91 Years After Their 1st Meeting, Cal vs. Hawaii Feels Similar

Most of us weren’t around to remember the first time Cal and Hawaii met on the football field.

It was Jan. 1, 1935 — a bookend to the 1934 season — and on Wednesday the Golden Bears and Rainbow Warriors meet again in the Hawaii Bowl.

The world was a different place 91 years ago. Heck, Hawaii was 25 years away from statehood.

But there are some eerie similarities between that first matchup and what we’re about to watch at 5 p.m. PT on Wednesday.

One big difference: The Bears flew to Hawaii for this one. But commercial air travel from San Francisco to Honolulu was still four months from reality at that point, so the team made it there by ship.

Now for the parallels:

— In 1934, Cal lost to Stanford 9-7 in the Big Game, prompting coach William “Bill” Ingram to resign afterward.

Cal lost 31-10 at Stanford this year and coach Justin Wilcox was fired the next day.

— As a result, both schools had to install new coaches to complete their seasons. Leonard “Stub” Allison was promoted to head coach — a permanent assignment — in ’34. Nick Rolovich, Cal’s offensive analyst this season and one of quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele’s mentors, was named interim coach.

— The setting for the Cal-Hawaii game after the 1934 season was not a bowl game, per se. The two schools had agreed the previous April on a visit by the Bears to play a scheduled game. But both years would end with Cal and Hawaii squaring off on the islands.

— The Bears still had two games on their schedule in 1934 after Ingram stepped away. The Hawaii trip involved Cal playing a pair of games, the first one a Christmas Day matchup vs. a local “town team.” The current Bears closed their regular season with a home game against No. 25 SMU. Then the '34 Bears and Rainbow Warriors squared off in what was dubbed the New Year’s Day Classic.

So far, the 2025 narrative has gone much better for the Bears than it did in ’34.

Allison apparently had only faint hope the trip would produce anything positive after a season during which the Bears had scored seven points or fewer on seven occasions.

“If we lose, I guess we can take it,” Allison told the Associated Press. “At any rate, there won’t be any squawks.”

The Bears did lose . . . both times. The “town team” pinned a 26-3 defeat on Cal and Hawaii won 14-0 a week later, ending a 6-6 Cal campaign. Hawaii wound up 6-0 on the year.

This Cal team, meanwhile, takes significant momentum into Wednesday’s game. And that extends beyond the excitement from Old Blues that Cal alum Tosh Lupoi has been hired as head coach.

With Rolovich holding the reigns, the Bears upset No. 25 SMU 38-35. They can finish with eight victories for the first time since 2019 by beating the Rainbow Warriors.

The postscript to the 1934 Cal season is that Allison got things turned around. He directed the ’35 squad to nine straight victories opening the season before a 13-0 loss in the Big Game.

Two years later, Cal’s “Thunder Team,” powered by running backs Vic Bottari and Sam Chapman and a defense that recorded seven shutouts, went 10-0-1 with a 13-0 win over Alabama in the Rose Bowl.

The Bears shared the 1937 national title with Pittsburgh, a distinction they haven’t enjoyed since.

A tough act to follow for sure, but Lupoi brings confidence to the program and the fan base is energized in a way we haven’t seen in quite some time.

Follow Jeff Faraudo on Twitter, Facebook and Bluesky

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