Tag Archives: Cal Bears
Cal football coach Jeff Tedford sacked after 3-9 season
Jeff Tedford, head coach of the Cal Golden Bears football team since 2002, was fired today after a 3-9 season and a combined 15-22 record over the last three seasons. Tedford was the highest paid state employee in California, with a salary of $2.3 million a year. His contract with Cal ran through the 2015 season.
“This was an extraordinarily difficult decision, one that required a thorough and thoughtful analysis of a complex set of factors,” Cal Athletic Director Sandy Barbour said in a press statement. “Ultimately, I believed that we needed a change in direction to get our program back on the right track. Cal football is integral to our department and our university, and its influence can be felt well beyond the walls of Memorial Stadium. The program clearly serves as an important part of the connective tissue that binds our community together, and it is imperative that Cal football be recognized as a leader in competitive success, academic achievement and community engagement.” … Continue reading »
Cal Memorial Stadium unveiled after 21-month renovation
On Friday, the great and the good of UC Berkeley unveiled the newly renovated Memorial Stadium, the result of more than 30 years of planning, $321 million in pledged funding, many feats of seismic engineering, and 21 months of construction.
The project encountered some unexpected obstacles along the way, not least the presence of a group of protesters who spent 19 months perched in trees on the university property in a bid to prevent their removal. “Very colorful, as only Berkeley can produce,” said UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau recalling the episode. He stressed, however, that he was confident everyone will be nothing less than awed with the revamped shrine to Cal football. … Continue reading »
With stadium reopening near, Cal revamps ticket sales
See update at bottom of article
Three weeks before the refurbished Cal Memorial Stadium is set to open, university officials are taking a new, more aggressive, approach to selling the premium seats that are the backbone of the stadium’s financing plan.
Instead of relying on Cal’s sports development office to reach out to loyal alums, the athletic department is hiring a professional sales staff to target prospects, according to Solomon (Solly) Fulp, the athletic department’s COO. Officials hope the outreach program will jump-start sales for the Endowment Seating Program, which offers ticket holders premium club seats for 30 years for prices ranging from $40,000 to $225,000.
Cal has sold about 70% of its 3,200 premium seats and has raised $145 million through the Endowment Seating Program, well short of its $309 million goal, according to the Cal Bears website. The university has only sold 14 premium seats since Dec. 2011, according to the website, a rate that is lower than officials expected. … Continue reading »
Brittany Boyd: A Berkeley role model makes waves at Cal
By Will Rohrer
Lindsay Gottlieb already had Brittany Boyd’s number. The Cal’s women’s basketball coach recalls her whirlwind inauguration as the head of UC Berkeley’s program last April: “I was flying up here and was excited to meet the current team, but the first priority became… recruits. I was in the car on the way to the press conference and Brittany Boyd was already in my phone.”
Even if you’re not a big sports fan, it’s likely you will have heard Brittany Boyd’s name mentioned over the past few weeks.
The Cal women’s basketball team just concluded a strong year, featuring a 25-10 record, a second place finish in the Pac-12, and an NCAA tournament appearance. One reason for their success is first-year player Boyd, who was selected to the Pac-12 all-freshman team. … Continue reading »
Inside Berkeley’s newest, most discreet, building
In a few weeks, a brand new, 145,000 sq. ft. building will open its doors in Berkeley. Architects, engineers and construction crews have been working on it for almost three years, and the scale of the endeavor cannot be underestimated. However it’s likely you haven’t even spotted this building; and, even when it’s fully operational by the beginning of next year, it will continue to be largely hidden from public view.
Cal’s new Student-Athlete High Performance Center, built at a cost of $150 million in private donations, has been designed to be almost entirely invisible. Sited largely underground, it hugs the west side of the Memorial Stadium. From the street, the facility appears to be simply a long, stone-clad wall which follows the curve of the stadium.
“The beauty of the design is that it maximizes views of the stadium and keeps that as the architectural focus,” said Bob Milano, Assistant Athletic Director at UC Berkeley as he took this reporter on a tour.
Road closure adds more woes for UC Berkeley neighbors
By Niclas Ericsson
The east side of Piedmont Avenue – one of the main routes across the top of the UC Berkeley campus – was shut down May 23 for the summer, leading some nearby residents to complain about the continuing disruption caused by construction projects in the area.
James McClury, an architecture student, said getting around the east side of campus has been difficult this year with all the construction vehicles clogging the roads, and he expected the traffic situation to grow worse with the closure of Piedmont Avenue.
“But it’s impossible to stop it,” said McClury. “The university is like the guerrilla gorilla of Berkeley, they can do whatever they want.”
Jack Chang, who was packing up to leave for his summer holidays, said he not happy about the closing down of one lane of Piedmont Avenue.
“That’s going to be a mess,” he said. … Continue reading »
Berkeley: Say hello to Cal football season
School is officially in session at UC Berkeley, which means the 2010 Cal football season is upon us.
It officially begins on Saturday with the 1:00pm game against UC Davis at Memorial Stadium. Next year, games will be taking place at AT&T Park due to construction, so I’m guessing this season opener will be particularly enthusiastic.
What’s that you say? You’re not into football? You just don’t get it and think it’s all just a waste of time?
Oh, my … Continue reading »
