Our next match-up features a couple of legendary Golden Bears that some of the younger crowd may not be as familiar with. But no worries there, we can definitely educate you on why these two guys are a couple of the best Golden Bears ever.
Joe Kapp is a former Cal player and coach who had some great moments for the Bears including being the head coach on the sideline for The Play. He is also the father of former Cal fullback Will Kapp. He advanced in his own region by taking down professor Alex Filippenko. Pete Cutino is the late and former Cal Water Polo coach who was instrumental in developing Cal's program into one of the best in the country. He came here by beating Tyson Alualu.
This should be a pretty close vote and we'll need all of our Old Blues to weigh in with their thoughts on this vote out of the Joe Kapp Region. The winner will move on to take on the winner of the Jerome Randle/ Wesley Walker match-up in the third round. You can see all of the bracket here and you can check out the full write-ups after the jump. Voting will end on Friday. GO BEARS!
(3) Joe Kapp
Led Cal to the 1959 Rose Bowl
Member of the '56-57 and '57-58 basketball teams that won the Pacific Coast Championship
Led the Minnesota Vikings to the SuperBowl
Named Pac-10 Coach of the Year in his first year coaching at his alma mater
Coached The Play
Not afraid to throw down at the age of 74
From his Calbears.com profile:
Former the head coach of the California football team...Kapp quarterbacked the Bears to their Rose Bowl appearance in 1959...earned first team All-American honors following the '58 season named by Time magazine and the Football Writers Association...was the starting quarterback for three years, leading a miraculous turnaround from a 1-9 team in '57 to the 1958 PCC title and a Rose Bowl appearance in 1959...Kapp is the only man ever to appear in the Super Bowl, Grey Cup, and Rose Bowl...also lettered in basketball in 1956 and 1957 in which the Bears made two NCAA Tournament appearances...had a fine pro football career, spending eight years in the Canadian Football League and leading the BC Lions to a pair of Grey Cup appearances before moving on to the NFL, where he led the Minnesota Vikings to the Super Bowl in 1970...voted into the CFL Hall of Fame in 1984...served as President and General Manager of the British Columbia Lions in the CFL in 1990.
Reader TheScientist019 gives his two cents:
"He may not be able to drink tequila anymore, so let's give him the CGB HOF instead!"
(6) Pete Cutino
In 1963, Pete began working as a supervisor in physical education and coach of swimming and water polo at the University of California, Berkeley. Each of his swim teams from 1963 to 1974 had a winning season, and his water polo teams established an unprecedented record of having won eight NCAA titles as well as having been the runner-up four times, placing third once and fourth twice. In his 26 years as a coach at Cal, Pete was the all-time winning coach in U.S. water polo history. He was also a four-time NCAA and Pac-10 Coach of the Year, directing Golden Bear teams to a record of 519-172. Pete retired in 1989 on the momentum of a 33-game win streak and a second straight NCAA title. He coached 68 All-Americans, six Pac-10 and NCAA Players of the Year, and many Olympians. Pete also coached 13 teams to victory in the U.S. water polo senior national championships and served as the head coach of U.S. National Water Polo team from 1972-76, during which he led the team to the Pan American Games and many other international tournaments, including the World University Games.
Throughout his years on and beyond the pool deck at UC Berkeley, Pete Cutino worked tirelessly on promoting and raising funds for Cal Aquatics - to perpetuate the success he had built there. Along with Rick Cronk, Pete founded the "Splash Club," which consisted of supporters of the men's water polo and swimming teams at Cal. More recently, Pete was a driving force, along with Rick Cronk, Peter Schnugg, and many others, in establishing the "Friends of Cal Aquatics," a broader-based support group which continues to seek philanthropic support in order to insure that Cal's championship men's and women's water polo and swimming teams will have world-class training and competition facilities.
Via reader MV Bear
Watching him at the edge of pool was like watching a Bear in a Cage; you didn't want to mess with him. In the 80's Cal Water Polo was the ONLY sport that you felt like we were superior. Pete Cutino was frequently honored as an educator and coach, and was presented with the U.S. Congressional Award by the Honorable Leon E. Panetta. Pete received the Distinguished Alumnus-of-the-Year from Cal Poly, and he was also inducted into 8 Halls of Fame.
Cutino coached 68 All-Americans, six Pac-10 and NCAA Players of the Year, and five Olympians. "He taught us that anything worth accomplishing would not come without discomfort," recalls Kirk Everist, who played for Cutino at Cal and is now the head coach there. "And he was always there to administer the discomfort."
A few quotes fromPete:
1. "The opportunity to compete in sports is short-lived, and to compete at this level is truly extraordinary. So it is important to pause and reflect on the values and principles inherent in what you do. These principles can, depending on you, guide your future."
2. "If you are a champion, you become the standard, the target, and that is as it should be - in order for you to constantly develop towards excellence."
3. "Do not trade long-term values like character and dignity for temporary bravado and the in-your-face mentality."