Dave Albee
IT WAS a surreal scene for sure at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Oh, the band is out on the field! Yes, the Leland Stanford Junior University marching band actually ventured once again onto the turf when it shouldn't have, but this time it was much different. Members of the Stanford band were playing a touch-football game - instead of interrupting a real one - and, as they did this, Christmas carols were being played over the public address system. Looks and sounds like a sequel to Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas." In reality, it was Saturday, three hours before the first Big Game ever contested in December, and, in one respect, it was the Biggest Big Game ever. Never before has the Axe been so coveted - to be used to cut wood to build a fire. It was bone-chilling, flag-snapping windy, cold enough to turn Tightwad Hill into Tight-knit Sweater Hill. It was so cold that Jack Frost joined many agitated, impatient Stanford boosters in nipping at the nose - and posterior - of beleaguered Stanford coach Walt Harris. It was so gusty that the Stanford Tree was swaying so much someone might have yelled "Timber" and Oski might have been pushed onto the Polar Bear Express. The cold and wind were the main topic of conversation after the game, more so than the intensity and entertainment value of the Bay Area rivals grappling on the gridiron under adverse conditions. Coming into the 109th Big Game, Stanford was thought to have as much chance of winning as hell has of freezing over. Well, the Cardinal picked a good day to try. Cal, with a Holiday Bowl berth already stuffed in its stocking, had lukewarm interest in the game and gave the Cardinal every opportunity to steal it with what Harris called "our A-game."
"Coming off some tough losses (to Arizona and USC) we were a little down. We were looking to this game to get our swagger back and I think we did that," said Cal senior backup quarterback Joe Ayoob of San Rafael, who was the first player to be introduced on Senior Day "It wasn't as pretty or as big of a win as we wanted."
It wasn't the blowout most of a sellout crowd of 72,516 anticipated. Thank or blame Mother Nature for that. It caught the teams by surprise and altered Cal's game plan, which called for more deep pass plays. "I never saw the wind coming. I thought it was going to be a great day," said Cal coach Jeff Tedford. "As far as gusting, that's probably one of the windiest games I've ever been a part of," Ayoob said. The wind was listed as only 9 mph in the official box score, but Cal football media relations director John Sudsbury said the Weather Channel reported gusts up to 21 mph. "I've been in hurricanes. It was more than that," said Sudsbury, who came to Cal from Tulane University in New Orleans. Consequently, there were more field goals in the game than touchdowns, but one of them was memorable. Ayoob, a product of Terra Linda High, will not hold any Cal records when he leaves Berkeley, but now he is a holder for a Cal record. Ayoob handled the snap for Tom Schneider's 55-yard field goal with the wind at his back in the first quarter, tying Robbie Keen for the longest in Cal history. Coincidence? Ayoob wears No. 18 and it's been 18 years since Keen's kick. "It wasn't as clean of a kick as it could have been," Schneider said. "If he could have got ahold of it, he could have kicked it 65," Ayoob said.
The field goal gave Cal a 3-0 lead it never surrendered. It was the signature play of the game on a chili-dog-and-hot-chocolate day. That in itself was as odd as the Stanford male band member who wore panty hose and not much else. It was a bizarre day all around. The Cardinal played about as well as they could and seemed satisfied with their effort against Cal, even though it resulted in their 11th loss of the season, the most by a Stanford football team in its 115-year history. And the Bears, despite beating Stanford for the fifth consecutive time, were haunted again by that 24-20 loss at Arizona on Nov. 11, which, in hindsight, cost them a trip to the Rose Bowl since UCLA upset No. 2 USC on Saturday. Cal wound up being Pac-10 co-champion and is still going to the Holiday Bowl. Big deal. Still, there was cause for some celebration. "Afterwards it was pretty special," Ayoob said. "Somebody lifted me up into the crowd and they were going crazy. I was signing autographs. People were taking pictures. It was a lot of fun."
Good for him. On a day when the wind whipped the excitement out of the Big Game atmosphere, at least Ayoob had a blast.
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