Task Force Recommends Name Change From ‘Cal’ to ‘Cal Berkeley’

Will it catch on for brand and marketing purposes? This is so Berkeley.

Will the Golden Bears’ football team soon officially be called “Cal Berkeley” with jerseys, helmets, T-shirts and logos carrying both words?

It’s possible.

The 18-person task force formed to come up with a solution to combine the school’s academic name (UC Berkeley) with its athletics name (Cal) produced an 18-page report that concludes this:

Recommendation #3

Shift the athletics identity to Cal Berkeley in both name and logo. Develop a visual identity that clearly communicates this shift.

In essence, the “Cal” and “UC Berkeley” names were merged for sports in this recommendation.

It’s easy to see why the mission was undertaken. Many people don’t know that UC Berkeley and Cal are the same university, and that's probably true for a lot of folks who follow the Atlantic Coast Conference, which will be Cal's conference next year. It’s a branding and marketing problem, and Cal decided to address it.

Thus Cal put together a task force, whose surveys confirmed what we already knew – that a lot of people are confused by the UC Berkeley/Cal dichotomy.

So after much discussion they came up with “Cal Berkeley” as the name that should be used for the Golden Bears’ athletic teams.

This is only a recommendation, and only time will tell whether it is enacted. It probably will fall on on the desk of Cal’s (or UC Berkeley’s) next chancellor, since current chancellor Carol Christ is scheduled to retire in June.

Outsiders will look at this name-changing process as a “Berkeley” thing. What institution other than one located in Berkeley would spend months deciding on what to call itself to satisfy every concern?

But Cal Berkeley (no hyphen)? If the athletics name of the university is officially changed, will people start calling the football team Cal Berkeley? Or how many years will it take for that name to take hold? Five years? Ten years? Never? Will everyone from sports writers to coaches to players to high school recruits to alumni just keep calling the football or basketball team Cal?

And what would the new logo look like after years of seeing that classic script “Cal” on football helmets, or the full name of “California” on basketball jerseys.

"Cal Berkeley" does not have the same look or ring as the other University of California FBS school, UCLA.  No initials would work for "Cal Berkeley." 

There’s one more issue that was raised during the task force’s work: George Berkeley, for whom the city and the university are named, apparently was a slave owner. If there is any city or university that won’t stand for its name being associated with a white supremacy you would think it’s Berkeley, or Cal Berkeley.

The task force noted this issue in its report:

Note: Following the approval of these recommendations, concerns were raised about George Berkeley’s legacy of white supremacy. The vice chancellor for equity and inclusion has been asked to help lead the university’s examination of these issues. These concerns are being considered as part of implementing these recommendations.

The San Francisco Chronicle addressed this issue in a May 2023 report, but UC Berkeley apparently has no plans to change its name.

Cover photo by Stan Szeto, USA TODAY Sports

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