A few years ago, I was given a CD of recordings taken from a 1940s Cal Band record. In honor of Big Game Week, I’m sharing this track, a medley of Cal songs about Stanfurd [MP3 link].
In the medley: Stanfurd Jonah; California Indian Song[Complete with the war-chat first verse and the sung chorus!]; the Axe Yell; Palms of Victory.

Okanes:

Coach Jeff Tedford said Hill will be limited but will "be in uniform and ready to go."

Also, wide receiver Marvin Jones, who didn’t do a whole lot at practice the past two days while he rested a quad bruise, practiced in full capacity tonight and Tedford said is 100 percent. Tedford actually said the limited days of practice helped Jones get fresh legs tonight.

"He’s ready to roll," Tedford said.

Tedford addressed the kick coverage tonight, something that has been inconsistent the past couple of seasons and was clearly deficient last week against Arizona. The Bears will need to do a better job Saturday because Stanford features a dangerous returner in Chris Owusu.

"We didn’t do a very good job last week," he said. "We’re going to have to make sure that we’re better in that phase of the game."

So for now that rumor is quashed.

Damn, I should major in this.

The highlight of the luncheon came after Johnson told Starkey he was majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in human sexuality. Sarlatte didn’t waste any time taking advantage of that little tidbit of information. When he took the podium the next time, he informed the crowd that Johnson would be "putting on an extra credit seminar downstairs in the Tonga Room."

LINK

Perhaps most importantly, their defense-which is coming off last weekend’s solid performance in a 24-16 home win against Arizona-will attempt to limit the production of tailback Toby Gerhart.

The 6-foot-1, 235-pound senior rushed for a combined 401 yards and six touchdowns in wins over the Ducks and the Trojans, and is now in the discussion for the Heisman Trophy.

Senior linebacker Devin Bishop said Cal has not yet seen a running back of his build this season. And, needless to say, his unusual size and strength make bringing him down a significant challenge.

“Toby is a runner that doesn’t go down with arm-tackles,” Tedford said.

In addition, the Bears will try to bother Andrew Luck, the Cardinal quarterback who Tedford called “the most underrated player in the country.”

MIGHT????

To say that The Farm is gripped by football fever might be an overstatement. Several students studying at campus coffee shop The CoHo admitted they weren’t aware of the upcoming Cal matchup.

But on a campus better known for Nobel laureates and technology titans than gridiron greats, the football team’s run of success has generated an unusual amount of buzz.

Many home games at Stanford Stadium in recent years have featured big swaths of empty seats, despite a 2006 renovation that reduced capacity by more than 30,000. But fewer than 100 tickets to Saturday’s Cal game remained as of Thursday evening, said Andy Sikic, a marketing associate with the athletic department. It is likely to be the first sellout of the season.

LINK

Even after this season, when senior bowling ball Toby Gerhart is no longer ripping through Pac-10 defensive lines, Stanford shouldn’t have too much of a drop-off.

Rather, the success that Jim Harbaugh has harbored in his three years with the Cardinal is a foundation for the future. Harbaugh, who is currently working on a contract extension, said he enjoys coaching at Stanford and would love to stay there.

Redshirt freshman Andrew Luck is, well, a redshirt freshman. When Gerhart is gone, he’ll continue providing stability under center.

First-year players like punt returner Drew Terrell, defensive back Quinn Evans and defensive end Chase Thomas have also made impacts on the field this season, giving the Cardinal lots to look forward to in the coming years.

Do the Bears have those kinds of prospects?

Sure.

Do those prospects have what it takes to keep Cal a contender?

Perhaps.

But can they keep the momentum of this historic series from swinging out of Berkeley?

Unlikely.

Even before Saturday’s game, there’s a chance that it’s already swung

The famous sports magazine, the Wall Street Journal, tackles this pressing question.

If you set out to build the perfect coaching résumé, you might settle on something that’s close to Mr. Harbaugh’s.

He’s a rah-rah guy who declared “we bow to no program here at Stanford” soon after his arrival. He has paid his dues outside the limelight—his previous coaching job was at the University of San Diego. He’s a former quarterback who once guaranteed Michigan would beat Ohio State and delivered, and who took the Indianapolis Colts within a Hail Mary of the Super Bowl. He has NFL coaching experience and has coaching in his blood: His father, Jack, coached Western Kentucky, and his brother John is head coach of the Baltimore Ravens.

