With Bill Belichick Visiting, How Has Cal Fared vs. Coaching Legends?

Bill Belichick’s first season so far as coach at North Carolina has been a mess.

The Tar Heels are 2-3 entering Friday night’s visit to Cal and his program has been described as dysfunctional, with subplots and rumors surfacing on a near daily basis.

Still, while the Bears are double-digit favorites, they are facing a 73-year-old coach whose NFL record is unmatched. Belichick won 302 games, including six Super Bowls with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

Cal has never competed against a coach with his exact resume, but the Bears have faced their share of coaching legends. Here’s how they have fared in football and men’s and women’s basketball against some of the biggest names in their sport:

Football

Alabama coach Bear Bryant | Joe Rudis / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK

PAUL “BEAR” BRYANT, Alabama: 0-1

The Bears lost 66-0 in the 1973 season opener in front of 71,119 at Legion Field in Birmingham. The Crimson Tide rolled up a school-record 667 yards of offense on the way to winning their first 11 games before losing 24-23 to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. Bryant won 323 games as a college coach, including 232 in 25 season at ‘Bama from 1958 through ’82.

WOODY HAYES, Ohio State: 0-4

The Bears never beat Hayes, who was 205-61-10 with the Buckeyes from 1951 through ’78. Two of Cal coach Pappy Waldorf’s later teams were competitive in defeats in 1953 and ’54. The Buckeyes had decisive wins in two matchups in the early 1970s.

USC coach John McKay | Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images

JOHN McKAY, USC: 2-12-1

The Bears played McKay’s teams every season from 1960 through ’75, losing the first 10 meetings. No one else had much better luck against his Trojans, who went 127-40-8 over those 16 seasons, thanks to great running backs that included Heisman Trophy winners Mike Garrett and O.J. Simpson. The Bears won their final matchup vs. McKay, the 1975 team posting a 28-14 conquest of the No. 4 Trojans on their way to a Pac-8 co-championship.

TOM OSBORNE, Nebraska: 0-1

Osborne played quarterback at tiny Hastings College in Nebraska and was chosen in the 19th round of the 1959 NFL draft by the 49ers, who then released him. Osborne was much more successful as a coach, winning 255 games and three national titles with the Cornhuskers from 1973 through 1997. His 10th-ranked team beat the Bears 36-26 in the 1978 opener.

Michigan coach Bo Schembechler | Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images

BO SCHEMBECHLER, Michigan: 0-2

Schembechler won 194 games and 13 Big Ten Conference titles for the Wolverines from 1969 through ’89, and his teams beat Cal 14-10 in 1979 and 38-13 a year later.

GLENN “POP” WARNER, Stanford: 1-5-3

Warner already had 212 coaching victories in his Hall of Fame career when he left Pitt for Stanford before the 1924 campaign. Andy Smith’s Cal teams were almost unbeatable the first few years of the decade, but Stanford tied the Bears 20-20 in 1924 and won 27-14 a year later in Smith’s final game before his death a month later. Cal didn’t beat Warner until 1931, when first-year coach Bill Ingram orchestrated a 6-0 victory.

BUD WILKINSON, Oklahoma: 0-1

Wilkinson won 145 games and three national championships in 17 seasons through 1963 at Oklahoma. In 1954, Pappy Waldorf’s 12th-ranked Bears welcomed him to Memorial Stadium, where the No. 2 Sooners claimed a 27-13 victory.

Men’s basketball

PHOG ALLEN, Kansas: 3-6

The namesake of KU’s basketball fieldhouse, Allen was perhaps the game’s first great college coach. He played at Kansas under Dr. James Naismith, who invented the sport, and went on to win 590 games as coach of the Jayhawks. Cal’s Nibs Price dueled Allen eight times between 1928 and 1936, winning twice. Allen was 69 years old and in his second-to-last season in 1954-55 when Cal first-year coach Pete Newell, 39, directed the Bears to a 65-62 victory over the 16th-ranked Jayhawks.

Indiana coach Bob Knight and Steve Alford celebrate a national championship | Larry Crewell / Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

BOB KNIGHT, Army & Indiana: 2-1

Knight was a reserve player on the Ohio State team that routed Newell’s defending national champion Bears in the 1960 NCAA title game. Cal had better success against Knight the coach. The 1969-70 Cal squad, featuring future NBA guards Phil Chenier and Charlie Johnson, beat Knight’s Army team 57-51. Knight’s Hoosiers topped the Bears in 1980 but the Bears squared things in the 1990 NCAA tournament, winning 65-63 in their first appearance at the event in 30 years.

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI, Duke: 2-2

College basketball’s all-time winningest men’s coach with 1,204 victories (including five national titles) over 42 seasons, Coach K beat the Bears twice. But Cal won the first matchup, 76-71 in its 1982-83 season opener at the Oakland Coliseum. And the Bears prevailed in the game fans most remember, with Jason Kidd leading the way to an 82-77 triumph over the two-time defending national champs in the second round of the 1993 NCAA tournament.

DEAN SMITH, North Carolina: 0-3

Among his 879 career victories (along with 11 Final Fours and two national titles), Smith was perfect against the Bears. Cal gave his Tar Heels, featuring Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter, a battle in the Sweet 16 round of the 1997 NCAA tournament before losing 63-57. It was the second-to-last victory of Smith’s 36-year career.

John Wooden and wife Nell after UCLA's 1973 NCAA title | Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images

JOHN WOODEN, UCLA: 17-56

Cal coaching great Pete Newell won his final eight matchups against Wooden before retiring after the 1960 season. Wooden then beat the Bears 33 of the final 34 times he faced then, including 32 in a row to trigger a 52-game Bruins’ win streak. The Wizard won 620 games and brought eight NCAA titles to Westwood before retiring after the 1975 season.

Women’s basketball

GENO AURIEMMA, UConn: 1-6

Geno Auriemma celebrates UConn's 2025 national championship | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The winningest coach in women’s basketball history had not yet won the first of his record 12 national championships when Cal posted a 76-70 victory over the Huskies during the 1991-92 season. Auriemma has won all six meetings since.

TARA VANDERVEER, Stanford: 12-71

The Bears beat VanDerveer three times in their first four meetings, but rarely got the best of her going foward. VanDerveer held the women’s record for coaching victories until Auriemma took it, and 71 of her 1,064 triumphs at Stanford came at the Bears’ expense.

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