<p>OK so i'm not that into it yet. i mean we have been losing against them for quite some time now right? anyway, it sucks that we only have 7000 undergrads at stanford and berkely has 79084994020. i will say that i saw a girl with a berkely t-shirt when i went to puerto rico a month ago and was tempted to jokingly say "go cardinal" in her face. but other than that, i guess i'll have to wait til nov 19 to get into it.</p>
<p>As you have hinted, the rivalry basically comes down to sports, with the exception of academic things like the fight over the Mark Twain papers. Unfortunately for you, you will most likey not get the chance to see you Cardnal win a big game while you are a student, but thats ok. Hey, there's always water polo, or whatever it is that you guys are good at.</p>
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Hey, there's always water polo, or whatever it is that you guys are good at.
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<p>STANFORD kicks a ss in tennis man. 18 titles for the men and 12 (+1 for 2005) for the women. check out all the championships at <a href="http://gostanford.collegesports.com/trads/stan-trads-champs.html%5B/url%5D">http://gostanford.collegesports.com/trads/stan-trads-champs.html</a></p>
<p>Yeah, and we all know tennis is THE college sport. How'd you guys do in the big scrum? Wait, I remember, I believe you were beaten 82 to 5.</p>
<p>I seem to recall the recent headline that Stanford just won their 11th consecutive Director's Cup. That's 11 years of being the best college sports program in the nation. In a row. Berkeley took... Let's see (scrolling down the list here)... Ah. 15th. </p>
<p>Football shmootball. Stanford athletics rocks.</p>
<p>From Stanford Daily:</p>
<p>"It was a close race year round as the Cardinal and Golden Bears have different strengths. Cal stepped into the national spotlight for much of the fall, as the Bears football squad rolled its opponents including the Cardinal in the Big Game on the way to a bowl berth.</p>
<p>The Bears also had a surprising year in baseball, finishing ahead of Stanford in the Pac-10 standings"</p>
<p>So we have football, baseball and rugby (among others), and you have women's cross-country, women's tennis, and yes, water polo. Hmm.</p>
<p>This year's baseball was a fluke. Stanford definitely went farther in the playoffs and ususally contends for a CWS berth. </p>
<p>Rugby isn't even a varsity sport. Come on now.</p>
<p>Steve Rubenstein, Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writers
Saturday, March 24, 2001 </p>
<p>"We've lost the Big Game for freakin' six years in a row, but we're not going to forfeit," said a UC Berkeley student</p>
<hr>
<p>Cal defeated Stanford 69-6 at Witter Field last year. Stanford has forfeited this year's contest.Photo from the Daily Cal
An entire campus was bearing the burden for the rugby team, which chickened out of its annual game against Cal. Faces were Cardinal-red and the stomachs of true rugby believers were tossing and scrummaging. </p>
<p>"We're weenies," said Evelyn Keele, who sells rugby shirts in the campus store. "We're too chicken to play Cal. Rugby is a rough game, right? Hello? Hello? Why are these people even on the team if they're afraid." </p>
<p>This week, it was announced that Stanford rugby coach Franck Boivert canceled the scheduled April 7 game against Cal because the team was "very afraid to get injured." </p>
<p>The forfeit was the first in the century-old Cal-Stanford rugby rivalry. The rugby team was on tour and unable to explain just how afraid it was, but the rest of the campus was reeling -- at least those who celebrating Stanford's success and Cal's humiliation in the NCAA Tournament. </p>
<p>At the rugby practice field along El Camino Real, a 77-year-old man out for his morning jog said the forfeit was an unprintable obscenity. </p>
<p>"I mean, what do you play sports for in the first place," said Bud, a retired firefighter. "You're there to take your lumps. You're supposed to show some fortitude." </p>
<p>"It's humiliating," said Dale Dickerson, who was working on a renovation of the playing field. "A rugby player is not supposed to be afraid to get his ass kicked. A rugby player is supposed to go and kick ass." </p>
<p>Inside Stanford Stadium, site of hundreds of historic Cal-Stanford matchups, </p>
<p>athletes were running laps and climbing up and down the grandstand steps to deal with the shame. </p>
<p>"We're wimpy," said Louis Vintro, a graduate student in physics. "It seems that school spirit is a matter of convenience. If we can't win, we don't want to play." </p>
<p>Vintro said he frequently sees Stanford rugby players walking around in their "Give Blood -- Play Rugby" tough-guy shirts. What a sham, he said. "What are they doing playing a sport like rugby if they're afraid?" </p>
<p>The glorious Stanford men's basketball team, another jogger said, did not get to today's regional finals of the NCAA tournament by forfeiting games. </p>
<p>"It's embarrassing," added John Gilligan, a physiology instructor. "A team is supposed to want to play against better teams, it gives them something to aspire to. This is just incredible." </p>
<p>Boivert, who announced the forfeit in an e-mail letter to his Cal counterpart, said the rugby team voted unanimously to cancel the game because the Stanford team is a "featherweight" compared to Cal. Playing the game would be "detrimental to tradition," he added, because the players were "burned out and do not have the heart to play a team vastly superior to them." </p>
<p>Stanford Athletic Director Ted Leland said he was surprised the team chose not to play. "But it's a club sport, they determine their schedule and their games, it's not a varsity sport," he said. </p>
<p>At Berkeley, among rugby players and fans, the official reaction was one of high-minded shock. Unofficially, it was nyah, nyah, nyah. </p>
