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Golden Nuggets: Mitt Romney Vowed to Protect the Stanford Axe in 1965

While Berkeley is not too fond of presidential candidate Mitt Romney, he's not going to win over the support of many Cal fans for his duties in 1965. That year Mitt Romney had an active role in Big Game festivities; he unfortunately happened to be on the wrong side.

Over at Mother Jones, the San Francisco-based magazine has a whip-smart listicle telling the complete history of Mitt Romney in 30 defining moments. Like the time in 1965 when young Mitt Romney took it upon himself to defend Stanford's ceremonial axe in the days leading up to the Big Game against Cal, showing early on just how far he'll go to win.

That year, Romney attended Stanford down in Palo Alto, where he was roommates with former Stanford quarterback Mark Marquess. As pals with the future QB, "Romney personally took it upon himself to protect Stanford's ceremonial battle axe against theft and patrol the site of a pep-rally bonfire to guard against premature torching by mischievous Cal students," Mother Jones explains. In fact Romney, who reportedly had a thing for throwing anti-anti-war rallies in preppy attire, even went slumming in Berkeley to spy on the rival team at Cal. As Marquess recalled of his roommate's fervent devotion to the football trophy: "I don't think that sucker slept for four days."

Now let's refrain from engaging in any political slapfights. Y'all can argue all you want about Cal football (and as we've seen so far, there's plenty to discuss this week).

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