Top 50 Cal Sports Moments -- No. 50: Overtime Elation, 2003

USC lost only one game in 2003 when it won the AP national championship, and that defeat was to Cal when Tyler Fredrickson kicked the winning field goal in the third overtime on September 27

Tyler Fredrickson's game-winning kick. 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: On Saturday, September 27, 2003, as darkness descended on Cal’s Memorial Stadium, Golden Bears place-kicker Tyler Fredrickson kicked a 38-yard field goal in the third overtime to beat No. 3 USC 34-31 and hand the Trojans their only loss of a national-championship season

The Story: Cal was just 2-3 and Bears quarterback Aaron Rodgers was making his first home start for the Bears after making his first college start the week before at Illinois.  And the Jeff Tedford-coached Bears were playing the nation’s No. 3-ranked Trojans on national television in front of 51,208 fans.

Rodgers was brilliant in the first half when he went 17-for-21, threw two touchdown passes and ran for a third to give Cal a 21-7 lead.  Rodgers ran for what would have been a fourth Cal touchdown in the first half but that play was negated by a Cal penalty. The Bears still led by 14 points at halftime, and Rodgers gave the nation the first indication that he was something special.

Rodgers’ limited second half was less spectacular.  USC scored early in the second half to make it 21-14, and Rodgers threw an interception that was returned for a USC touchdown to tie the score midway through the third quarter.  That was Rodgers’ last play as he missed the rest of the game because of injuries to his ribs and ankle he had sustained in the first half. He was replaced by Reggie Robertson, who had started the first four games.

Fredrickson kicked a 51-yard field goal to put Cal ahead, but USC’s Ryan Killeen made a 33-yard field goal with 16 second left in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime. That’s when the dramatics sequence of highs and lows began.

USC’s Hershel Dennis fumbled at the 3-yard line on the opening possession of overtime, but Fredrickson’s chip-shot 29-yard field goal to win it was blocked, seemingly ruining Cal’s golden opportunity to pull off the big upset. 

Robertson, who completed 9 of 12 passes that day, threw a touchdown pass to Jonathan Makonnen to put Cal ahead in the second overtime, but USC stayed alive and forced a third overtime when Matt Leinart completed a touchdown pass to Keary Colbert.

After Killeen missed a 39-yard field goal to start the third overtime, Fredrickson, who had arrived at Cal as a walk-on, faced another game-deciding kick – this one a from 38 yards -- after having his previous two field-goal attempts blocked.  This kick was perfect, and Fredrickson went to his knees at midfield, where he was swarmed by thousands of Cal fans who had stormed the field to celebrate the 34-31 win, which was Cal’s first victory over a top-five team since 1975 and ended USC's 11-game winning streak.

That September 27 game was the only loss of the season for Pete Carroll’s Trojans, who wound up as the Associated Press national champions. Cal finished the season 8-6, with Rodgers looking like a budding star.

Fredrickson was really a punter, a job he handled all four seasons at Cal, but he was also the Bears place-kicker for one season in 2003. He was not a great kicker, going 15-for-30 on field goals in 2003, but he made the kick of his life on September 27.  He later was a competitor on TV’s “Survivor” but was voted off midway through, a mere footnote when compared with his Cal moment in 2003.

* 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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