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With all the buzz surrounding Cal hoops recruiting right now in terms of hype, who do you think was the biggest ever star to ever commit to play for Cal, football or basketball or anything else? (Note: This is based on high school hype, not results after the fact.)
LeonPowe: Russell White's commitment was slightly before my time (I saw his senior year) but my understanding was that he was the very first five star high level recruit to choose Cal - especially choosing Cal over USC, Russell being a USC legacy (his uncle was a star at SC), coming from LA, being a Prop 48 athlete. Unlike Powe and Kidd who were local kids, White committed from USC's backyard.
For my time as a Cal fan, it'd be Jason Kidd who was the consensus number one player in the country (unless you maybe counter Othella Harrington).
Vlad Belo: I think the answer is Jason Kidd and it's not even close. Kidd was hyped when he was a high school freshman. He was a high school prodigy, kind of in the same way as Lebron James was viewed when he was in high school. Kidd was the consensus top basketball recruit in the nation and was coveted by just about every blueblood legacy program you could think of. It was shocking when he chose to stay home and play at Cal.
Reef: When Missy Franklin signed with Cal, she had four gold medals, two world records, and was a part of two other relay world records. she was widely considered the greatest female swimmer in the world. With all due respect to our revenue sports friends, nobody else that I can think of has come to Cal as an international superstar with a claim to being the best in the world at her sport. You wanna talk hype? That's hype.
Sam Fielder: I think that the answer to this question is based on when you started following Cal and how tuned into recruiting you are. I've been a huge Cal fan since I was 7 but I don't remember Russell White or Jason Kidd or even Leon Powe committing/signing but I sure as heck enjoyed seeing them do their thing in the Blue and Gold. So for me, DeSean Jackson was probably the biggest and first 5-star I remember making a public declaration for Cal, which would have been during my junior year of college.
It's also the first year I remember ESPN running live announcements and all that fun stuff, so maybe that colors my memory somewhat as well. But for hype and hoopla for a star coming out of high school to join Cal, it's tough to argue with Reef and the Missy Franklin commit. It didn't get the fanfare that football and basketball get, but she's about as big of a star and easily more accomplished than most any other athlete we'll ever get to come to Cal. And she backed it up too!