Dear Friend of Cal Athletics:
 
As we head into this holiday season, I hope you are as excited as I am about what lies ahead for Cal Athletics. Right in front of us is the Redbox Bowl on Dec. 30 in Santa Clara when the Bears will face Illinois. The enthusiasm among our alumni and fans is clearly evident based on the many emails I have received, conversations I have had and the ticket sales to the game. Given the Blue & Gold turnout we've seen at away games this year — more than 5,000 fans at Ole Miss and double that number at the Big Game — I fully expect a home-field feeling at Levi's Stadium. Thank you for your support and belief in the program we are building with Coach Wilcox in the lead.
 
Prior to the game, I hope you will join me, Chancellor Christ and fellow Cal fans at the Official Cal Tailgate at the Great America Pavilion next to Levi's Stadium the morning of the Redbox Bowl. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and features food, beverages and entertainment from the Cal Band and spirit groups. It promises to be a great way to kick off the bowl game festivities and celebrate another successful year for Cal Athletics. For more information and to register, click here.
 
I also invite you to join us on Sunday, Dec. 29 to celebrate our Golden Bears the night before the Redbox Bowl game. Cal Athletics will host a gathering and give away prizes at the two below locations, one in Santa Clara and one in San Francisco. Please bring your favorite Cal fans out for the pregame pep rallies!
 
Evolution Restaurant and Bar
5101 Great America Pkwy (in the Hyatt Regency)
Santa Clara, CA 95054
7-9 p.m.
 
Golden Gate Tap Room
449 Powell St.
San Francisco, CA 94108
7-9 p.m.
 
Of course, we're still buzzing over our thrilling win in the 122nd Big Game. Bringing the Axe home to Berkeley unleashed a sense of euphoria that extends far and wide. The response has been so strong that the number of reactions on social media ranked 12th in the country among college football teams the weekend of the victory — the first time we have appeared among the top 25. Go Bears!
 
The award season for fall sports is well underway, and we have been well-represented throughout all of our teams. Perhaps most impressively, 61 Golden Bears were named to the fall Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll, which requires a GPA of 3.3 or higher, and our total ranks second among all conference schools. One of the recipients was senior Simon Lekressner, an economics major who was named the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year for men's soccer.
 
Among the other notable award winners are Angelina Anderson of women's soccer, who was chosen the National Freshman of the Year, and Nikolaos Papanikolaou from men's water polo, who was tabbed the MPSF Newcomer of the Year. No list would be complete without linebacker Evan Weaver, the nation's leading tackler named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and a consensus first-team All-American.
 
After a break this week for final exams, our basketball teams return to action this weekend. Men's basketball will be at the Chase Center in San Francisco to play Boston College at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday as part of the Al Attles Classic, a quadruple-header at the Warriors' new facility. Our women's team, winners of seven straight games, has a big afternoon Saturday, as well, when it hosts No. 14 Kentucky at 4 p.m. in Haas Pavilion.
 
As a university, 2020 represents the 150th year since the UC Regents approved admitting women to Cal, and the official launch of the celebration will be during our women's basketball home game vs. Stanford on Jan. 12. Cal and Stanford played the first-ever collegiate women's basketball game in 1896, making this the perfect way to begin the festivities. Tipoff is at 5 p.m., and Chancellor Christ will serve as an honorary guest coach for the Bears.
 
At the Pac-12 men's basketball tournament in March, we are excited to share that Shareef Abdur-Rahim will be our inductee into the Pac-12 Hall of Honor. Shareef, as I'm sure many of you know, was the Pac-10 Player of the Year and National Freshman of the Year in 1995-96. Following a 12-year NBA career that included earning a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics, he returned to Cal to earn his degree, and he now serves as president of the NBA G League. We are truly proud of Shareef!
 
Brian Mann, our Senior Associate Athletics Director and Chief Development Officer, joined me for the annual National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame banquet in New York earlier this month, and we had a chance to meet with Shareef at the NBA offices, as well as with several alumni on the East Coast. I also had the opportunity to be a panelist at the Sports Business Journal Intercollegiate Athletic Forum, joining the athletic directors from Michigan, Marquette, Temple and San Jose State to talk about what keeps us up at night. It was a fascinating discussion covering a wide range of topics from the economics of running athletic departments to supporting the mental health of our student-athletes, to the name, image and likeness issue that has generated so much discussion recently.
 
The Cameron Institute build-out process is going extremely well with Dr. Marissa Nichols about 100 days into her new role. We are strategic planning, building partnerships and evaluating the core skills we will develop in our students during their careers at Cal and beyond. We are currently recruiting for our next two positions, and you can follow our progress on Twitter @CalCameronInst.
 
Continuing the same theme, we hosted a workshop for graduating student-athletes last week to help ensure they are prepared to enter the next stage of their lives after finishing their classwork at the end of the fall semester. Among the topics we covered were how to network with student-athlete alumni, how to best use the campus Career Center and education on health insurance options once they leave Cal. Eventually, all of these topics and more will be wrapped into the work of the Cameron Institute.
 
As a department, we were honored last week by Athlete Ally, which supports LGBTQ inclusiveness among college athletic departments across the country. Cal Athletics received an A+ rating with a perfect score in its latest Athlete Equality Index, one of only eight schools in the country to earn the distinction.
 
I also want to extend a thank you to Foti Mellis, our Senior Associate Athletic Director for Sports Administration, who has served our department in different leadership roles since 2002. He will be moving to San Luis Obispo in January to join his wife, Tina, who serves as Assistant Vice President for Health and Wellbeing at Cal Poly. We will truly miss Foti, his teamwork and his support of our student-athletes for all these years, and we wish him well in the future.
 
I want to close with another thank you — this one to the Cal Athletics community for your tremendous support in the spirit of Giving Tuesday on Dec. 3. You contributed $311,285 through 429 gifts, representing 20 states and six countries from around the world. Thank you to everyone who gave generously on Giving Tuesday and throughout the year in support of exceptional, well-rounded experiences for our 850 student-athletes.
 
Best wishes for the holidays and I look forward to seeing you at a Cal event in 2020.
 
Go Bears,


Jim Knowlton
Director of Athletics