Book Report!
I enjoy reading a lot of sports-related books. And Cal or things relating to Cal seem to show up in the oddest places. Books that seemingly shouldn’t have anything at all about Cal can have a nugget here or there. Over the next few months, I’ll write about a few books that aren’t really Cal-related, but still would end up being relevant in some way.
For example, this is not an Oakland Athletics blog. I’m not going to spend a long time going through the emotional rollercoaster that is "Mustache Gang: The Swaggering Saga of the Oakland A’s," an out of print book about the As 1972 World Series Championship team I got off of Amazon.
Even though at the time it was probably viewed as an uneven tome created solely to make some money off of the A’s stunning victory, now its an amazing time capsule for any As fan. However, what is relevant here is that on the opening day of the playoffs in 1972, the A’s (surprise surprise!) had trouble attracting fans. And the book cites 2 reasons for this problem. One is that Stanford was facing a #1 USC team. The other is that Cal was taking on Ohio State!
When I read that I was a bit shocked. I knew that we had faced Ohio State in like the 1949 Rose Bowl (which is where the Cal Band stole all of OSU’s band’s mannerism). I guess technically that’d be the 1950 Rose Bowl, but it was for the 49 season. I know that we are slated to do a home and home against OSU in a few years. Apparently, though, OSU is tryng to back out of it. Not enough Youngstown State on their schedule, I guess!
But I was not aware that we had faced them in 1972. Now, our 1972 team, well, they were just plain not that good. I was negative 9 at that point, so my memory of that season is poor, at best. But according to this website, Cal went 3-8 that year. It looked like one of those seasons that proved the adage that Cal could go 0-10, but as long as they won that last game against Stanford, it’d be OK. We did beat a pretty decent 7-4 Wazzu team and a bad Oregon team. But going into Stanford, we woulda been 2-8.
We ended up defeating a 6-5 Stanford team 24-21, so that must have been a good punctuation to the year. And it looks like it was an exciting game. According to the Big Game Wiki, Cal won on a last second touchdown pass from Vince Ferragamo to Steve Sweeney. THE AXE WAS OSTENSIBLY OURS!
However, those were the few bright spots in Mike White’s first season as coach. Perhaps one of the main reasons that our team had a rough year in 1972 was that apparently Cal had the 3rd toughest schedule in the nation. Here’s the corridor that proves that:
10/7/1972 L 18-35 ( 9 - 2 - 0 10) Ohio State
10/14/1972 L 14-42 ( 12 - 0 - 0 1) Southern California
10/21/1972 L 13-49 ( 8 - 3 - 0 11) UCLA
10/28/1972 L 21-35 ( 8 - 3 - 0 16) Washington
4 weeks in a row, we faced off against some of the top teams in the country (and the one that would win the Championship). And Cal got DESTROYED by all of them. Perhaps after the 2nd game of the season, when Cal defeated a pretty good Wazzu team, feeling was good. On October 28, 1972, while As fans might have been ecstatic that their Mustached Gang had won it all, Cal fans must have felt lower than low.
As for the specific OSU game, you can see that Cal got blown out. According to the Cal football history webpage (Caution: PDF), Cal is currently 1-5 against OSU. They have scored 141 points to our 95. From 1920-1972, OSU won 5 straight times. At least thats how Cal’s own guide describes it. If you look at the results below, I’d put it 1949-1972, because Cal won in 1920 and didn’t play until the Rose Bowl in 1949. Either way, here are the game by game results:
Buckeyes lead series, 5-1
1920-*Bears, 28-0 (Pasadena)
1949-**Buckeyes, 17-14 (Pasadena)
1953-Buckeyes, 33-19 (B)
1954-Buckeyes, 21-13 (Columbus)
1971-Buckeyes, 35-3 (Columbus)
1972-Buckeyes, 35-18 (B)
(Points-Buckeyes 141, Bears 95)
*1921 Rose Bowl
**1950 Rose Bowl
Here’s the info on the Rose Bowls:
ROSE BOWL
JANUARY 1, 1921
CALIFORNIA 28
OHIO STATE 0
The world of college football may never again witness the sheer dominance displayed by Californias legendary Wonder Teams of the 1920s, and the 1920 football team, in particular, will forever be remembered as one of the alltime great teams in the history of the sport. Under the genius of coach Andy Smith, the Golden Bears completely dismantled opponents en route to an 8-0 record and made their first appearance in the Rose Bowl. Despite their record and the fact that they had outscored opponents by a total margin of 482-14, the Bears entered the contest as an underdog. Possibly because some Easterners had not yet developed much respect for athletes on the West Coast, a respected Ohio State team was predicted to beat California by six points. The Bears wasted little time in refuting such predictions, as Pesky Sprott scored a touchdown early in the first quarter to give California a 7-0 lead. That only proved to be the beginning of what was to become a rout, as Andy Smiths team was able to score two more touchdowns in the second quarter while a ferocious Bear defense held Ohio State scoreless for a 21-0 halftime lead. One of the scores came on a piece of Wonder Team trickery, as Sprott pitched the ball to end Brick Muller on a reverse who heaved the ball over 50 yards to Brodie Stephens for the touchdown. That play helped California, which subsequently earned the unofficial national title, break the game open and is thought of as one of the most famous plays in the history of the Rose Bowl.
California 7 14 0 7 - 28
Ohio State 0 0 0 0 - 0
Cal Ohio State
Total First Downs 17 11
Net Yards Rushing 244 105
Passing (PC-PA) 6-9 11-24
Net Yards Passing 102 133
Total Net Yardage 346 238
ROSE BOWL
JANUARY 2, 1950
OHIO STATE 17
CALIFORNIA 14
The Golden Bears entered the 1950 Rose Bowl with a perfect 10-0 record and what many considered to be the West Coasts finest post-World War II team. Under coach Waldorf, the 1949 Bears were an even more dominant team than the previous years Rose Bowl team, scoring an average of over 30 points per contest while only allowing slightly over 11 points per game. Unfortunately for California, however, luck was not on their side. The Bears had built a 7-0 halftime lead on a seven-yard run by Jim Monachino, but Ohio State was able to score 14 unanswered points to open a 14-7 lead at the end of the third quarter. Monachino stunned the Buckeyes early in the final period when his 44-yard touchdown run tied the score at 14-14, but the Bears were to be denied once again. A bad punt by Bob Celeri gave Ohio State the ball deep in California territory late in the game and Ohio States Jim Hague kicked a 17-yard game-winning field goal with 1:57 left in the contest. The Bears had managed to lose two consecutive Rose Bowls, but if it was any consolation, the final Associated Press Poll ranked the Golden Bears as the third best team in the country.
California 0 7 0 7 - 14
Ohio State 0 0 14 3 - 17
Cal Ohio State
First Downs (rush,pass,pen.) 12 (8,3,1) 19 (18,1,0)
Rushing (Att-Net Yds.) 40-133 67-221
Passing (PC-PA-Int) 3-13-4 5-14-1
Passing Yards 106 34
Total Offensive Plays 53 81
Total Net Yardage 239 255
Such is the extent of our history with Ohio State University. For about 2+ decades there, they slapped Cal around a lot. And the Best Damn Band In The Land wouldn’t be as Best Damn without OSU’s band. And Charles O. Finley probably didn’t care too much for that matchup in 1972. But nothing much since. Hopefully, Ohio State won’t back out of the upcoming games. 2012 and 2013 are a long ways away. But certainly for Ohio State, facing off against the 6 time defending National Champion California Golden Bears would be a boon for their program.
One can dream, right? GO BEARS!
