Dear Friend of Cal Athletics:  
 
With the month soon to turn to November, we are approaching a busy and exciting time in Berkeley. Our fall sports are moving into the final stretches of their seasons and our winter sports teams are gearing up for the start of their years.
 
As our football team heads into the last month of its campaign, we have two big home games on the schedule – against Oregon State this weekend and vs. USC on Saturday, Nov. 13. Knowing how much our student-athletes and coaches feed off your energy, I look forward to seeing you out at Memorial Stadium cheering them on. For the USC game, we have a number of special presentations around gameday, including recognition of our Tokyo Olympians, a reunion of our 1991 football team that finished 10-2 after winning the Citrus Bowl, and an event honoring our longtime men's swimming coach Nort Thornton, who passed away in April. We will also have what I expect to be a wonderful and emotional final sendoff to Pappy's Boys, which is holding its final banquet on Friday, Nov. 12 and will be honored at our game against the Trojans the next day.
 
I am thrilled to announce that earlier today we introduced Kris Kwinta as the new leader of our men's tennis program. A national champion as a coach and a player, Kris is a UCLA alum who comes to us after 10 years on staff at USC, most recently as associate head coach. He is known as an elite recruiter and is highly regarded for his ability to develop players. We are looking forward to having Kris join our department!
 
A tradition that we have the privilege of hosting each year – and one that we certainly do not take for granted – is National Championship Week. The first Cal championship came in 1920 with Andy Smith's football team, and we have won at least one title – either team or individual – in 85 of the last 101 years. This fall, we celebrated our eight championships from the 2020-21 academic year, beginning with a reception hosted by Chancellor Christ at University House. We later recognized all of our champions at halftime of our football game against Colorado. We added a new event this year – a panel with our four head coaches who won national titles while they were student-athletes at Cal – Chelsea Spencer (softball), Amanda Augustus (women's tennis), Kirk Everist (men's water polo) and Scott Frandsen (men's rowing). Senior swimmer Elise Garcia, who helped the 200 free relay capture an NCAA title in 2021, served as moderator and was superb!
 
Our women's soccer team had a Senior Day to remember this past Sunday. With the downpours and high winds in the Bay Area, the grass field at Edwards Stadium was unplayable. In true Cal fashion, our facilities and event staff pivoted and moved the game up to the artificial surface at Witter Rugby Field, where they had to remove the rugby goal posts and line the field – although the lines kept disappearing in the pouring rain! Through it all, the appreciative Bears came through with a 1-0 victory against Arizona State in their home finale. Great job, Bears!
 
Late October means the start of our basketball seasons – our women's team had its first exhibition game last night – and we are looking forward to watching our teams grow and compete in Haas Pavilion. Both of our programs recently participated in Pac-12 Media Days in San Francisco. Women's head coach Charmin Smith and student-athletes Leilani McIntosh and Dalayah Daniels were up first with their Pac-12 cohorts on Oct. 12, with the men, represented by head coach Mark Fox and student-athletes Grant Anticevich and Andre Kelly under the lights the next day. You can watch and listen to what they have to say about their upcoming campaigns through these links – women's basketball, men's basketball.
 
On Monday, Oct. 4, one of the greatest swimmers in our history, Natalie Coughlin, was inducted into the 41st class of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in a ceremony held on the field at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. A three-time Olympian, Natalie won 12 Olympic medals and 20 World Championships medals during her incredible career. Teri McKeever had the honor of introducing Natalie during an amazing evening at the ballpark. Congrats, Natalie!
 
This month also brought a visit by University of California system President Michael Drake to UC Berkeley. During his time on campus, President Drake met with several of our student-athletes, who shared their experiences at Cal and learned about his strong connection to college sports as a past chair of the NCAA Board of Governors while he served as president at Ohio State. At the end of the session, our student-athletes presented President Drake with a signed Cal Football helmet. I'd like to extend a huge thank you to President Drake, and I know how appreciative our student-athletes were to meet with him.
 
Earlier this week, we held the first of our four-part fall speaker series that was created out of our GOLDEN program to support student-athletes with their name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities. The initial session focused on how to develop an NIL strategy, with subsequent events set to discuss personal brand building, how to monetize a brand and build a business, and personal finance. In the spring, the University is offering a for-credit course through the Haas School of Business that will be led by faculty member Kellie McElhaney and will further educate our students on brand building and entrepreneurship. We had great interest among our student-athletes and other students with the class quickly reaching maximum capacity. Thank you, Kellie!
 
We recently celebrated the creation of two scholarship endowments honoring the legacies of Cal men's golf alums Max Homa and Collin Morikawa. Max '13 and Collin '19, who both contributed to the endowments, have experienced incredible success on the course, and we are excited and thankful to those who helped create these scholarships in their names. I'd also like to thank everyone who has been a part of our Gender Equality Campaign efforts of the past several years. This project continues to be a priority for our department and University despite the challenges we have faced, and I look forward to providing updates on new facilities for our softball and beach volleyball programs soon - we are almost there! Finally, several of our Cal Athletics family members were inducted into the Builders of Berkeley – a society recognizing those with lifetime giving of over $1 million. They are Nancy Travers Lucas and Larry Lucas, Todd and Gayle Travers, Bud and Mary Lyons, Mark and Lori Edelstone, and Mike and Andrea Morrison. Their generosity has made our pursuit of excellence both in the classroom and in competition possible. A huge thank you from the Cal Athletics family!
 
As the Big Game approaches, don't forget to register for the Big Game Tailgate at Stanford hosted by CAA and the Cal Athletics Fund. Register here before the event sells out! And if you haven't already, you can still join CAF members and fellow supporters at the CAF tailgate before all home games. We hope to see you on Saturday before Oregon State and on Nov. 13 before we kick off against USC.
 
Thank you for all you do. The Cal Family is truly special!
 
Go Bears!
 
 
Jim Knowlton
Director of Athletics