Oski Archives Game Preview Week #2, The Bears Try to Mess With Texas

Cal won in it's last regular season visit to Texas, 45-44 in 2015

It’s time to mess with Texas. Normally on Fridays I’ll be looking at Cal’s series against that weekend’s opponent. However the Bears have only met TCU once and boy was that a stinker (put me off Cheez-Its for months). So instead I’ll be focusing on previous regular season visits the Bears have made to the state of Texas.

Cal has ventured to the Lone Star State for regular season games six times, losing the first three and winning the last three.

The Bears have played the University of Texas three times in Austin, losing the first two in 1959 and 1970, respectively, before winning a thriller in 2015.

The Bears actually visited the state twice in ’70 also traveling to Houston to play Rice, suffering a 28-0 loss to go along with the 56-15 shellacking they’d suffered against the Longhorns. 

The Bears next ventured to Texas in 1983 to take on the Aggies of Texas A&M. The Bears won a nail-biter19-17, their first game since a certain five-lateral Axe-winning effort in the previous season’s Big Game.

The Bears returned to the state in 1998 under Tom Holmoe in another season opener. Cal prevailed, 14-10.

Of course Cal’s most recent foray into Texas was for the incredible 45-44 victory led by one Jared Goff.

The Bears have hosted teams from Texas eight times winning five (Baylor, Houston, North Texas State, Rice and Texas) and losing three (Texas twice and Texas A & M once.)

Cal has also played teams from Texas in bowl games four times winning once vs. Texas A&M, and losing to Texas Tech, Texas and TCU (no more, Cheez-Its, please).

Focus on a game: (Each week I will focus on one game in Cal’s series against their upcoming opponent, this week it will be on one of our visits to Texas.) The Bears vs. The A&M Aggies September 3, 1983. It looked like easy pickings for Cal as the Sturdy Golden Ones raced to a 17-0 halftime lead, sparked by Dwight Garner’s (he whose knee never touched the ground during The Play) 43-yard TD scamper. But there was to be a mighty twist to this particular tale. With just over three minutes left in the third quarter the Aggies had stormed back to tie the game at seventeen all. Cal was reeling. But as the adage says, the Bear neither quits nor dies. Both teams fashioned drives into enemy territory in the fourth quarter but both squandered their scoring opportunities. Finally the Bears went ahead on a Randy Pratt field goal with 1:20 left in the game. But Pratt was roughed on the kick and the Bears elected to take points off the scoreboard and accept a first and goal at the Aggie two-and-half yard line. On first down the Bears fumbled, the Aggies recovered. Disaster. Never take points off the board. But the Aggies were generous hosts. On second and nine from the four, Cal linebacker (and current NFL head coach) Ron Rivera tackled Aggie fullback Jimmie Hawkins in the end zone for a safety giving the Bears a two-point win. Just like coach drew it up on the chalkboard. Legend has it that the decision to accept the roughing penalty was not made by the coaches but by holder J Torchio. When the refs asked Torchio whether the Bears wanted the penalty, he couldn’t find a coach visible on the sidelines to ask, so he made the call. Torchio later claimed that no coach ever spoke to him about his decision to accept the penalty. Anyway it all worked out in the end.

The Bears enter Saturday’s contest with a 5-4 record in games played on September 11. Other than one in 1915, the first year of the permanent move to football, Cal didn’t start playing games this early in the season until the seventies.

If you’re traveling to the game I envy you, then again you’re going to be in Texas, so maybe not so much. 

Oh by the way, Go Bears!