Dear Friend of Cal Athletics:
As I take a few moments to reflect this Thanksgiving season, I find myself feeling grateful on so many fronts. Corey and I are now in our fifth year here in Berkeley, and we feel so fortunate to be a part of the Cal Family. Our staff, fans, donors and everyone else associated with this department inspire me every day, and I continue to be excited and hopeful about our future together. Thank you!
Our players with The Axe after the victory!
What a weekend! From our memorable unveiling of the statue of The Play featuring Kevin Moen to our star-studded 125th Big Game Dinner to – of course – our 27-20 win over Stanford, it was a Big Game weekend for the ages. It was so gratifying to see California Memorial Stadium filled to the rim, and I am so appreciative of the overwhelming support our football team felt on Saturday. Coach Wilcox and our players said the energy our crowd provided made a definitive difference in the outcome – and helped our Bears keep The Axe in Berkeley, winning at CMS for the first time since 2008!
We have one more opportunity this season to provide that energy, and that is this Friday when we host UCLA at 1:30 p.m. I hope to see as many of you there as possible to send off our seniors the right way and beat the Bruins! And it is not just our seniors who will be participating in their last college football game; Friday also marks the final game for our longtime radio announcer, Joe Starkey. After 48 years behind the mic, Joe is retiring. He has been an icon for our program for almost five decades and been there for some of the most memorable moments in Cal football history. Please join us as we say good-bye to Joe on Friday.
If you didn't get a chance to see it on Saturday, make sure you pay a visit to the bottom of the Gate 4 staircase on Friday to get a look at the new statue. Sculptor Brian Hanlon did an incredible job recreating the moment when Kevin crashed into Stanford trombonist Gary Tyrrell to polish off "The Play" in 1982, and that iconic image will now be immortalized forever along Piedmont Avenue. It was a thrill to have Kevin and many members of that 1982 team on hand for the unveiling, as well as Brian Hanlon, Gary Tyrrell and Joe Starkey. It was a special celebration for a moment that has come to symbolize great Cal teamwork under pressure.
Members of the 1982 team with the statue.
I was thrilled to learn last week that our student-athletes set a record in Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for the sixth straight year! We came in this year at an all-time high of 91 percent, including four teams at a perfect 100 percent – volleyball (11th straight year), women's tennis (10th straight year), men's tennis (7th straight year) and women's gymnastics (6th straight year). Our football (86%) and men's swimming & diving (96%) programs set program records while women's soccer (93%) and field hockey (93%) each tied its all-time mark. Overall, we had 11 of our teams reach a rate of 90% or higher.
There has been excitement in other corners of our department this fall as well. Our women's soccer team received an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship after finishing in fourth place in the ultra-competitive Pac-12 – the team's highest finish since 2015! The team also cracked the national rankings for three straight weeks near the end of the season, coming in as high as No. 19 in mid-October. We had a hard-fought first-round battle at Santa Clara before finally falling 2-1 in a double-overtime heartbreaker. I am extremely proud of Coach McGuire and his student-athletes for their strong play this season!
On its 40th anniversary, Spieker Aquatics Complex is playing host to the 2022 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship next week, and our Bears are the No. 1 seed! The team won its third straight MPSF regular season title and has an envious record of 20-2 heading into the tournament. Coach Everist was named MPSF Coach of the Year for the third straight season – the first time that has ever been accomplished! And Nikolaos Papanikolaou – or "Papa" as we all like to call him – won MPSF Player of the Year honors for the third straight year. That's only the second time in history that has been done!
Part of our sold-out crowd at the Big Game!
Our women's basketball team is off to a fast start. They played No. 9 Notre Dame earlier this month in St. Louis, and the game was special for several reasons. It marked the first women's basketball game ever aired nationally on NBC and was a homecoming for our head coach, Charmin Smith. Notre Dame's head coach – Niele Ivey - also grew up in St. Louis, and both coaches held practices at her respective high school before the game. Coach Smith and Coach Ivey were also panelists at a women's leadership luncheon and held a meet and greet at a local boys & girls club with the student-athletes. The team ultimately lost the game 90-79 but it was a battle until the bitter end in front of a national audience.
Pilots who performed the flyover before the Big Game.
On the men's basketball front, we haven't met expectations so far this year and nobody is more frustrated than Coach Fox and I. Our student-athletes continue to battle and work hard every single day.
November is Indigenous Heritage Month, and Associate Athletics Director Dr. Ty-Ron Douglas and our Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging & Justice is guiding our department and campus through a month of education about the Native American community. Earlier this month, I was able to attend our DEIBJ Playbook event at the Native American Center at Anthony Hall, which featured a thoughtful discussion with a panel made up of students and staff.
At the end of October, our women's basketball team hosted the third annual "Race For Change" to raise funds for our DEIBJ office. The 5K walk/run took place at Lake Merritt in Oakland and was also attended by student-athletes from field hockey, women's gymnastics, men's rowing and beach volleyball. There were over 100 participants and over $4,000 was raised!
As we approach the end of the year, I hope you consider participating in Giving Tuesday on November 29th - a day set aside to inspire generosity and philanthropic support throughout the globe. The success of our athletic programs is made possible by the support of our Cal family, and I would encourage you to explore the many areas of giving within Cal Athletics. If you would like to make a gift or learn more about areas you can support, please view the pages linked here or reach out to the Cal Athletics Fund.
From all of us at Cal Athletics, have a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving!
Go Bears!
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Jim
