The University of California

CAL

School Info:

The University of California was chartered in 1868 and its flagship campus — envisioned as a “City of Learning” — was established at Berkeley, on San Francisco Bay. Today the world’s premier public university and a wellspring of innovation, UC Berkeley occupies a 1,232 acre campus with a sylvan 178-acre central core. From this home its academic community makes key contributions to the economic and social well-being of the Bay Area, California, and the nation.

Founded in the wake of the gold rush by leaders of the newly established 31st state, the University of California’s flagship campus at Berkeley has become one of the preeminent universities in the world. Its early guiding lights, charged with providing education (both “practical” and “classical”) for the state’s people, gradually established a distinguished faculty (with 21 Nobel laureates to date), a stellar research library, and more than 350 academic programs.

This California institution became a catalyst of economic growth and social innovation — the place where vitamin E was discovered, a lost Scarlatti opera found, the flu virus identified, and the nation’s first no-fault divorce law drafted. Scholars at Berkeley have conducted groundbreaking research on urban street gangs and on basic human nutritional requirements, identified why wartime supply ships were failing at sea, invented technologies to build faster and cheaper computer chips, and imaged the infant universe. (http://berkeley.edu/about/hist/index.shtml)

How CAL Ranks:

A National Research Council analysis of U.S. universities concluded that UC Berkeley has the largest number of highly ranked graduate programs in the country. The analysis ranked doctoral programs within a range (such as between 1st and 5th), and found that 48 out of the 52 Berkeley programs assessed ranked within the top 10 nationally.

Over the past decade (2000-2009), the National Science Foundation awarded more Graduate Research Fellowships to UC Berkeley students than to those of any other university (MIT was 2nd; Stanford 3rd; Harvard 4th). From George Breslauer, who forwarded by by Rand Haley, Higher Education practice, Huron Consulting Group (rhaley@huronconsultinggroup.com).

In recognition of broad and deep excellence, respected sources have repeatedly ranked UC Berkeley at or near the top in fields ranging from engineering and the “hard” sciences to the social sciences, arts, and humanities. Case in point: A National Research Council analysis of U.S. universities concluded that UC Berkeley has the largest number of highly ranked graduate programs in the country. It ranked doctoral programs within a range (such as between 1st and 5th) and found that 48 out of 52 Berkeley programs assessed ranked within the top 10 nationally. (http://berkeley.edu/about/hist/index.shtml)

The History of the CAL Golden Bears:

In 1895, the University of California track & field team was the dominant power on the West Coast and decided to challenge several of the top teams in the Midwest and East on an eight-meet tour that is now credited by many historians as putting Cal athletics onto the national scene. As a symbol of the University, Regent Arthur Rodgers, class of 1872, commissioned a blue silk banner emblazoned with a golden grizzly bear, the symbol of the state of California.

The banner was carried by the team on its successful tour, which saw Cal win five of the eight competitions. Cal athletic fans were so ecstatic over the team’s performance that Professor Charles Mills Gayley was inspired to write the song “The Golden Bear.” Cal’s athletic teams have been known as the Golden Bears ever since.

The official colors of the University of California were established at Berkeley in 1868. The colors were chosen by the University’s founders, who were mostly Yale men who had come West. They selected gold as a color representing the “Golden State” of California. The blue was selected from Yale blue. Cal teams have donned the blue and gold since the beginning of intercollegiate athletic competition in 1882.

The Big “C” is located on Charter Hill above Memorial Stadium and was constructed in 1905 by the classes of 1907 and ’08. The road up to the Big “C” was built on February 29, 1916 by the male members of the Cal student body in three-and-a-half hours, using 2,000 picks and shovels that were donated by the Southern Pacific Railroad. The Rally Committee became the custodians and guardians of the Big “C” sometime after 1952. Since then, the Committee has been in charge of painting the “C”.

The California Victory Cannon was presented to the Rally Committee in time for the 1963 Big Game by the class of 1964. It is shot off at the beginning of each home football game, after each Cal score and after each victory for the Golden Bears. Only once, against Pacific on September 7, 1991, did the Bears score too many times for the cannon, racking up 12 touchdowns before the cannon ran out of ammunition. The cannon, which was originally kept on the sidelines, has been mounted on Tightwad Hill above Memorial Stadium since 1971. (http://www.college-football–tickets.net/california/history.htm)

CAL Football Homepage:  http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-footbl/cal-m-footbl-body.html

2011 CAL Football Schedule: http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/cal-m-footbl-sched.html