Never found her. Someone told me and my red T-shirt to go back to hell.  "Huh, Mountain View isn't that bad."

Almost killed a marriage before it started (1988) - Tuan Van Le blocks the kick to preserve a tie in a really poorly played game. I mean Snyder had them center the ball inside the ten for the winning field goal, and Stanford blocked it.  I was a little too exuberant sitting deep in the Bear Backer section on the 50.  Got it together enough to realize it was just a freaking tie and hopefully that would be it for Elway. It was.

1989 - Fire Ants under the lights!

1990 - Now married to CalFan and sitting in those same seats. During the penultimate drive I knew Stanford was going to win. Hardy intercepts. I still knew Stanford was going to win. Are you kidding, 12 seconds, in Berkeley, and fans are on the field? I even said out loud "game's not over, Stanford is winning this one."  I was laughed out of the stadium by everyone within ten seats to the side and in front, and the five in back. My mother in law said "I'm afraid you're right."  Long silent ride for some in that Pontiac Grand Prix (the one my late father in law would bust out for special occasions). Short silent ride for this guy.  To this day, one of the best football games I've seen.

1991 - One of two times both Cal and Stanford were good. Cal is going to circle the stadium twice with the axe and head back to Berkeley and Treggs will move to Palo Alto if the unthinkable happens. It does.  Touchdown Tommy just destroys Cal. Flopping like beaten fishes on the sun dappled late afternoon turf. Rode on a train full of CalFans back up the Peninsula. They were beaten.  Gave a coke to some kid in blue and gold.

1992 - Easy Walsh win. FIL makes us leave at halftime. Thought about protesting and finding my own way home, which would have been easy on transit, but CalFanWife shot me a look that said "pack up your things".

1998 - Explaining what "Fox Stanford" meant to my four year old.  I have to say that dragging a toe headed kid dressed head to toe in blue and gold while wearing red on BART and walking up Strawberry Canyon was something I should have done while single. Awesome play call in OT, which I believe was the first overtime Big Game.

1999 - Casey Moore puts away the Fightin' Deltha O'Neils, baskets of roses appear, my daughter exclaims "Wait, this means we get to go to Disneyland, right Daddy?" and the cadre of former Dollies we'd been sitting next to for ten years give her a big group hug. "Yes, yes it does!"

2004 - Teevens' last game. Cal was five orders of magnitude better. Some Stanford guy with a dirty headhunting hit on a punt returner. This has to be the all time nadir. Sitting away from the fam, but nothing but Cal fans around us. Told them to have fun in Pasadena; I was looking forward to going.  A week or three later, I'm on a ladder installing canned lights in the new addition I was building and heard my wife scream from the front room. I don't even remember where they went and to whom they lost.  That Texas-USC Rose Bowl was a classic!

2007 - Son gives his grandfather the business in Harbaugh's first year.  Had a teaching moment.

2009 - My last BG as a season ticket holder. With the son playing football, it was just too hard to make all the games. And they were really, really good after I dropped the tix, so I went with it. We did go whenever we could, and went to that BG with one of his teammates (now a journalist / KNBR personality) and dad. The second of two times both Cal and Stanford were good at the same time. Gerhart! Right in front of us - all we've gotta do is pound it in. They are gassed!  And then......thud.

2010 - My father in law's last Big Game while walking this mortal coil. Horrible for him.

2013 - 63 to whatever.  Son and a bunch of Middies are staying at our house because Navy played SJSU the night before. Triple OT thriller, Keenan Reynolds set some crazy TD record, on the way home we found out SI beat Mitty (?) to advance in the CCS and the Mids were really, really looking forward to "big time college football" on Saturday because I bought tickets for all of them. ("Big time?" You guys go to Army-Navy every year.  "No, big time!" OK.) A Rose Bowl was on the line, Stanford was in the top ten or so, and plenty of seats were available. We met up with some of his high school baseball teammates at a Cal 'gater. They knew what was coming and never went inside. Son says it was so lifeless in the stadium, they left early. My wife made us leave at the first score in the third quarter or when Goff was destroyed. I didn't even argue.  Knew then, that no matter how well Stanford played, or how exciting it was, Palo Alto would never be mistaken for Ann Arbor or Auburn.

2020 - I was setting up new hi-fi stuff and occasionally watched the game.  Wife turned it off real quick at the end.

What will 2021 bring?

[jacket3ree]

Random you kids get off my lawn memories from Big Games of yore. I probably don't have some of the years right.

First (1985) - Fun time in SF the night before hanging with a bunch of Stanford and Cal grad students, because we rode that weird lab bus between campuses together. Rolled directly from the City off-gassing alcohol right into the stadium.  First time Stanford Stadium was full that year, and was it loud. Mostly the Cal section to be candid. Weird game where Stanford was way ahead and Cal came storming back as their fans roared. Cal missed an extra point or something as the gray sky overhead started to really threaten. Checked out parties around campus and realized there really was something different about being a grad student, even if I was younger than some of the undergrads. That gray sky became a full-on monsoon, there was a dance with your date exchange of sorts, things got weird, and I ended up driving a very nice young woman back to Berkeley in my Sirocco. (Amy or Naomi, something like that.) Ended up with a case of mono that lasted through finals. 

