Cal Sports Report

Cal Sports: A Haunting Silence Envelops Cal Campus Due to Novel Coronavirus

When will the hustle and bustle of the lively Berkeley campus return?
Jake Curtis|
Cal Sports: A Haunting Silence Envelops Cal Campus Due to Novel Coronavirus
Cal Sports: A Haunting Silence Envelops Cal Campus Due to Novel Coronavirus

It's Monday afternoon in mid-March, a week before spring recess -- a time when Sproul Plaza on the Cal campus typically is buzzing with activity. But as you can see in the video above little is going on at the plaza noted for its political platform and general bustle of activity on a campus that serves more than 41,000 students.

COVID-19 has robbed the vibrant plaza of its -- well, its vibrancy.

All sports activity is canceled and students are generally in staying home.

Cal was scheduled to face Saint Mary's, Omaha and Cal Poly in tennis on Tuesday, but there was no need for practice on Monday to prepare, as the courts were almost empty.

The Bears baseball team was scheduled to come back from a weekend series in Pullman against Washington State on Sunday and begin preparations for a series against Stanford to be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Stanford. But there is no activity at Evans Diamond.

The Recreation and Sports Facility (RSF) was open Monday afternoon, but the exercise area that is usually completely filled with people on the treadmills eliptical machines and all sorts of other machines is vacant except for a hardy few.

The section of campus that abuts College Avenue, just down from Memorial Stadium, usually has students streaming across the street, holding up cars wanting to continue down Bancroft. But there were no students crossing on Monday and the area was almost deserted.

The immaculate rugby field (Witter Field) will remain immaculate because it will not be used. The one benefit to the situation is that it's easy to find free parking right next to Memorial Stadium.

That was the end lof my tour through campus, but then, just two blocks from campus, I came across the Trader Joe's on University Avenue. It was limiting the number of people it would allow in the store at a given time, creating a line from the front door down University Avenue.

The chancellor outlined what Cal will be doing going forward: 

Published
Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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