Cal Sports Report

Cal Alumni Rank Among Top 20 Colleges With Most Super Bowl Appearances

Former Golden Bear quarterbacks have been starters in six Super Bowls -- and other tidbits regarding ex-Cal players in the ultimate NFL game

Jake Curtis

Cal Alumni Rank Among Top 20 Colleges With Most Super Bowl Appearances
Cal Alumni Rank Among Top 20 Colleges With Most Super Bowl Appearances /

Although no former Cal players will be on Super Bowl rosters for the second straight year, Golden Bears have been significant participants in the Super Bowl over the years.

The Golden Bears still rank 18th of all colleges in terms of most Super Bowl appearances by alumni from a college. Ex-Golden Bears have made 84 appearances, as the 247 Sports article that provided the ranking noted in this excerpt:

No. of Super Bowl appearances by alums: 84

Despite carving out one of the NFL's greatest careers, Aaron Rodgers, to date, has contributed just one Super Bowl appearance to the California Bears' considerable total. At least the quarterback made his time count: Rodgers was named MVP of the Green Bay Packers' 2011 Super Bowl XLV win.

Cal ranks fifth in Super Bowl appearances among Pac-12 schools, behind No. 17 Stanford, No. 12 Colorado, No. 5 UCLA and No. 3 USC.

Each appearance in a Super Bowl counts in this ranking, so Tom Brady racked up 10 Super Bowl appearances for Michigan, helping the Wolverines tie Miami-Fla. for the top spot on this esoteric list.

Although Rodgers only appeared in one title game, several Golden Bears played in multiple Super Bowls.

Running back CJ Anderson and linebacker Loren Toews played in three Super Bowls each, and offensive lineman Ed White was on an active roster in four Super Bowls, although he did not get on the field in the Super Bowl during his rookie season of 1969. White was a starting guard for the Vikings in his other three Super Bowls.

Running back Marshawn Lynch, kickers Ray Wersching and Jim Breech, tight end Joe Rose and quarterback Craig Morton all played in two Super Bowls, and Morton is one of five former Cal quarterbacks who started Super Bowl games, the most starting Super Bowl quarterbacks from any college.

Morton started two Super Bowls, one for Dallas and one for Denver, while Joe Kapp (Vikings), Vince Ferragano (Rams), Rodgers (Packers) and Jared Goff (Rams) started one each. Unfortunately Rodgers was the only one of the five who won a Super Bowl game in those six quarterback starts.

Former Cal linebacker Ron Rivera is the only Golden Bears alum who was a head coach in a Super Bowl. He was the Panthers’ head coach in their Super Bowl loss to Denver following the 2015 season.

Surprisingly neither tight end Tony Gonzalez nor Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan has ever played in a Super Bowl, although Jordan has some time to rectify that.

Cal’s current two-year drought of Super Bowl appearances ended a run of seven straight Super Bowls in which at least one former Cal player was in the starting lineup.

Ex-Cal players also rank high in points scored in Super Bowls, thanks in large part to the fact that four Golden Bears kickers have played in Super Bowls – Wersching, Breech, Ryan Longwell and Doug Brien.

Cal ranks fourth in points scored by college alumni in Super Bowls:

Wersching leads the way for Cal with 22 Super Bowl points, Breech tallied 13 and Lynch scored 12. Lynch, of course, should have 18 points because the Seahawks should have handed him the ball on second down from the 1-yard line in the final minute against the Patriots in the 2015 Super Bowl. Instead they threw a pass that was intercepted by New England’s Malcolm Butler.

Aaron Rodgers is the only former Cal player to be named MVP of a Super Bowl, but the best Super Bowl performance by a former Cal player was probably Mitchell Schwartz's game in the 2020 Super Bowl (following the 2019 season). He is the last ex-Cal player to play in a Super Bowl and his performance in the 2019 postseason earned him the highest grade of any player at any position from Pro Football Focus during those playoffs.

A bad back kept Schwartz out the Super Bowl the next year, and that back problem prevented him from playing at all in 2021. It seems unlikely he will play again, although he has not formally announced his retirement.

Cal has a lot of candidates to play in next year's Super Bowl, including Aaron Rodgers (wherever he winds up), Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan, Chargers receiver Keenan Allen, 49ers center Alex Mack, Ravens offensive lineman Patrick Mekari and Cowboys punter Bryan Anger. It will take some unexpected occurrences for Lions quarterback Jared Goff, Jaguars receiver Marvin Jones Jr. and other Cal alums in the NFL to get to the promised land.

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Cover photo of Marshawn Lynch by Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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