And he has one of the most prolific offenses in college football.From the time he was “5 or 6,” Mr. Harbaugh says, “I’ve wanted to play as long as I could, then coach, then die.”

But what sets what sets Mr. Harbaugh apart is that he isapart that he’s doing all this at the Harvard of the West, where top talent is often unattainable. And unlike coaches in similar situations, who have turned to gimmick offenses to compensate for the talent gap, he’s winning with a power running attack.

In other words, in the age of “genius” coaches, Mr. Harbaugh is doing it by scouting hard, recruiting hard, putting miles on the car and coaching up his players until they believe they’re good enough. If you want the careful public persona of Ohio State’s Jim Tressel or Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, look elsewhere.

Joanne Boyle and Tara Vanderveer with a special column.

This bums me out. Take a look at some famous Cal alum in this New York Times special piece about who’s alums are better. Who will win?

Snippet.

Directors

Alexander Payne (Stanford ’84 ) directed "Sideways." John McCone (Cal ’22) directed the C.I.A. Touchdown, Cal.

Penned by the late Dave Wik. Don’t worry, we won.

And the self-perpetuating myth of the SEC continues.

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1018062

4 of 5 say SEC is better. They point to the lack of a national title contender, and Wazzou as primary reasons.

I disagree, and firmly believe the reason we don’t have a national title contender is because of our conference stength. Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi are far worse than Oregon St, USC, Cal, and UCLA. As for Wazzou, well, the SEC has Vanderbilt. Furthermore, I think the SEC West is pretty good, but after Florida the east is dreadful. Furthermore, the 2-1 record the SEC holds against the Pac-10 matched the current SEC’s 4th vrs the Pac-10’s 8th, the SEC’s 3rd vrs the Pac-10’s 9th (both of those games were very close), and the SEC’s 7th vrs the Pac-10’s 6th (which we won).

LINK

When Cal travels across the Bay to face bitter rival Stanford on Saturday in the 112th Big Game, the Golden Bears will face a daunting challenge. The 14th-ranked Cardinal, coming off a ridiculously impressive 55-21 victory at USC, is a 7½-point favorite, and with good reason: Jim Harbaugh’s team is playing the best football in the Pac-10, by far, and sensational senior running back Toby Gerhart has emerged as a bona fide Heisman candidate. Meanwhile, Cal’s star halfback and Best player, dude by the name of Jahvid, won’t even be in uniform. And now we’ve learned that Tiger Woods – gasp – will be Stanford’s honorary captain It’s enough to make a devoted alum like myself shrivel up in the corner and cry – except, of course, that’s not what true blue Bear Backers do. We show up loud, proud and unbowed, win the party and exert every ounce of intensity we’ve got to try to spur our team to greater heights. I’ll be proud to be among them on Saturday, and I hope we do a lot of postgame singing), to the extent that we still have voices. In the meantime, here’s Golden Bear Nation’s call to arms, to the tune of Muse’s "Uprising."

California is a mess
A scary injury to Mr. Best
They think we’ll take drugs that make us all see trails
Instead of marching to The Farm with our lunch pails
(So come on)

The Eucalyptus grove’s our scene
Another season gone by with futile Rose Bowl dreams
It’s Oregon – with Stanfurd comin’ right behind
And Tiger uh standin’ smugly on their sideline
(So come on)

They will not force us
They won’t take The Axe from us
They will not outscore us
We will be victorious
(So come on)

Ever-annoying train whistle
A dweebish student section that’s got no soul
And Tiger – where were you all those years we kicked your ass?
And now you can take your captainship and kiss our Axe
(So come on)

Rise up and take the power back
We’re gonna regulate and talk some smack
You know that mascot is a total clown
We have to piss on that effin’ Tree and chop it down
(So come on)

They will not force us
They won’t take The Axe from us
They will not outscore us
We will be victorious
(So come on)

They will abhor us
We will be obnoxious
It shall be so glorious
We will be victorious
So come on!

I hate twilight so much, it’s been 16 hours of straight work with 40 minutes left, good thing avi’s got a head start on some links so I can busy myself :)

I was in the stands at Memorial for The Play as a wee lad. Greatest fucking sports moment evair. Period. End of story.

