Cal Football: Bill Musgrave Recalls His Rough 1990 Game Against Cal
New Bears offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave calls Cal's Memorial Stadium home now, but his only game at that venue as an Oregon quarterback does not provide a warm and fuzzy memory. It was, in fact, a painful afternoon, as Musgrave notes in the video above.
Musgrave was a four-year starter for the Ducks from 1987 through 1990, and he was a first-team all-Pac-10 selection as a senior. He faced Cal three times, winning just one.
As a redshirt freshman in 1987, Musgrave led the Ducks to 20-6 victory over the Bears in Eugene, Oregon.
Musgrave played just six games in 1988 because of a broken collarbone, but Oregon did not face the Bears that season anyway.
Back in Eugene for the 1989 opener, Musgrave threw three touchown passes in a 35-19 triumph over Cal.
The 1990 season was a breakthrough year for Cal, which finished 7-4-1 and won a bowl game for the first time since the 1937 season. But to get that bowl bid the Bears, then 5-3-1, needed to upset Oregon, which came into that Nov. 10 game in Berkeley with a No. 20 national ranking and a 7-2 record. Musgrave was Oregon's star, and the previous week, he had thrown the game-winning touhdown pass on his final career pass at Autzen Stadium in Eugene.
The good times ended on Nov. 10 for Oregon. Musgrave went 10-for-29 with an interception and was knocked out of the game in the second quarter of the Ducks' 28-3 loss at Cal's Memorial Stadium.
Musgrave recalls the game.
"Yes, I do," he said in the video this week. "Rhett Hall, who was probably coached by Rod Marinelli at the time, rolling out to the left, and uh, it felt like it was late, maybe it wasn't, it felt like it was awfully late after the ball had been thrown, but I remember him landing on me. He planted me like he thought it was Arbor Day out there in the turf. Then finding my way up to the X-ray room in this stadium that I call home now. Not the best of days for an old Oregon Duck quarterback at the time."
Hall went on to play eight seasons in the NFL as a defensive lineman, and Hall and Musgrave were both members of the San Francisco 49ers team that won Super Bowl XXIX.
Marinelli, Cal's defensive line coach in 1990, was the Dallas Cowboys' defensive coordinator this past season and was recently hired as the Raiders' defensive line coach.
