Farewell to our Pac-12 rivals: Arizona brought us great pain, and great joy

What a bizarre and fruitful rivalry Cal and Arizona have had.

See previous posts in this Farewell series: Utah and Colorado

The future of the Arizona Wildcats feels assured. Or is it?

From a basketball perspective, they continue to knock on the door of blueblood status.

Obviously, Arizona is one of the few programs that is more excited by its basketball escapades, and they have done fairly well here, but the Wildcats haven’t made a Final Four in over 20+ years, so they will have work to do on that front. Perhaps the highly competitive Big 12 basketball scene will elevate their game there.

However, prioritizing basketball is likely why Arizona is down in the Big 12 rather than getting an additional invite to the Big Ten right now. Football is the kingmaker, and the Wildcats never took advantage of their time in the Pac-10 and 12. They added a share of a conference title in 1993, came one shootout away with Oregon in 2009, and added a South Division title in 2014, but aside from some exciting times with Dick Tomey and Rich Rodriguez, Wildcats football never really seemed to be on the verge of breaking through

Until, oddly enough, last year, when Jedd Fisch stumbled onto the unstoppable Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan combination that bowled over five ranked teams in seven weeks to conclude 2023 after investing heavily in NIL. Then the entire coaching staff get turned over to the carousel in Washington. Now the Wildcats will have to try again with a whole new staff led by Brent Brennan and Dino Babers.

There always seemed to be something keeping Arizona from hitting that next level in football. Thankfully, they have the talent available to make moves in a chaotic Big 12. Finances are their biggest concern going forward (that audit was quite painful and will lead to significant short-term changes), but it feels as if they have enough big spenders and big legacy alumni to stem the tide down the road.

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It was agony playing Arizona.

Sure, there was basketball. While no football fanbase really rankled emotions on trips to Cal, Arizona basketball fans were especially obnoxious. Whenever they showed up in Berkeley, they got loud, they made noise, and they kept it going the whole game with the same damned chant.

But basketball wasn’t the agony. Cal is generally a major underdog to Arizona in hoops. Any win that the Bears earn here comes as a pleasant surprise.

No, the real agony came in football, because the losses were so unpredictable. The Bears lost six heartbreakers of various sorts to Wildcats teams of varying degrees (Pac-12 title contenders to one win squads) since 2010. They involved missed field goals, Hail Marys, fumbled pick-sixes, COVID protocols. If you want to understand the misery of Cal fandom, find a modern Arizona game and you’d understand.

And of course, there is 2006, the inflection point of Cal football, where the tantalizing dream of a Rose Bowl began to fall apart due to conference officiating, one stumble short of the end zone, two or three errant throws and one cruel tip of the shoe. The Bears haven’t won in Tucson since.

I do not want to talk about those games. No one here wants to remember those games.

The marquee moments came in the hardcourt, highlighted by some memorable times in the past decade.

There was Cal snapping an Arizona 19 game winning streak in 1993 at the Oakland Coliseum (you know it better as Roaracle), catapulting them on the way to the NCAA Tournament and an upset of Duke.

There was Lamond Murray hitting the game-tying three to force an overtime win, and Arizona’s third loss in 103 games at McKale in 1994.

Leon Powe and Amit Tamir pulled the game of their lives to lead the upset of a not-great Cal team over 12th ranked Arizona.

Cal would sweep Arizona in 2008-09 behind the nucleus of the squad that would eventually capture the 2010 Pac-10 title.

There was Allen Crabbe going unconscious in Tucson to hand the Bears their last win in McKale a decade ago.

There was Jaylen Brown hitting the game-winning free throw in 2016 to help Cal upset #12 Arizona and preserve an undefeated season at home.

And of course, there was Justin Cobbs knocking off #1 Arizona in Mike Montgomery’s farewell season.

Despite the relative dominance of Arizona basketball, some of the happiest memories as a Cal fan have come for the Bears against the Wildcats on a random winter night in Berkeley.

These memories will be missed, even amidst the tons of psychic pain we’ve had to endure in the desert.