This feature originally appeared in the 2025 Summer edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.


When UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons determined the best way to optimally position Cal's football program for a new era of intercollegiate athletics was to hire a general manager, he consulted with a variety of stakeholders for input.
 
Along with alumni, staff members and others, he also had a series of conversations with Golden Bear legend Ron Rivera, the former Cal All-American linebacker who went on to a successful nine-year professional playing career and then became a two-time NFL Coach of the Year.
 
"(Lyons) said he had talked to some people he was close with and they kept telling him they need to get this guy, bring him in and put him in position to help Cal," Rivera said. "I said, 'How can I help?' He said, 'Well, you're the guy they are talking about.'"
 
Rivera had been interviewing for potential NFL jobs but had an epiphany while discussing the Cal opportunity with his wife, Stephanie, who met Ron during her time as a student-athlete on Cal's women's basketball team.
 
"I said, 'If I'm going to mentor somebody and work with somebody, why wouldn't I go back to Cal?'" Rivera said. "She looked at me and said, 'Let's go home.'"
 
Rivera was hired as Cal's football general manager in March, giving him oversight of all aspects of the program and putting in place a beloved student-athlete alum whose impact will be felt well beyond victories on the field.
 
"After only a few months working with our football program, it's clear to all that Ron's extraordinary experience, skills and acumen make him the perfect fit for this role," Lyons said. "Those qualities, along with his powerful dedication to his alma mater, make him an essential element to taking Cal football to a new level of excellence."
 
It's not just Rivera's extensive experience on the highest levels of football that makes him so supremely qualified for the job – it's his passion, allegiance and connection to the university that should pay dividends in a myriad of ways on the football field and beyond.
 
Rivera's playing days at Cal may have ended in 1983, but his support and enthusiasm for the Golden Bears has never waned. Not only has he closely followed the football team through the years, but he has found ways to support as many of Cal's sports programs as possible. Ron and Stephanie attended a Cal men's rowing regatta on the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania when he was the linebackers coach with the Philadelphia Eagles and were there at the Rosemont Center outside Chicago when the Bears' men's basketball team knocked off two-time defending national champion Duke in the second round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament.
 
Ron and Stephanie have also attended rugby matches on the East Coast and visited Cal's women's swimming & diving team when it competed at the NCAA Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina.
 
When Rivera led the Carolina Panthers to Super Bowl 50 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara in 2016, he and Stephanie attended Cal's women's basketball contest at Stanford during the week leading up to the big game.
 
"We get behind the university because we believe we were graced to have been here, and we want to make sure that everybody knows that they are appreciated," Rivera said. "I love the university. A lot of things that I have in this world – including the dearest thing in my world, my wife – all came about from being here at the University of California. There is just a lot of thanks."
 
Rivera's contributions to Cal's football program are obvious, but the tentacles of his reach are expansive. His reputation and identity in the community make him an effective fundraiser, and his interest and zest for the rest of campus lead to natural collaboration.
 
Rivera follows and supports all Cal sports – he was spotted at a Cal lacrosse game during one of his first days on the job.
 
"We have great Olympic sports. We have a good football program. But to make the impact that we can socially, academically and athletically, we have to be better across the board athletically," Rivera said. "We say we strive for excellence in everything we do – let's honestly do that."
 
Rivera's interest in the holistic existence at Cal started early on as a student-athlete. After his freshman year, he requested not to live with any of his teammates because he wanted more of a normal experience as a Cal student. He ended up living with a graduate student in the engineering school as a sophomore and three non-athletes and a member of the track & field team as a junior.
 
"I wanted the Cal experience, other than Athletics," Rivera said. "I just wanted a normal student as a roommate, a person that is going to have a schedule that is different from the one that I am used to and live that life. It was great."
 
As a junior, Rivera lived with Dave Maggard Jr. – the son of the athletic director at the time, Dave Maggard. He also lived with a premed student and Lyn Christopulos, who was the son of the athletic department's former sports information director, Paul Christopulos.
 
"Ron was just extraordinary. His level of kindness was so evident from the very start," Lyn Christopulos said. "That was pretty unique behavior at that age. Most people at that age, including me, are still immature and trying to figure it out. He seemed to already have it figured out."
 
Rivera remains friends with those roommates to this day, most notably Christopulos, who is one of Rivera's closest friends. They attended ESPN College GameDay together on campus last fall and Christopulos was one of the first people Ron and Stephanie called when they decided to move back to California.
 
"Cal could not have a better human being in terms of character, passion and understanding the Cal way," Christopulos said. "I'll laud him all day long because he's my best friend, but if you look at what you want from the general manager of the Cal football program and a leader in the athletic department, he's the definition of that position. He defines it in every capacity. It's a spectacular win for the University of California."