Skip to main content

What does it say about a college football program if its greatest season is judged to have taken place 83 years ago?

That's what CBS Sports has come up with for Cal in its discussion of the best seasons ever to be spawned by each school in the Pac-12 Conference.

The story identifies the Bears' 1937 "Thunder Team" as the program's best-ever. Cal was 10-0-1 that season, outscoring its opponents 214-33, including a 13-0 win over No. 4 Alabama in the Rose Bowl that clinched the Bears' most recent national championship.

You didn't know Cal had won a national championship?

That's because you're under 100 years old.

*** New Cal offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave talks about the style of offense the Bears will play in 2020:

How long ago was 1937?

Well, FDR was president . . . of course, he was president for a long time.

OK, this: The Golden Gate Bridge opened that year. 

The Hindenburg disaster was in 1937. Amelia Earhart was lost on her attempted flight around the world. Gasoline was 20 cents a gallon. Joe DiMaggio hit 46 home runs for the Yankees. The Splendid Splinter's future wife, Marilyn Monroe, was 11 years old.

Meanwhile, coach Stub Allison's Bears posted seven shutouts and rode the legs of consensus All-America halfback Sam Chapman to their spectacular season.

Actually, we're not convinced 1937 was Cal's greatest season. The 1920 Bears, the first of coach Andy Smith's "Wonder Teams," were 9-0, outscored their opponents 510-14 and crushed Ohio State 28-0 in the Rose Bowl.

But that's ancient history, right? Well, so is 1937, and that's kind of the point. Even Cal does not consider the "modern" era of its football annals to begin until 1946, as in post-World War II.

Cal has had some very good seasons since then. The Bears even made it back to the Rose Bowl four more times, although they lost all of them and their most recent appearance was 61 years ago.

In the CBS Sports story, Cal's greatest season is decades before the best produced by most other Pac-12 schools. Here's the chronological order (most recent to oldest) of their rankings: Oregon 2012, Stanford 2010, Utah 2004, Oregon State 2000, Arizona 1998, Washington State 1997, Arizona State 1996, Washington 1991, Colorado 1990, USC 1972, UCLA 1954 . . . Cal 1937.

Four of them are from this century, five others from the 1990s. And while USC's chosen season was nearly 50 years ago, the Trojans have won four national title since then. Cal's selection is 17 years earlier than UCLA, which is the second-oldest.

Yep, the Bears have some work to do.