Royal Exchange

Pregame

First Half

2nd Half

Whew!  What a game.  Cal wins!  We have the Axe.  Go Bears!

And nobody was more excited than the players themselves:

Well, the players themselves and that one shirtless dude at the bottom of the photo there.

So, quickly, I made my way down.  When we rushed the field after the lackluster 2006 Big Game, it was sort of like "We're doing what now?"  But this was legit.  We had the Axe back!

And I was right behind David Lonie (or somebody who beat up Lonie and took his jersey!):

Cal puntstud, Bryan Anger, came rolling by:

And soon I was in the middle of it all:

It was pretty crazzy:

Here are some videos of the scrum.  Sometimes they got a bit wobbly, because I was getting pushed around.  If you think the kwality is poor, click over to YouTube and watch them on high kwality:

You can see Felder in the distance in this one:

I saw some helmets, so I pushed my way through the crowd:

I saw a big lug OLineman who I later found out was Dominic Galas:

No offense to you, Mr. Galas, but I quickly spied Anthony Felder and moved on to him:

I slapped him on the shoulder and yelled "Great Job!" Somebody said "Stay for another year!" which I don't believe is legal under NCAA rules.  Felder said "Nah, I'm outta here."  It'll be tough to replace him, but better than forfeiting all our games, because of NCAA violations.

There were many players up in the crowd.  I saw Kevin Riley, but was not able to get a photo of him.  I was able to get a photo of Jeremy Ross, though:

Then, to my left Alex Mack came trucking through like a Mack truck (I'm so witty!).  No idea where he was going, but he just didn't stop:

People were slapping him silly. 

And there he goes:

This might be Sean Young, it's tough to see the number:

A lot of these photos might look the same to you.  People jumping up and down with their hands in the air.  But in this specific instance, there was a camera man doing a full 360 in the middle.  It spurred people to go even crazzier:

You can see the camera on the right there.

I was trying to find the Axe, which I later found out had been quickly taken from the field.  I did stumble upon the PAIN TRAIN signing endless autographs:

Honestly, it must feel weird.  You are stuck in the middle of a HUGE crowd.  People are slapping you silly.  And sticking stuff in your face and demanding autographs.  He was eating it up, though:

A true fan favorite!

Then, a camera crew pushed their way through to do an interview. 

Here's video of it.  All I can tell is that he thanks the Lord:

I continued my search for the Axe when Follett came running out of the crowd.  Somebody had him by the hand and was all "GET OUT OF THE WAY!  GET OUT OF THE WAY!"  Prolly some Cal person, I don't know. 

Even as he sprinted out, people were slapping him:

Sweet sign:

Most of the players were gone, so I headed back to hear the band.  They were playing and the Stanford band was also playing.  Here is the crowd watching the Cal band:

And watching the Stanford band:

Cal wins yet again!

The band was having a great time.  Another dance block:

Even the Director, who generally doesn't direct the Band in the stands got involved:

On the way out, we passed by Rally Comm.  Their leaders were hyping up the main crew.  Probably telling them how great their rhythmic clapping was. 

"Yes, we *did* clap in a circle!  We did it!"

Although to be fair, this guy was pretty pimp:

And god, when we got out of the stadium, we were hit by one of the most gorgeous sights you'll ever see:

It was another gorgeous Berkeley day and only made the Big Game victory that much more special.

I also saw this thing.  What the hell is it?

We had missed the band at Bowles Hall, but the basses were still there:

There was a huge crowd singing along with the basses.

And then we turned the corner again and what did we see?

The setting sun was so amazing that I decided to stop up on Euclid on my way out.  There is a place up in the hills there where no house is built.  If you know the right place, you can just sit there and watch the sun set over the Golden Gate Bridge.

Truly, the perfect end to a perfect day.  Cal beats Stanford!  Gets the axe back!  And the Bay Area is as gorgeous as ever.  Go Bears!

Oh and lest I forget always nice to see this.  And from a great angle: