Top 50 Cal Sports Moments -- No. 9: First Touch, 1990

A football recruit seemingly out of Cal’s reach, Russell White opted for Berkeley, sat out his first year due to academics then exploded onto the scene at Memorial Stadium

Russell White / 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: Cal fans waited an extra year to see what all the fuss was about after Russell White was forced to sit out his freshman season in 1980. No one was disappointed on Sept. 15, 1990 when, against defending national champion Miami, White returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown the first time he touched the football at Memorial Stadium.

THE STORY: Running back Russell White wasn’t supposed to come to Cal. As a football player, he was too good for Berkeley. As a student, he wasn’t good enough. That’s what most people thought.

White rushed for a state-record 5,998 yards and scored 94 touchdowns as a two-time California state player of the year at Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino. But try as he might, he could not get a qualifying score on the SAT entrance exam and was required to sit out his freshman season because of an NCAA rule known as Prop. 48.

White’s academic issues were unraveled at Cal when he was diagnosed as suffering from the reading disability dyslexia. White needed no help on the football field.

He gave Cal fans a moment to remember in the 1990 home opener when he dashed 99 yards for a score on the game’s opening kickoff. No matter that the Bears lost 52-24 to powerhouse Miami, White demonstrated he was as good as advertised.

He rushed for exactly 1,000 yards his sophomore year and coach Bruce Snyder’s team beat Wyoming 17-15 at the Copper Bowl for its first postseason victory since the 1938 Rose Bowl.

White was bigger than life for a Cal program starved for a star. He leaped over a Purdue defender and kept running, criss-crossed the field for a spectacular touchdown against Oregon and rushed for 229 yards to power the Bears to a 52-30 rout of USC in 1991, a high point during a consensus All-America season capped by a 37-13 wipeout of Clemson in the New Year’s Day Clemson Bowl.

White bypassed the chance to enter the draft after that season, returning to post his third straight 1,000-yard rushing campaign as a senior. He finished his Cal career with 3,367 yards, still a program record 32 years later.

He also left Cal with something he deemed even more valuable — a diploma.

“Football was great, but man, graduation, that was the beautiful thing,” White said in a 2009 interview for the California Alumni Association magazine. “That’s what I always tell my kids: If you ever wanna feel something real, get a college degree.”

* Top 50 Moment No. 10: Rowing Gold

* Top 50 Moment No. 11:  Big Upset

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.

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo