Name-a-Day Calendar, December 14: California Golden Bears
Page 38 of 365
Chosen in: 1895
Chosen by: English professor Charles Mills Gayley and the track and field team
Welcome to California! I’m using each individual school’s preferred athletic branding, so the order of some schools here might be a tad confusing. I promise I’m not just skipping teams.
Before the turn of the 20th century, college athletics were a lot more regional than they are today; cross-country travel was a lot less convenient, so teams from the Pacific coast rarely faced off against teams from the Northeast. Because most collegiate sports originated in the Northeast, the general wisdom was that schools from this region were athletically superior.
The University of California sought to buck both of these trends in 1895 by sending their track meet on a tour to several high-profile meets in the Northeast and Midwest. The Berkeley team stunningly dominated this tour, even winning the esteemed Eastern Track Meets against multiple Ivy League schools, and they made their mark by displaying a navy blue banner with a golden grizzly bear at every meet.
English professor Charles Mills Gayley was so moved by the team’s performance that he wrote a whole song about it – “Golden Bear”1 – and from that moment on, California was the Golden Bears.
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Next page: California Baptist Lancers
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It’s a pretty catchy song at that; give it a listen!