BERKELEY – Over thirty years ago, after broadcasting a marathon United States Football League game between the Houston Gamblers and Oakland Invaders, Lee Grosscup found himself trapped inside the Astrodome late at night because all of the stadium's gates were already locked up.

If the Cheez-It Bowl between Cal and TCU also goes extra-long on Wednesday, it could be a much happier ending for the longtime broadcaster.

Grosscup will turn 82 on Thursday. With an evening kickoff, an especially lengthy game could push the postgame radio show past midnight.

"I told (co-host) Hal Ramey if he wants to wish me a happy birthday on the air, he can," Grosscup said.

It won't just be a birthday Grosscup will potentially be honoring on the air. The Cheez-It Bowl will mark Grosscup's final appearance as part of the Cal football broadcast team, a span that stretched 32 years and included 17 years in the booth as a color analyst and another 15 as part of the team's postgame coverage.

"It's been a wonderful time," Grosscup said. "I'll miss it. It's a good way for me to go out."

Grosscup joined the Bears' broadcast team in 1986 as the analyst next to longtime radio voice Joe Starkey. Grosscup also worked in the television booth for three years.

In 2004, Grosscup moved out of the booth and has been a stalwart of Cal's postgame coverage ever since.

"He's always extremely well-prepared," Starkey said. "That's really important for an analyst. He was always really detailed and has a great sense of humor. And his voice is great for broadcasting. It really jumps out at you."

Grosscup has been witness to many memorable moments during his stint with the Golden Bears. He was there for Cal's impressive five-year run under head coach Bruce Snyder, which included a No. 8 national ranking and a memorable rout of Clemson in the Citrus Bowl following the 1991 season. He saw Steve Mariucci and the Bears take down USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum for the first time in 26 years in 1996. And he was on hand for Cal's rout of Stanford in the 2002 Big Game, the first season under Jeff Tedford and a win that snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Cardinal.

Grosscup's last game in the booth with Starkey was Cal's pulsating 52-49 victory over Virginia Tech in the 2003 Insight Bowl, a game that culminated in a 35-yard field goal by Tyler Frederickson as time expired and is the third-highest scoring bowl game in regulation ever.

Grosscup was an All-American quarterback at Utah and a first-round NFL draft pick. Before his career on Cal broadcasts, he was an analyst with NBC and ABC, working alongside legends such as Keith Jackson and Al Michaels.

"I've always believed that the two best positions you can play to set yourself up to be an analyst afterward are either linebacker or quarterback," Starkey said. "You have to see the whole field. You have to get a whole sense of what's going on."

For all of Grosscup's memories of on-field moments, he speaks with equal enthusiasm of the friendship he built with Starkey over the years and the countless road trips they took together. Grosscup and Starkey would oftentimes find themselves singing numbers from Broadway or Hollywood musicals in rental cars, or challenging each other with sports and movie trivia. They played numerous rounds of golf together all over the country.

"We just had a natural friendship," Grosscup said. "We both like to sing. One year we drove from Seattle to Pullman for a Washington State game and I think we covered every Broadway musical there has ever been."

Wednesday, Grosscup will meet up with Ramey at the KGO Radio studios in San Francisco and go through his postgame routine for the final time. He'll listen to his old broadcast partner Starkey, jot down some notes and then be ready to take over the airwaves after what he hopes will be a victory in his final broadcast.

"It would be great to go out with a win," Grosscup said. "It's been a fun ride."