The 127th Big Game Salvages Tradition in a Cal Season Craving It

The Bears had previously played their other ACC opponents a total of 12 times . . . ever

Kevin Moen completes the most famous play in college football history. / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

The Big Game is not the same as it once was because, well, the world is not the same. The Bay Area is not the same. Sports here are certainly not the same.

Cal and Stanford will meet on Saturday at Memorial Stadium for the 127th Big Game and the buzz is . . . well, not exactly deafening.

The Bears (5-5, 1-5 ACC) are coming off their worst performance of the season, a 33-25 home defeat to Syracuse that wasn’t as close as the final score.

Stanford (3-7, 2-5) pulled a massive upset Saturday, knocking off then-19th-ranked Louisville 38-35 on a last-second field goal. A quaint gathering of 18,685 onlookers rattled around in Stanford Stadium for the biggest surprise outcome of the Atlantic Coast Conference season.

Despite all of that, for the Bears and Cardinal — and especially their alums and fans — this Big Game should be celebrated beyond the norm.

Because in an era where tradition has been kicked to the curb in favor of financial greed — or at least financial survival — we finally have a matchup of teams with some history.

Realignment won’t mean a thing on Saturday. This one matters.

Cal and Stanford, playing their first season in the ACC, have trekked east repeatedly to take on opponents they hardly know. 

The Bears’ conference schedule so far has included three teams — Florida State, North Carolina State and Wake Forest — Cal had never played in more than a century of football. Not to be confused with rivalries against USC, Oregon and Washington.

They had faced Miami four times previously, and as recently as 2008. But their most recent tangle with Syracuse came in 1968 and with Pitt in 1966.

Cal will complete its ACC schedule a week from Saturday at SMU, an opponent it’s clashed with once . . . back in the days of Elvis in 1957.

None of this constitutes tradition. More like random blips on the college football time continuum. 

The Bears’ entire history against teams other than Stanford on their ACC schedule, prior to this season, adds up to 12 games.

Many of those who will come to Strawberry Canyon on Saturday afternoon have seen Cal and Stanford square off more often than that. A few of them have attended this game 30 or 40 times. 

The Bears certainly were a frustrating team during four straight ACC defeats by a combined nine points this season. They were downright disappointing against the Orange on Saturday.

Stanford, despite its win over Louisville, is basically irrelevant, the loser of its previous six games by an average of nearly four touchdowns. 

When the teams collide on Saturday, even with modest ambitions for the rest of this season, they will line up against an opponent they have seen before. In an ocean of the unknown, the Big Game is a welcome island of familiarity.

Cal and Stanford have been knocking heads since 1892 and have engaged in a series uninterrupted since World War II, when the grandparents of today’s players were toddlers, if they were even born. 

Families on both sides of the Bay have generations of stories they share. Cal and Stanford folks grapple over bragging rights. For the rest of time, they will argue about whether Dwight Garner’s knee touched the turf. Yep, The Play was 42 years ago!

All those who think Cal and Wake Forest will someday have a legacy to match that, raise your hands.

Thought so.