This week save water, piss on a tree.

Uga had a good life (mildly nsfw)
http://tinypic.com/r/1ha3o3/6

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4673446

Great “New Tedford” article

Read the whole damn thing.

For bringing up how friggin dumb it is that Harbaugh considers himself a “blue collar” coach when he has a $60K toiler.

HOW THE HELL DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?!

LOGIC 101 FAIL

Womens Swimming posts 9 B Times, I have no idea what that means:

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Sixth-ranked California posted nine NCAA B qualifying times and three second-place finishes at the Toshiba Classic on Thursday, the first day of the meet held at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool. Freshman Caitlin Leverenz took second in the 200-yard individual medley in an NCAA B time of 1:58.34 that ranks seventh on the Golden Bears’ all-time list. In addition to Leverenz, the Bears’ 200-yard freestyle relay, 400-yard medley relay, senior Heather White (200 IM), junior Hannah Wilson in the 50-yard freestyle and, in the 500-yard freestyle, senior Lauren Boyle, sophomore Sara Isakovic, sophomore Shelley Harper and junior Katie Kastes all collected NCAA B, or conditional, qualifying times.

“I thought the girls did a really nice job today,” Cal head coach Teri McKeever said. “I was really pleased with how we performed. We did a little training session in the ocean this morning as a warm-up. Now, getting competition, swimming in heats, finals and in multiple races, it’s really important when we look at where we are right now so we can continue to evaluate and make some adjustments.”

White joined Leverenz in the top five of the 200 IM, finishing fifth in a time of 2:01.17.

Women’s BBall to take on Baylor:

The No. 11/17 California Golden Bears (2-0) close out their three-game season-opening home stand on Sunday, Nov. 22. Cal will play the first of their televised games of the season, hosting the No. 9/8 Baylor Bears at 2:00 p.m. in Haas Pavilion. The game will be carried nationally live on FSN and will be shown locally on CSN Bay Area. Jim Watson will call the play-by-play with Mary Murphy providing commentary.

Cal got off to a hot start to the 2009-10 season. After scoring an unofficial 101 points in their exhibition game against Vanguard, the Bears made the triple-digit score official in their 100-43 rout of Idaho State in the season opener. It was the first time since Jan. 6, 1996 that Cal had scored 100 or more points and was only the 15th time that had happened in the history of the program. The even 100 points also set a Haas Pavilion record for the most points scored by a team playing in the building, erasing the previous record of 99 points Cal scored against Washington State during the 2007-08 season.

Things cooled down for the Bears in their 68-65 victory Tuesday night against Saint Mary’s. The Bears got off 42 shots in the first half, 11 more than Saint Mary’s, but an ice cold 26.2 shooting percentage had the Bears trailing 36-33 at the break. The Bears, faced with the challenge of coming back, stepped up in the second half, hitting 50 percent of their field goal attempts. Cal took 74 total shots in the game, six more than they did in their 100-point game against Idaho State.

XC Runners receive Academic honors:

BERKELEY – Junior Matt Miller earned first-team Pac-10 All-Academic honors in cross country to lead 10 Golden Bears who were honored by the conference for their efforts in the classroom.

In addition to Miller, sophomore Maxime Chevee was selected to the second team, and eight Cal runners earned honorable mention notice: Kari Karlsson, Steve Sodaro, Michelle Davis, Alison Greggor, Ellie Keene, Keena Kohl, Deborah Maier and Chelsea Reilly.

Miller, a second-team selection last year, is majoring in political economy of industrial societies and has a 3.74 GPA, while Chevee, who has yet to declare a major, has a 3.60 GPA.

Karlsson, Greggor and Sodaro were also honored with Pac-10 All-Academic recognition in 2008.

Womens Soccer player receives honor:

BERKELEY – For her performance against Auburn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, redshirt junior forward Lisa Kevorkian was named a College Soccer 360 Primetime Performer of the Week.

Kevorkian netted a golden goal to propel to the California women’s soccer team to a 2-1 overtime win over Auburn on Nov. 13 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Florida State’s Seminole Soccer Complex.

After the Bears had taken five shots in the first seven minutes of overtime, Kevorkian put away the goal and game off a cross from Morgan from five yards. The score was Kevorkian’s fifth game-winning goal and her eighth goal overall this season.

