Top 50 Cal Sports Moments --No. 15: Rose Tackle, 1958

Cal needed to beat Stanford in 1958 to ensure a Rose Bowl berth, and it came down to a two-point conversion

Joe Kapp / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

As the Pac-12 Conference era comes to a close after more than a century, we count down the Top 50 moments involving Cal athletics.

THE MOMENT: With 1:30 left in the November 22, 1958, Big Game in Berkeley between a 2-7 Stanford team and a 19th-ranked 6-3 Cal squad, Stanford scored a touchdown to reduce the Cal lead to 16-15.  Cal needed a win or a tie in that game to ensure a berth in the Rose Bowl, but Stanford opted to go for the win after its touchdown by attempting a two-point conversion. With the sellout crowd of 81,490 in full throat, Stanford called for a run around right end by halfback Skip Face, but he was stopped a yard short of the goal-line by four Cal defenders. That play gave Cal a one-point win, a Pacific Coast Conference championship and a berth in the January 1, 1959 Rose Bowl. Cal has not been to the Rose Bowl since.

THE STORY: Cal had gone 1-9-1 in 1957 and was picked to finish anywhere from fifth to last in the nine-team Pacific Coast Conference in 1958, which would be the final season of the PCC. Cal, under head coach Pete Elliott, began the season as expected, losing its first two games. But behind the bold leadership of its quarterback, Joe Kapp, the Bears upset Washington State in their first conference game of the season and got on a roll.

Cal had a 5-1 conference record heading into the Big Game, with three of those wins coming by five points or fewer.  The Bears were 10.5-point favorites against Stanford, which was 2-7 and riding a three-game losing streak heading into the Saturday afternoon game in front of 81,490 spectators packed into Cal’s Memorial Stadium on November 22.

Cal could ensure a Rose Bowl berth with a tie or a win against Stanford, but three other PCC teams – USC, Washington State and Oregon State – had just two losses going into the final weekend.  If Cal lost to Stanford and any of the other three won its final game, there would be a tie for first place and the PCC’s representative in the Rose Bowl would be decided by a vote of representatives of the conference schools. Oregon State was the biggest factor since the Beavers had handed Cal its only conference loss.

The 1958 season was the first year in which college teams had the option of going for two points after a touchdown, and Cal had gone for two after nearly every touchdown all season.  That included converting two-pointers after both touchdowns against Stanford that day, giving the Bears a 16-9 lead.

Cal seemed to have things in hand until Stanford launched a long touchdown drive late in the game, which ended with Dick Norman’s 21-yard touchdown pass to Joel Freis with 1:30 left to reduce the Stanford deficit to 16-15.  A tie would have given Cal the conference title and a Rose Bowl berth, but Stanford opted to go for two and the win.

In those days the quarterback on the field called the plays, not the head coach, and Norman called for a pitchout to Face, who finished the season sixth among Stanford running backs in rushing with just 116 yards for the year. But he had scored Stanford’s first touchdown that day on the same play.

This time, though, the play had no chance, as you can see at the end of video above. Face was provided with no blocking as he ran around right end. He was buried a yard short of the goal-line by the Cal foursome of Bill Patton, Andy Segale, Jim Green and Jack Hart. That essentially ended the game, giving Cal a 16-15 win and a Rose Bowl berth.

The truth is, Cal probably would have gone to the Rose Bowl even if it had lost.  Oregon State lost to Oregon 20-0 that same day, giving the Beavers their third PCC loss and taking Cal’s biggest Rose Bowl threat off the board.  USC tied UCLA 15-15 to end its chances. And though Washington State beat Washington in its finale, Cal had defeated the Cougars by 20 points during the season, suggesting the Bears would probably win the Rose Bowl vote if they and WSU had finished tied with two conferences losses apiece.

Cal got clobbered by heavily favored Iowa in the Rose Bowl 38-12 on January 1, 1959, but Kapp finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1958.  He completed 57.7% of his passes with two touchdown passes and five interceptions to go along with 582 rushing yards. Those statistics would earn a quarterback a seat on the bench these days, but Kapp was the heart and soul of the 1958 Cal team that beat preseason predictions and earned Cal’s last Rose Bowl berth.

*Top 50 Moment No. 16: Joe Cool, 1977

*Top 50 Moment No. 17: Stadium Debut, 1923

Only specific acts that occurred while the team or athlete was at Cal were considered for the Top 50 list, and accomplishments spanning a season or a career were not included. 

Leslie Mitchell of the Cal Bears History Twitter site aided in the selection of the top 50 moments.

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