Scheduling a day around when I can watch Cal games is getting tougher as I get older and busier. I don’t know how people do this! I can really feel my age coming along as I begin to rely on recording/replay to watch the games the next day, but yesterday was different.
I’ve got less football to talk about, but plenty to tell you as far as how much football can bring people together. Yesterday afternoon, I made plans to watch the Cal football game against Wagner after seeing a few posts on X about CalGoldenBars.com. While I am not a bars nor a betting man, I figured this game was as much of a lock that nobody needed to worry about the win or loss result, but rather the “spread” and visible holes that can be exploited by teams in the FCS would be more of a thing to focus on while actually just enjoying a football game – and thus this would be a beat down to enjoy in a new setting.
Having recently moved to Los Angeles from the Bay Area, where I lived my entire life, all the people I know down here are the SoCal Bears I met during my years at Cal. I reached out to one of my close friends in the area, and we found ourselves seated in a booth at Drugstore Cowboy on Sunset Boulevard.
With Clemson-UNC in a weather delay and Kentucky beating down Texas A&M on the two outer screens, the Cal-Wagner game was centralized right where the entire bar could see it – and surrounding us were fellow Cal fans, alumni, and community members of Los Angeles who were just happy to watch a game surrounded by people with perhaps just one thing in common.
Organizing this event was a gentleman named Craig, who is deviating from the typical Busby’s West bar in Santa Monica where watch parties typically take place and beginning something completely fresh for the Valley and 210-commuters, with the Cal Alumni Club of Los Angeles taking over Drugstore Cowboy.
Serving free, blue-colored shots to every table, handing out schedule placards, having “Fight for California” play after each touchdown, and knowing just how much to mingle with each table – for the afternoon, Craig helped turn Drugstore Cowboy into a mini–Cal Bar.
The game itself: 49-7. Amazing, relaxing, and a bit ugly on special teams. I was practically lying comfortably in my booth chatting with my friend as well as the table next to us by the time we hit the fourth quarter. Dare I say, I haven’t felt this elevated about Cal football since being in Berkeley on gameday, hitting Kingfish, Raleigh’s, and Tap Haus all in one day and regretting it all because my team lost; not because of what I had consumed.
In those days (Wilcox), Cal was doomed to be 5-7 or 6-6. So, I at least had little faith and was going in ready for heartbreak. Right now, Cal is not in the heartbreak business. It’s win-now, and get people on board with what Rich Luons, Ron Rivera, and Tosh Lupoi are selling.
Cal has fans across the state, making plans on a Saturday afternoon to get together and watch their team, all because we can’t all buy in and be there at California Memorial Stadium on Saturdays. When Cal Football is exciting like it is right now, these are the kinds of things that will continue to tell the whole damn world this is bear territory.
Next week, it is a much more important game, and a Friday night at a bar sounds much more ideal than a Saturday afternoon – no disrespect to those who partake in that; I just do not have the stomach capacity for this anymore. Craig’s mingling at each table had a crucial selling point as well, and that was that he really wants to keep doing this for the East LA/Valley residents, while keeping Busby’s West for West LA/Santa Monica.
While I would love to be in Strawberry Canyon on Friday night against Dabo Swinney and Clemson, it’s just not feasible anymore, and I miss it, but lucky for me, there are Cal fans here who are also missing that sense of gameday enjoyment, and are eager to go out and be around like-minded Bears who want to show their support in such a crucial moment of Cal Football history.
This is what a growing Cal team is currently able to attract away from Berkeley – so, an even better team will only draw larger crowds to your watch parties. Perhaps this is not a new thing as far as college football, or even Cal goes, but if yesterday told me anything, it’s that people are excited now, and now is the time to capitalize on that. I know I’m excited to go back next week.