First in Berkeley (1986) - I was a working stiff living with grad students at a place we called "The Swamp" and we went over to watch what should have been an easy Stanford win over hapless 1-9 Cal with Zippergate raging and Kapp on his way out.  Hey maybe we'll run into Amy/Naomi.... Fire Jack Elway!

First while dating Calfan (1987) - Easy Stanford romp in beautiful sunshine and a full crowd.  I went over to the Cal section looking for her and her family. Never found her. Someone told me and my red T-shirt to go back to hell.  "Huh, Mountain View isn't that bad."

Almost killed a marriage before it started (1988) - Tuan Van Le blocks the kick to preserve a tie in a really poorly played game. I mean Snyder had them center the ball inside the ten for the winning field goal, and Stanford blocked it.  I was a little too exuberant sitting deep in the Bear Backer section on the 50.  Got it together enough to realize it was just a freaking tie and hopefully that would be it for Elway. It was.

1989 - Fire Ants under the lights!

1990 - Now married to CalFan and sitting in those same seats. During the penultimate drive I knew Stanford was going to win. Hardy intercepts. I still knew Stanford was going to win. Are you kidding, 12 seconds, in Berkeley, and fans are on the field? I even said out loud "game's not over, Stanford is winning this one."  I was laughed out of the stadium by everyone within ten seats to the side and in front, and the five in back. My mother in law said "I'm afraid you're right."  Long silent ride for some in that Pontiac Grand Prix (the one my late father in law would bust out for special occasions). Short silent ride for this guy.  To this day, one of the best football games I've seen.

1991 - One of two times both Cal and Stanford were good. Cal is going to circle the stadium twice with the axe and head back to Berkeley and Treggs will move to Palo Alto if the unthinkable happens. It does.  Touchdown Tommy just destroys Cal. Flopping like beaten fishes on the sun dappled late afternoon turf. Rode on a train full of CalFans back up the Peninsula. They were beaten.  Gave a coke to some kid in blue and gold.

1992 - Easy Walsh win. FIL makes us leave at halftime. Thought about protesting and finding my own way home, which would have been easy on transit, but CalFanWife shot me a look that said "pack up your things".

1998 - Explaining what "Fox Stanford" meant to my four year old.  I have to say that dragging a toe headed kid dressed head to toe in blue and gold while wearing red on BART and walking up Strawberry Canyon was something I should have done while single. Awesome play call in OT, which I believe was the first overtime Big Game.

1999 - Casey Moore puts away the Fightin' Deltha O'Neils, baskets of roses appear, my daughter exclaims "Wait, this means we get to go to Disneyland, right Daddy?" and the cadre of former Dollies we'd been sitting next to for ten years give her a big group hug. "Yes, yes it does!"

2004 - Teevens' last game. Cal was five orders of magnitude better. Some Stanford guy with a dirty headhunting hit on a punt returner. This has to be the all time nadir. Sitting away from the fam, but nothing but Cal fans around us. Told them to have fun in Pasadena; I was looking forward to going.  A week or three later, I'm on a ladder installing canned lights in the new addition I was building and heard my wife scream from the front room. I don't even remember where they went and to whom they lost.  That Texas-USC Rose Bowl was a classic!

2007 - Son gives his grandfather the business in Harbaugh's first year.  Had a teaching moment.

2009 - My last BG as a season ticket holder. With the son playing football, it was just too hard to make all the games. And they were really, really good after I dropped the tix, so I went with it. We did go whenever we could, and went to that BG with one of his teammates (now a journalist / KNBR personality) and dad. The second of two times both Cal and Stanford were good at the same time. Gerhart! Right in front of us - all we've gotta do is pound it in. They are gassed!  And then......thud.

2010 - My father in law's last Big Game while walking this mortal coil. Horrible for him.

2013 - 63 to whatever.  Son and a bunch of Middies are staying at our house because Navy played SJSU the night before. Triple OT thriller, Keenan Reynolds set some crazy TD record, on the way home we found out SI beat Mitty (?) to advance in the CCS and the Mids were really, really looking forward to "big time college football" on Saturday because I bought tickets for all of them. ("Big time?" You guys go to Army-Navy every year.  "No, big time!" OK.) A Rose Bowl was on the line, Stanford was in the top ten or so, and plenty of seats were available. We met up with some of his high school baseball teammates at a Cal 'gater. They knew what was coming and never went inside. Son says it was so lifeless in the stadium, they left early. My wife made us leave at the first score in the third quarter or when Goff was destroyed. I didn't even argue.  Knew then, that no matter how well Stanford played, or how exciting it was, Palo Alto would never be mistaken for Ann Arbor or Auburn.

2020 - I was setting up new hi-fi stuff and occasionally watched the game.  Wife turned it off real quick at the end.

What will 2021 bring?