California Field

California Field
Location	Berkeley
Owner	University of California
Capacity	20,000
Opened	1904
Closed	1922

California Field was an outdoor football stadium on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley. It served as the home field for the University of California Golden Bears from 1904 through the 1922 season.

California Field opened its doors in 1904 to replace the antiquated West Field and the boosted capacity allowed California to host important games for the first time. Before California Field opened, the Bears had played important games (namely the Big Game) at neutral site venues in San Francisco, and with a new 20,000 seat stadium California was able to host the first Big Game played outside of San Francisco. The new stadium was located much closer to the center of campus (where Hearst Gymnasium now stands) and was able to draw unprecedented crowds for the time. California Field is also notable because it is where many of California's longstanding traditions began to take form. In 1910, the first card stunt was performed at the Big Game and after victories, the students would "serpentine" around the field—something that is mentioned in the song "Big C". California Field is also where the Golden Bears gained national prominence under head coach Andrew Latham Smith. Four of the Bears five consecutive undefeated seasons were played at California Field and housed the stadium was home to three of California's four straight (claimed) national championships. Because of this success, California needed an even larger venue to host its football team, therefore, the team and its fans began pushing for a new stadium.^[1]

The stadium also hosted the first ever international rugby matches played by the U.S. national rugby team -- USA v. Australia in 1912 and USA v. New Zealand in 1913, both matches drawing 10,000 fans.^[2]

References

↑ "The House that Andy Built: The Making of Memorial Stadium". California Golden Blogs. December 15, 2010. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
↑ http://stats.espnscrum.com/scrum/rugby/records/team/highest_attendance.html?id=11;type=team

California Golden Bears football

Venues	California Field (1904–1922) California Memorial Stadium (1923–2010, 2012–present) AT&T Park (2011)

Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Stanford: Big Game (Stanford Axe) UCLA

Culture & lore	Oski "Fight for California" Marching band Tightwad Hill The Play

People	Head coaches Starting quarterbacks NFL draftees Statistical leaders

Seasons	1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

National championship seasons in bold

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