California Golden Bears

Today marks number three on our countdown of the Pac 10 Conference teams.

The California Golden Bears football team was established in 1882. And, not until 1886, were the golden Bears officially playing American football instead of a more rugby-like game. I don't know if it was due to the rugby-nature in this group of men, but in 1906 the California Bears football team was suspend...for being too rough! I thought this was a football game, not tryouts for the cheerleader squad.

The University of California-Berkley was able to reinstate their football team in 1916 and granted their team their very own California Memorial Stadium in 1923. Since they began their program, the California Golden Bears have won two national titles and fourteen conference titles.

Jeff Tedford is now the head coach for the Golden Bears football team. Coach Tedford began coaching in 2001 and the first three years they suffered major losses. Finally, Tedford helped revitalize the program to get the Bears back on track, bringing the team to several bowl games.

Their mascot was actually once a live bear, but now a human dressed as a bear. This mascot bear is dubbed Oski and its the identity of all students who don the Oski costume is carefully kept a secret forever.

With its rich history and strong future, I am excited to see where the Golden Bears will go next!

California Golden Bears Head Coach Jeff Tedford sets out to do it again

The California Golden Bears are often an overlooked team in the Pacific-Ten Conference. With the USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins taking up most of the California college football talk, the Cal Golden Bears often are left behind. What isn’t overlooked when referencing Golden Bears football is head coach Jeff Tedford.

Jeff Tedford joined the Cal Golden Bears roster in 2002 and since then has enjoyed great success. Other than his first season with the Cal Golden Bears, Coach Teford’s teams have made it to post-season play, winning 5 of 6 bowl games including a stand-out performance against the Texas A&M Aggies in the 2006 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl. The Golden Bears swept the Aggies 45-10 and went on to be the Pacific 10 Champions that season.

While Coach Jeff Tedford’s record with the California Golden Bears is enough to keep him a topic in football talk, what is really impressive is his ability to turn out great quarterbacks. Known to his peers and football critics as “the groomer of NFL quarterbacks” Jeff Tedford has coached 5 first round draft picks since 1994. Notably, Jeff Tedford coached Super Bowl Winner Trent Difler and Brett Favre’s successor on the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers.


This season the California Golden Bears will bring back Junior Quarterback Kevin Riley who in his first season as the primary starter racked up an impressive record book including the school record for most pass attempts in a single game, 58 against Maryland. The Cal Golden Bears roster also includes 4 back-up quarterbacks who all are young and still have a lot of time to be guided by Jeff Tedford. Rumors are already circulating that Coach Tedford could send more than of his Cal Golden Bears players to the draft in the next few years.