


We were lucky enough to live in the Bay Area. As adults we had sports teams both college and pro to root for and obsess over. Many friends and people I interviewed around the country never had a World Series champion, or a Super Bowl winner or a NBA title. We had three extraordinary runs with the Giants, 49ers and Warriors that were a true blessing of living this life in this time, in this place.
Sports was one of the great distractions of 20th-21st century American culture. It certainly was a healthier pastime for men (and women) than trying to kill their rival tribe. Growing up the Bay Area there were four teams (+Raiders in 70s) we followed… UC California football, SF Giants baseball, Golden State Warriors basketball and San Francisco 49er football.
Bruce was always much more interested in all the statistic detail of the Bay Area teams than me. One thing we did do together that was fun was pick the horse races in the Chronicles “Green Sports Section” (literally printed on green newsprint). We got pretty good at picking winners. I expect if we had really been betting we would not done as well. Later on as adults Jane, Bruce and I became rabid fans as our teams went on unprecedented runs of success after years of mediocre seasons.
The only early memory I have of anything having to do with sports was… I was a Brooklin Dodger fan? I was anti-Yankees. I have no idea where that came from. My dad didn’t follow sports that much. For some reason I loved Duke Snider and the boys more than the hated Mickey Mantel Yankees. I have no memory of liking the NY Baseball Giants. Of course all that changed when the Dodgers came west to LA in 1958 and the Giants came to San Francisco. I do remember my Dad taking us to the old Seals Stadium to see a Pacific Coast minor league baseball game just before the Giants came to town.
Bruce remembers the first Cal Football game we went to with our mother was in 1958. That was the last year that Cal went to the Rose Bowl. The team was quarterbacked by Joe Kapp who would play another pivotal role in Cal football history in the 1980’s. Cal got slaughtered by Iowa in their last appearance in the Rose Bowl in our lifetimes. The Big Ten at that point was much better than the Pacific Coast teams. That was not always the case. Cal football had national teams in the1920’s that dominated, but that was a distant black and white memory.
So, generally growing up in Berkeley the plight of Bay Area sports teams was not great. The Giants, the 49ers, the Warriors and Cal were mediocre with the exception of a few years. That’s why when the great “runs” came for the 49ers, Giants and Warriors it was so much fun for Bruce, Jane and me as adults.
Unfortunately, Cal football never really had an equivalent run of its own. They would get better for a couple of seasons, we would get hopeful and then they would revert. They never made it back to the Rose Bowl before they changed the format to the Collage Football playoff system. We had really thought we might see Cal in the Rose Bowl in our lifetimes, but it was not to be.

Cal Bears Football
The Cal Bear football experience was much more for me than just the games. Our family because of our Grandfather and Mother had a long history at UC Berkeley so it was natural for us to flow towards campus as a “bear” family. And the centerpiece of the walk from Alvarado or Eden was Memorial Stadium, one of the classic bowls built in 1923 in the same time period as Cal Football experienced national glory.
In 1920, Smith produced the first instance of what became known as The Wonder Teams. From 1920 to 1925, The Wonder Teams went 50 straight games without defeat, made three trips to the Rose Bowl, and won four NCAA recognized national titles - 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923. Cal would have another “Thunder” team in 1937 who won the Rose Bowl. The last time Cal won the roses.

We used to play a version of tackle football on the practice fields around the stadium. One time they left the gate open to the stadium and we staged a game there. At one point I caught a pass, faked my man and ran towards the end zone 60 yards away. After about 30 yards I was exhausted.

Bruce and I also sold programs at the games. You could make a little money and get into the game free. The big program selling event was when you were the first one on one of the boosters buses and you sold programs to everyone.

In spite of Cal being an also ran for those years, there were highlights that I will never forget. Watching Chuck Muncie running the ball in 1975. The Bears were 8-3 that year but lost out going to the Rose Bowl because UCLA had beaten them and went in their stead. There was when Cal Beat USC in triple OT on September 27, 2003. And later that year would win the Insight Bowl on a last minute field goal. Matt, Bruce and I were at the game. It was wild. Another example of the brilliant play of Aaron Rogers who would later go on to star in the NFL.


2023 and 2024 were the best Tedford years with Cal just missing out on going to the Rose Bowl in 2004 because of one loss to USC early in the season. They had the ball at the end of the game first down and goal and couldn’t score. Another Cal heartbreak.
The Play
The highlight that will be forever remembered by the us and the football world was… “the play.” It all happened at the “big” game against Stanford in 1982.
Read my full description and watch the video in Chapter 1
The participants would be interviewed later including a Stanford band trombone player who had been knocked over in the end zone by the final Cal runner. His trombone would end up in the College Football Hall of Fame. Who could have figured. In an obscure little game, history was made and we were there.

The 49ers
I have a memory of going with my Uncle Ed to the old Kezar stadium to see the 49ers play. Must have been in late 50’s. Very fuzzy memory. The only thing I really recall is the adults around us were drinking a lot of beer. Some way too much. In the 50’s the 49ers had their star players, YA Tittle, Hugh McElhenny, Joe Perry and Leo Nomellini, but they only made it to the conference title game once and lost.




So, in 1980, when the 49ers under Bill Walsh starting winning I didn’t know what to make of it. I expected them to fold but they kept winning. This was the beginning of a glorious run from 1980-1994 where they won 5 Super Bowls featuring players like Joe Montana, Steve Young, Dwight Clark, Ronnie Lott and so many more.






