Counting Down Cal's Top-50 Transfer Athletes: No. 1 Mark McNamara

The transfer portal era in college athletics seems like it’s been with us forever. Likewise, most fans can recall less turbulent times when transfers happened, they simply didn’t look like a stampede to the 1849 California Gold Rush.

We thought it was time to rank the best transfers Cal teams have attracted, most of them in recent seasons but also including a few OGs from yesteryear.

We limited our ranking to transfers from four-year colleges.

Here is the final athlete in our countdown:

1. Mark McNamara

Sport: Basketball

Arrival year at Cal: 1979-80

Previous school: Santa Clara (1977-78 & 1978-79, averaged 13.1 points and 6.7 rebounds in 54 games)

Contributions at Cal:

— A 6-foot-11, 235-pound center, McNamara sat out as a transfer for coach Dick Kuchen in 1979-80 then averaged 17.2 points and a Pac-10 best 10.6 rebounds as a junior.

— He led the Pac-10 in both scoring (22.0) and rebounds (12.6) as a senior and set Cal’s single-season field-goal percentage record of 70.2 (231-329). He logged 20 double-doubles that season, which tied a school record. McNamara’s performance earned him a spot on the All-Pac-10 first team.

— The left-hander assembled six career games of at least 30 points, setting a program record later matched by Ed Gray. Among those games was his career-high 37 points against Seattle Pacific in his sixth game with the Bears as a junior on Dec. 22, 1980.

— McNamara scored 1,041 career points at Berkeley, the third-most by a two-year Golden Bear (behind Ryan Anderson with 1,236 points and Ed Gray with 1,082). His 19.6 per-game scoring mark in 53 games at Cal is the second-highest average in program history (Ed Gray 20.0).

— His 11.6 rebounding average over two seasons is the No. 3 career mark at Cal. McNamara grabbed at least 20 rebounds in a game four times for the Bears.

Standout performance: McNamara turned in his best outing on Feb. 19, 1982 at Pauley Pavilion, where he scored 36 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in a 70-65 overtime loss to UCLA. That matched the highest point total by a Cal player against UCLA, a record shared by Bob McKeen and Lamond Murray. McNamara shot 13 for 19 from the field and 10 for 12 from the free throw line while playing the entire 45 minutes. The outcome was a near-miss for the Bears, who were hoping to snap a 45-game losing streak against the Bruins.

Impact on his team: Cal was just 27-27 in McNamara’s two seasons, but he helped elevate the program’s presence. Chosen No. 23 by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1982 NBA draft, McNamara was just the third Golden Bear selected in the first round and the first since Phil Chenier in 1971. He played eight years in the NBA.

Previously on our list:

No. 2: Jacob De Jesus

No. 3: Jaylon Tyson

No. 4: Nohl Williams

Follow Jeff Faraudo on Twitter, Facebook and Bluesky

Add us as a preferred source on Google