What is your favorite thing about being a Cal fan and why?

Piotr Le: The fact that I can meet up with Cal fans from way-back when, have nothing in common with them at the beginning of the night besides the same colored jersey, and end the night going through the same emotional rollercoaster to end the night hugging each other in each instance of sweet victory or bitter defeat.

I love being able to read about Cal athletes who not only exceed on the field but also off the field. To be able to talk sports and say "Yeah, Alex Morgan/Beast Mode/Missy Franklin/Jared Goff, guess where they went to college? BERKELEY".

I love the fact that I can point to the fact that if Cal was counted as a separate nation we would be 26th overall in the Olympic Medal Count, and then I can point to the table of chemical elements and see Californium and Berkelium. That we are more than just a nerdy school or just an athletic school, we're both unlike 95% of other schools in the nation.

And I love the slightly cloudy autumn skies and the crowded Durant and Bancroft, with people lining up for their Top Dogs or eating at Gypsy's or Thai Basil. The walk to the stadium and the smell of it all right before the kick-off. The moment whole stadium roars with one voice : "GO BEARS!"....

God I miss Berkeley...

Avinash Kunnath: Cal fans are generally very intelligent about things other than sports, so we can have awesome conversations about just about everything when things go sour (and they tend to go more sour than we'd like). You can go around the world and find a Cal fan making a difference in an impactful way in the world. We've become the standard for which every other university sets in terms of work ethic--I don't know many other places that talk as highly about their graduates as Cal does.

Nik Jam: My favorite thing about being a Cal fan is being a part of a great university where game day experiences are always special and fun. I love how Cal fans care about sports other than football and basketball and I have little trouble finding other fans to talk about other sports with, like baseball, volleyball and softball. The city of Berkeley is amazing. And blue and gold are perfect team colors...

boomtho: I think my favorite thing about being a Cal fan is the community. I think it's true that for any college sports team, there's a very powerful sense that you're all in something together, pulling in the same direction. With Cal, the sense of community, for me, is even heightened past that baseline for a few reasons. Number one, Cal hasn't been very successful in the revenue sports, which I think gives people a sense of perspective you might not find in Tuscaloosa in the Fall or Durham in the Spring. Second, Cal is a big public university, which just means there are a lot of proud alums - I've run into Cal fans in Stockholm, Paris, and even Queenstown! Third, Cal is the best university in the world (note the lack of 'one of the' qualifier), with a particularly noble mission of public education for the people. So if you ever get into a pissing match with a fan of another team, that's a pretty great trump card :slightly_smiling_face:

Nick Kranz: There are countless ancillary benefits: new friendships, free time entertainment, vicarious thrills. But Cal fandom started and is sustained because it connects me back to places and times that have a great deal of meaning for me. When I visit Memorial Stadium, I'm immediately reminded of relatives who played in the band in the 40s and the 70s. I'm reminded of watching Cal win the Big Game when I was 9. I'm reminded of rushing the field after beating USC in (redacted because it's so depressingly long ago). At this point, Cal sports have invaded my soul at the cellular level. What's that, my soul doesn't have cells? Screw you, make your own analogy! The point is that rooting for Cal is so deeply connected to who and what I am that to do anything but love it would be an extreme act of self-loathing.