Cal v. MSU 8.30.08 Photo Essay I: Pre-Party Time!

This hopefully part is one of quick photo reveling analysis hopefully not so.  Thirteen.

Woo-ee!  What a game.  All those people who left with about 4 minutes left in the game, missed quite the intense ending.  And all those people who chanted either "Pac10 Football" or that nah nah nah nah goodbye at various moments in the 4th quarter WELL before the game was, yknow, over, let's try not to tempt the fates too much in the future.  No point in angering the woofing gods!

I took 240 photos on the day and will post excerpts of them.  Further, I have supplemented that with photos from other Cal fans, such as TheNick.  Don't forget to read post-game thoughts by CBKWit and HydroTech.

Of course, where else would we start our Cal photo essay of the MSU football game, but the Berkeley Rose Garden?

I generally park up on Northside, so after the game I can just zip out through Tilden, avoiding Southside traffic.  It is a bit of a shlep from the stadium to the Rose Garden, but not more so than to BART and it avoids the traffic if I try to drive anywhere reasonably close to the stadium. 

Plus, then, I get to enjoy some time at the Rose Garden.  It is such a lovely place.  I used to study there some when I was at Cal.  And with the beautiful weather we had yesterday, the Rose Garden was extra nice.  A few shots to start this multi-part Photo Essay off right.

Taking photographs at the Rose Garden is like being a kid in a candy store.  Every single flower is gorgeous.  The relaxed atmosphere was a small respite before the all-encompassing energy that is Berkeley on gamedays.  As a brutally gregarious person, I love the energy from the thousands and thousands of people wandering the streets of Berkeley headed towards their various events.

Whether its tailgates with their cornholing:

Or the Men's Octet (at least I think that's the Men's Octet) making their way throughout campus, performing for the clumps of people enjoying the day.  Bee tee dubzzzz, can I note that seeing the Men's Octet here made me feel older than ever.  They are college students? They look like they are members of the Chinese Olympic Gymnastics Team.  I suffered from osteoporosis just watching them sing.  I'M SO OLD!:

Or the fraternity BBQs:

Bouncy Castle!!!!

The energy is so strong on a Gameday.  The only other place I've tailgated is Stanford.  It is so spread out there, the energy seems quite a bit more dissipated.  No matter where you turn at Berkeley, whether its on campus, on the parking lots, or at the fraternities, there is something boisterous going on. 

Plus, there were MSU people roaming everywhere.  They were all very friendly.  Just like the Tennesseans last year.  People are nice! 

So, with about 40 minutes to go, we headed over to the stadium.  With the entrance closures, I was concerned about long lines.  The line for the student section was very, very, very long.  But on the southside entrance, there was no line at all.  How fortunate! 

They were still warming up when we got there:

The mixed it up this year with the introductions.  I think previously, it was one person per introduction.  Now, they have a few per page:

So, then the Best Damn Band In The Land, the California Marching Band, does its thing.

And guess who caught the baton!  When I was all nervous in the 4th quarter, I should have remembered that the Drum Major (who is called something like Frankie Garland) caught the baton:

This was new, they handed out pom poms.  And the pom poms had numbers on them wherein you could win stuff. 

Then, the players came running out:

via Dotpicture.net

Many of the players ran all the way down to the MSU endzone, essentially taunting the fans.  They did this against Tennessee last year, I remember. 

The ceremonial mooning of the opposing fans?

Worrell is so lonely:

PreParty!  So, that was it.  And then with no real further ado, the 2008 California Golden Bears football season commenced!