Berkeley responded by shutting Stanford out in 18, and the sculpture was installed on the Berkeley campus atop a stone pedestal engraved with the names of the players and the donor during a dedication ceremony held May 12, 1900. Phelan purchased a casting of Douglas Tilden's The Football Players bronze sculpture and offered it as a prize to the school that could win the football game two years in a row. īy 1900 the match was already referred to as the 'Big Game.' In 1898, Berkeley alumnus and San Francisco Mayor James D. Hoover and Lang scrambled to find pots, bowls and any other available receptacles to collect the admission fees. Only 10,000 tickets were printed for the game but 20,000 people showed up. He helped organize the inaugural Big Game, along with his friend Cal manager Herbert Lang. President Herbert Hoover was the student manager of both the baseball and football teams. While an undergraduate at Stanford, future U.S. Courtesy of MeĬal-Stanford does it right when it comes to capturing the essence of what makes rivalries special, and there's no better example than their 1997 matchup.Cal and Stanford teams that played the first Big Game in 1892īig Game is the oldest college football rivalry in the West.

I went to the 2018 game in Berkeley, and was surprised (but extremely proud) to see how much these fanbases truly fucking hate each other. For what Cal-Stanford lacks in national appeal compared to Auburn-Alabama, Ohio State-Michigan, or Texas-Oklahoma, it makes up for in pure animosity. Yeah, it doesn't move the needle at all in the playoff race –or even Pac-12 race, at this point– but it's still one of the best rivalries in the country. I just realized that every 'Uniform of the Day' post I've done so far is post-2005, so today we're taking a trip in the time machine back to 1997 for the 100th edition of The Big Game.įirst of all: If you've never been to a Cal-Stanford game, you need to change that ASAP. Welcome to ' Uniform of the Day,' where I post about a random uniform in college football history (and other sports, too!)

Big game stanford time