Saturday Night

When Hannah first chose to go to UC Berkeley - we had hopes that our football teams might play against each other one day - since Berkeley is in the Pac Ten and we're from the Big Ten. Of course, we hoped that it would be in the Rose Bowl - or perhaps a BCS playoff game!

However, the schedule makers actually delivered the first head-to-head meeting in the form of The Golden Bears vs Michigan State at Cal last night!

It was Momma vs Hannah and we were all on hand to witness the epic (and I do mean EPIC.. because the game took for-ev-er - given the number of TV time outs that occurred!). Of course, Grandpa Bill was connected by cell phone and the fact the game was on national TV as well. So, we all got to enjoy the game together!

Before talking about the game - let me just say that Berkeley REALLY needs to kick those kids out of the trees so that it can rip down and rebuild its stadium. I'm sure that it was once a beautiful place. However, it really is long in the tooth at this point. Imagine Michigan Stadium with 2x6's for seats and port-a-potties for guest facilities. And those are generally the high points! It's time for a change! We miss our cushy seats at Stanford.

One of the cooler aspects of the existing stadium is that there is a wonderful hill right behind the stadium that people flock to to watch the game on the cheap (free!!). It's called Tightwad Hill and - as with everything it seems at Berkeley - there is a lawsuit going on to prevent Berkeley from making modifications to the stadium that would impare the view from the Hill. I think first on the court docket is to get the tree people out of the trees on the other side of the stadium so they can rebuild.. Then, perhaps when that is started they can worry about whether the seats are too tall.

Okay.. back to the game - which was an extremely entertaining.

First off, I give the Spartans and their fans a lot of credit. I don't know if you can tell by the picture.. but their were four entire sections full of MSU fans in their white and green! That, in addition to all the fans that were interspersed with the Cal Bear fans throughout the remainder of the stadium.

It was a close game.. and we definitely got to see the MSU flag run through the end zone a number of times after MSU scores. There were many awesome plays.. and it was good to have Bill on the other end of the phone when there were plays that required instant replay to determine challenges on the field. I called Bill a couple times asking 'did he really drop that ball?'. Alas, there were a couple too many drops by MSU. However, at the end the final score was 38-31 Cal!

Speaking of drops (how's that for a subtle transition?).. there was a spectacular precision diving demonstration at half time. It started when we noticed a drop plane circling above the field. Suddenly, a number of divers jumped out and fired up their smoke dispensers as they dropped toward the field. The aereal acrobatics where very artistic and got the crowd pretty excited for the landings on the field. All in all it was pretty sweet!

































I will say that the Cal students really know how to have a great time during the game. Here's a picture of the student section participating in half time - by orchestrating different cards into patterns that can be seen by all within the stadium.

At first they put up a nice sign Cal and MSU together to honor them playing. However, shortly after that display.. they put up a lone MSU sign... then crossed out the MSU.. to the delight of the Cal fans (and sneers from the MSU'ers).

After the game we met up with Hannah for some post game taunting - which Julie accepted graciously. Hannah and her peeps really did have a great time and it's fun to see her in her element and enjoying herself.

So - until next time.. that's Cal 1 - BigTen 0 ;(