Thanks to Kevorkian’s score, the Golden Bears advanced to the second round to take on No. 1-seed Florida State on Nov. 15.

Lexi receives honor:

Senior guard Alexis Gray-Lawson earned her first First Team All-American honor of her career, being named one of the top five women’s basketball players coming into the 2009-10 season, according to Sports Illustrated’s Preseason All-American honors.

Gray-Lawson, a fifth-year senior at Cal, was a post season AP All-American honorable mention last season and also earned an honorable mention from the AP for preseason All-American, but this is the first time she has earned a national First Team All-American nod. She was also a unanimous selection for All-Pac-10 preseason honors.

The other members of Sports Illustrated’s Preseason All-American first team includes Monica Wright (Virginia), Jayne Appel (Stanford), Maya Moore (Connecticut) and Tina Charles (Connecticut).

Gray-Lawson has sparked a lot of national interest in previews of the 2009-10 season. In a recent column on ESPN.com, Graham Hays selected Gray-Lawson as one of six key players to watch this season, referring to her as “the best guard in the Bay Area” and went on to state that she "could make a reasonable case for herself as the best guard west of the Mississippi River… Whereas “combo guard” is a label often applied to someone who doesn’t own quite the right skills to play either backcourt position expertly, it’s a fitting compliment for Gray-Lawson. She’s been a plus 3-point shooter since she arrived, never shooting worse than 38 percent from behind the arc. She can get to the basket and score — and has improved at the free-throw line every season. But she’s also capable of distributing the ball, the past few seasons to post players who depended on it and now to freshmen whose growing pains should be eased by it."

Mens soccer player receives honor, man lotsa honors for the athletes:

BERKELEY – California junior defender A.J. Soares earned a third-team berth on Top Drawer Soccer’s Team of the Season, the national Web site announced on Thursday. Soares, who earned a spot on the All-Pac-10 first team on Nov. 17, was a steadying force on a backline decimated by injuries this season. He was the only defender who started all 18 games for the Golden Bears, who ended their year with a 9-8-1 record (3-6-1 Pac-10).

The Solana Beach, Calif., product also made an impact offensively, as he scored a career-high seven points to tie for fourth on the team. Soares scored a career-high three goals, added one assist and converted the Bears’ two successful penalty kicks of the season.

Soares was involved in every goal in a 3-0 win over San Francisco on Sept. 17 in the Dons’ Negoesco Stadium. He assisted on Davis Paul’s game-winning strike, scored on a penalty kick and volleyed in Demitrius Omphroy’s corner kick.

I am currently searching through soviet era topographic maps via the internets, i tried to zoom in and I got this message:

% too fast. please relax.

Wheeler Hall taken hostage by protesting UC students

Ugh. Why do I always think taking shots at the end of the night is a good idea?

Well that basketball game sucked. And then I wandered off from the Big Freeze during the second period over to Somar in Oakland and started drinking heavily. Is it too early to head over to the Royal Exchange and start drinking more? I think that’s all that can save me now.

Big Game week: I’m doozing it rite.

What bars/restaurants in San Francisco will have the game on and not be full of Furd “fans”? I’m busy in the city in the afternoon, otherwise I would’ve bought a ticket to the not-yet-sold-out Big Game. Anyone have recommendations on which places have DISH or Comcast and a good atmosphere?

I’m fired up.

I don’t want to hear a single thing about the Furd. I want to remain in blissful ignorance.

I wish I was never a Cal football fan :(

Thomas Decoud: Worst College Football Photo Ever

This afternoon, Tim Bennett, president of Winfrey’s Harpo production house, announced that the media mogul will step off the “Oprah” set in September 2011. He said Winfrey will confirm the news on Friday’s edition of her show.

For the rest of the day, I’ll be in the Greek Theater helping build and set up the Bonfire for the rally. If you’re there, say hi! I’ll be in the pit during the rally, and I’m noticeable because I’m the Indian one.

Go Bears, Fuck Stanfurd!

Here’s a handy map, yay.

Campus police continue to work to resolve the protest action at Wheeler Hall. Campus police are striving to end the occupation of Wheeler Hall with the safety of our campus community, including all those involved in this action, as an uppermost priority.

Wheeler Hall will remain closed until further notice. Instructors who teach in Wheeler Hall will be contacted shortly by e-mail.