Cal Athletics now has 100 Team National Championships

Here is the full list of all 100 team national championships

The Pac-12 Conference calls itself the “Conference of Champions” and on June 5th, 2022, Cal became just the 4th Pac-12 school to claim a triple-digit number of team championships when Cal Men’s Rowing won their 18th national championship. It is perhaps more impressive to say that Cal joins UCLA, Stanford, and USC as the only schools in the entire United States to reach 100 team titles.

Given the long history of collegiate sports and how the NCAA does not govern every sponsored sport, the official counts for various schools follow somewhat different criteria. For example, Penn State officially only claims 80 team national championships although a certain Wiki page says it is 98. That same page¹ also has Cal at only 58 because it does not count rugby to shortchange Cal by 33 and considered total points (the Ten Eyck trophy) rather than just Varisty 8+ result (as dictated by tradition) as the main IRA men’s rowing titles.

The current count of 100 is how Cal Athletics has opted to count their team national championships on sports that are officially sponsored by the university, so no club championships² and no eSports (yet). A quick Internet search reveals that Cal has also won 9 rifle championships (1898, 1899, 1902, 1907, 1952, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959) and even a bowling championship in 1979 (yes, the video of this is on YouTube) that are NOT included in the official list of 100. One might also count two tennis titles in 1924 and 1925 based on Cal sweeping both the singles and doubles titles in those years when there were no official team championships. So the 100 could be 112 if one wants to count all those.

Below is the list of all 100 Team National Championships earned in Cal history.

Cal Athletics @CalAthletics

1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ California earns its 100th team national championship with today’s @CalMRowing title! #GoBears

• Rugby (33)
  1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013^, 2014^, 2015^, 2016, 2016^, 2017, 2017^

• Men's Rowing+ (18 - Based on Varsity Eight finish)
  1928, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1949, 1960, 1961, 1964, 1976, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2016, 2022

• Men's Water Polo* (15)
  1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 2006, 2007, 2016, 2021

• Men's Swimming & Diving* (7)
  1979, 1980, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2019, 2022

• Football# (5)
  1920: Billingsley, Football Research, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation
  1921: Boand, Football Research
  1922: Houlgate, National Championship Foundation
  1923: Houlgate
  1937: Dunkel, Helms

• Women's Rowing%* (5 - Based on combined team finish)
  1980%, 2005*, 2006*, 2016*, 2018*

• Women's Swimming & Diving* (4)
  2009, 2011, 2012, 2015

• Men's Gymnastics* (4)
  1968, 1975, 1997, 1998

• Men's Tennis (2)
  1980**, 1989**

• Baseball* (2)
  1947, 1957

• Men's Track & Field* (1)
  1922

• Men's Basketball* (1)
  1959

• Men's Golf* (1)
  2004

• Softball* (1)
  2002

• Women's Tennis (1)
  2016**

*NCAA
^Rugby 7s
**Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Indoor Championship
%National Women's Rowing Association
+Intercollegiate Rowing Association
!Collegiate Rugby Championship
#Various Polls

On that note, I will most likely not write another post until the fall. Once upon a time, I had thought that it might be a nice time to retire from blogging when Cal gets to 100 championships (I also thought this would happen around 2020 and I might stop after the Tokyo Olympics). But I think I can still keep this time-consuming hobby for the near future because I have yet to experience the supposedly life-altering event of having a kid.

I incorrectly thought that we might have a clearer picture of the future of Cal Athletics after an expected NCAA reform, but that is not the case despite legislation being drafted that is trying to force these issues. If/when in the next few years, the expected drastic changes do finally hit Cal Athletics, I am sure I will have opinions about that.

Enjoy the summer, Cal fans!

ROLL ON YOU BEARS!

1. Yes, that is just a Wikipedia page so any one of us Cal fans could correct it at any time.

2. Did you know that the California taekwondo team has won 32 national team championships from 1976 through 2018? I sure did not until I read that on Wikipedia.