SAN MATEO – When Roland Bianchi passed out from heat exhaustion before the Cal football team's game against UCLA last season, it wasn't all bad.

Bianchi, who has been attending Cal home games since 1948, was taken out of California Memorial Stadium by paramedics. He viewed the ensuing trip to the hospital as an inconvenience – until his route out of the stadium brought him past the Cal Marching Band.

"He was so annoyed to be taken way," said Bianchi's niece, Kristen Jovino. "But he turned it into a positive when he went by the Cal band in the North tunnel."

"I've loved Cal all my life, especially the band," Bianchi said recently at his home in San Mateo. "That's the first thing I will always remember about Cal."

That's saying something, because Bianchi, 89, has certainly built up a vault full of memories. Except for 1954 when his military service took him to Korea, Bianchi has attended every Cal football home game since 1948. That's over 400 Cal football games made and seven missed. And he doesn't plan to stop making his way to Strawberry Canyon anytime soon.

"As long as I'm healthy and can walk, I'm going to go," Bianchi said. "It's just the memories of being in a happy place. Every time I go there, I smile even if nothing is happening. If we lose, it doesn't really bother me. I've had a lot of fun with it. I go and enjoy my salami sandwich and relive a little nostalgia. I just like to be there."

Truth be told, the games that Bianchi has "missed" he has actually seen on tape. So as far he is concerned, he has perfect attendance for the past 70 years.

Bianchi was a senior at Washington High School in San Francisco when his father, Renato, asked him if he'd like to check out a Cal game and a guy named Jackie Jensen. The two of them went to a game that fall, Roland saw an All-American running back, and he's been coming to games ever since.

Bianchi ended up attending Cal and never missed a game as a student. As a freshman, he was charged by his fraternity, Phi Kappa Tau, to come up with the float for the Big Game parade. Bianchi ended up designing a life-size, walking Bear that made its way up Shattuck Ave. and Bancroft Way on gameday.

"I had a football player in each leg, and he would lift up his leg and the Bear would move," Bianchi said. "We had a light girl in there opening and closing the mouth with ropes. My mom helped with the paper mache. It barely made it under Sather Gate."

When Bianchi returned from his service in Korea, he was eager to resume attending Cal games. But he ran into a problem. While he was gone, his fianceé, Janice, had scheduled their wedding day and sent out invitations – on the day of a Cal home game.

"I told her we can't get married that day," Bianchi said. "She had to send out corrected invitations and postpone our wedding so I didn't miss the game. Most girls would have divorced me before we ever got married. We got married the following week. I got by, by the skin of my teeth."

Attending Cal games has been a family affair for Bianchi. After going to games with his dad, he started taking his own kids to games and joining his sister-in-law and nieces. He has now outlived many of them, and has been attending games with Jovino for nearly 10 years.

"Roland has planned his entire life around Cal," Jovino said. "Weddings, celebrations, funerals – all sorts of things had to happen around Cal football. The only thing that is going to stop him is when he just physically can't go. He is Cal football."

Bianchi, an experienced stained glass window maker as a hobby, has one of a Golden Bear in his bathroom at home. The license plate on his Lexus SUV also says "Vai Orsi" – "Go Bears" in Italian.

Bianchi will be back in his usual seats in Section I at California Memorial Stadium next Friday night when Cal hosts Arizona State. This is his first year in Section I – he spent the past several decades sitting in Section TT, row 45 – but made the switch to avoid prolonged time in the sun.

"Before this year, I had the number of my seat printed on my rear end," Bianchi said.