At the time I was living in Marin with Jane. A friend of ours had a huge home theater where we gathered, drank too much and celebrated. We were red and gold through and through. Bill Walsh and then George Seifert invented what was called at the time the west coast offense. The defense led by Lott also was known for their big hits.
1957 8-4-0 2nd -- Frankie Albert - Lost Conference Playoffs
1970 10-3-1 – Dick Nolan 1st Lost Conference Championship
1971 9-5-0 1st – Dick Nolan - NFC West - Lost Conference Championship
The “Run”
1981 Season - 13-3-0 – Bill Walsh - Won Superbowl - The “Catch” by Dwight Clark to beat the hated Dallas Cowboys in the NFC title game.
1984 Season 15-1-0 - Bill Walsh- Won Superbowl vs. Miami at Stanford
1988 Season - 10-6-0 - Bill Walsh - Won Superbowl vs Bengals. The famous John Candy drive to win on a last minute pass to John Taylor
1989 Season - 14-2-0 - George Seifert - Won Superbowl vs Denver Broncos
1994 Season - 13-3-0 - George Seifert - Won S Bowl vs. San Diego Chargers
The 49ers continued to be successful as a franchise after their 80’s-90’s run was over, but I never felt the same about them after the Walsh/Seifert era. I really respected both of them as coaches and even when they lost I felt they had put the team in the best position to win.
I did not feel the same about Jim Harbaugh and particularly Kyle Shanahan. Harbaugh just seemed spacy and odd and Shanahan had this very bad habit of playing not to lose in the fourth quarter. It cost them so many games including 2 Superbowl’s against Kanas City that you would think he would have learned. He still hasn’t. Lots of good players, but the old team that would finish their opponents was long gone.

Oakland Raiders -Bad Boys
In the middle 1970’s when the 49ers were floundering, we did have the “Raider” phenomenon. And in the early 80’s book ending the first good 49er teams. The Oakland Raiders bad boy image was fun and when they started winning we paid attention. Their coach John Madden went on to become a cultural pro football icon as a broadcaster. I always loved that he traveled on his special bus because he hated to fly. I met him once at a promotional event for EA”s Madden Football.



1976 Season- Oakland Raiders Beat Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI 32–14 Madden – Stabler- Biletnikoff - Casper
1980 Season - Oakland Raiders Beat Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV - Tom Flores Jim Plunkett Lester Hayes
1983 Season - Won Super Bowl XVIII (3) (vs. Redskins) 38–9 Jim Plunkett Marcus Allan

The NBA was not the big thing for us growing up that it is now. In the seventies, the Warriors played at the Cow Palace and won a championship in 1975 led by Rick Berry, but that was it.

That’s why I have this memory later when they played at the Oakland coliseum that we could walk in on any given night and get a decent seat. We came to watch the other teams who were good.That’s why when in 2014 they hired Steve Kerr (five-time NBA champion guard) to take over from Mark Jackson something new started. The team already included the core of what would become the players of the championship runs. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and Kevin Durant.



It was said at the time that Mark Jackson was the one who taught them to play defense, but Kerr brought a new offensive scheme that dominated the league that year. They ended up with the best record in the league and won their first world championship since 1975. AND they were incredibly fun to watch.
They would eventually add other key pieces like Kevin Durant and others. They won four championships in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022. Curry still amazes me with his play, but the Warriors have slipped a bit and the rest of the league has gotten better, but those heady championship days were a thrill of a life time. The only other team I had ever seen play with such joy was the Showtime Lakers with Magic Johnson.

San Francisco Giants
When the Giants came to town they became our national league baseball team. In those early days they featured some all world players like Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal and Willy McCovery.





However, they had not won a World Series since 1954. And they played at Candlestick Park which was the worst place to watch baseball. Many a cold night, Bruce and I sat and watched some version of the Giants mostly lose.
In 1989 when the Oakland A’s and SF Giants met in the World Series, Bruce and I were at Game 3 when the big earthquake hit. That event is chronicled elsewhere in this tome. The Giants lost in four games and we were left to wait again…
Things started to change with the hiring of Bruce Bochy.

Are you seeing the pattern here. Niners hire Bill Walsh and win, Warriors hire Steve Kerr and win and the Giants hire Bochy and win three world series in 2010, 2012, and 2014. (Something about the odd year) And those teams were always the underdogs having to come from behind in post season series after series. Those years also saw players that were highly memorable and colorful. Tim Lincecum (the freak) Brian Wilson (the bearded closer) Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Ángel Pagán, Matt Cain, Sergio Romo, Marco Scutaro, Madison Bumgarner, Ryan Vogelsong, Barry Zito, Gregor Blanco, Brandon Crawford, Hunter Pence, and Brandon Belt.



And spot players like Michael Morse, and Travis Ishikawa who hit the tying and winning home runs against the Cardinals in the National League Championship series game 7. Ishikawa’s home run was one of the most exciting moments I ever witnessed in baseball. Such an unlikely hero. Travis had almost quit baseball that season and then that moment came.

1954 Won World Series (Indians) 4–0[28] Willie Mays was MVP
1962 Lost World Series (Yankees) 4–3
1989 Lost World Series (Athletics) 4–0 - Earthquake Series by the Bay
2002 Lost World Series (Angels) 4–3 They had the series won in the sixth game but blew the game after leading 5–0 with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, eight outs away from the Giants' first World Series title since moving to San Francisco in 1958.
The Run
2010 Won World Series (Rangers) 4–1 - Édgar Rentería (MVP)
2012 Won World Series (Tigers) 4–0 - Buster Posey (MVP)
2014 Won World Series (Royals) 4-3 Madison Bumgarner “Madbum” (MVP)