<p>"We take great umbrage," said Cal rugby coach Jack Clark, in a written reply to Boivert. "To suggest your forfeit is helpful to tradition, safety related, prudent or respectful is disingenuous . . . How dare you not compete." </p>
<p>Cal students -- who are all too accustomed to losing to Stanford in quite a few sports -- were less decorous in their choice of words. </p>
<p>"It just shows they're cowards. They probably don't want to get grass stains on their little skirts," said Lupe Poblano, 20, a sociology major. "It just reinforces that stereotype (of Stanford students) that if they can't get it easy or their parents can't pay for it, they're not even going to try. God forbid they should break a sweat. </p>
<p>"We've lost the Big Game for freakin' six years in a row, but we're not going to forfeit," he added. </p>
<p>Dana Lawson, a senior on the women's track and field team, said she was surprised the Stanford team would forfeit, given the long-standing Cal- Stanford rivalry. </p>
<p>"I guess they did a cost-benefit analysis," she said. "They feel they can't win so it's not worth it to injure themselves." </p>
<p>Cal rugby players were more circumspect. While stopping short of branding their disgraced opponents chicken, they agreed the Stanford players are in the wrong sport to be worried about injury. </p>
<p>"This is rugby, where people get hurt a lot," said flyhalf Matt Sherman. "Seems they're not very confident that they're going to win and they don't want to lose." </p>
<p>Cal lock Brian Surgener said he is sorry to see Stanford breaking a century- old tradition. </p>
<p>"This is the big game," he said. "You've got to play it. </p>
<p>At Stanford, the sale of rugby shirts seemed a fair barometer of the depth of the disgrace. Inside the campus store, more than six dozen shirts bearing the team logo went unsold -- the largest number of unsold team shirts on the shelves. By contrast, the basketball team shirts were selling briskly and the wrestling team shirts were sold out. </p>
<p>"Who'd want to wear a rugby shirt now?" said saleswoman Keene. "I wouldn't want to be seen with one of these on my body either." </p>
<p>It might not be varsity, but it go on either campus and ask which is more important, rugby or women's golf, I think you know what the answer will be.</p>
<p>Rugby is a club sport that Cal spends a lot of money on recruiting top players (read the SI article about the program a couple years back) and Stanford doesn't care enough to get any good players. Moreover, I'm sure Cal has a reputation of being unnecessarily vicious. Perhaps they're bitter about working for us in a few years? :)</p>
<p>Water polo > rugby</p>
<p>Haha we'll see who's working for who. more sugar next time, zephyr. and a bit more cream.</p>
<p>Us, zephyr? Have you taken a single class at the farm? Just so you know what you're getting yourself into, please read this quote, because it pretty much sums up what the cardinal are all about. </p>
<p>"It just shows they're cowards. They probably don't want to get grass stains on their little skirts," said Lupe Poblano, 20, a sociology major. "It just reinforces that stereotype (of Stanford students) that if they can't get it easy or their parents can't pay for it, they're not even going to try. God forbid they should break a sweat</p>
<p>GentlemanandScholar... Have you taken a single class at the Farm either? You act like you have... </p>
<p>What does a Cal sociology student's opinion have to do with anything? A student, at that, who obviously doesn't have any background for what she says aside from "that stereotype", which is just that: a superficial stereotype. </p>
<p>On a side note, I love this rivalry already, even before I start at Stanford. So passionate for no obvious reason. We are at odds with each other just because we were told that that's how it's supposed to be. And to think that I was very, very close to deciding to be on the other side of it. It came down to the last hour for me to decide what side I would take on the Cal-Stanford rivalry. Seriously, I really do like both schools. Is that allowed? Ha.</p>
<p>Abronzan, you think I act like a stanford student? From your experience, do stanford students generally talk crap about their owns sports programs while praising the Cal Golden Bears? Ohh...I guess I might sound like a stanford student. BTW, I'm not at odds with any stanford students. I'm sure you're all great people, but it just happens that our two schools have something of a rivalry going, so I take my shots whenever I can get them. And I think its great that you chose to attend stanford. It is without question a very good school. Bravo on getting in!</p>
<p>Frankly, G&S, I care little about rugby. As long as we destroy you in basketball every year, I'm quite happy with the situation.</p>
<p>It didn't even cross my mind to pick Cal over Stanford. It would have been UCLA before Cal. :)</p>
<p>wow zeph, you must be a very special little man! It didn't cross my mind to pick stanfurd over Cal. I too would have picked UCLA for my second choice.</p>
<p>cant touch princeton lacrosse/rowing, biatches!</p>
<p>what?????? lets see. we're talking about the stanford/cal rivalry and you throw in princeton. nobody cares enough about princeton athletics to have a real rivalry with them anyway. </p>
<p>and i just wanted to say that stanford has the most reputable and respectable athletic program in the nation. when people think of good collegiate sports programs, stanford always somes to mind. but nobody really considers cal. if anything maybe ucla is mentioned, but thats it. for right now, cal is just that place with the william hung retard and ugly trees.</p>
<p>I think we can agree (its really not disputable) that football is the most popular and important college sport. Cal is so much better than the tree that I'm really pretty shocked that your guys didn't just for forfeit the game last year (which is normally what stanford does when they are so strongly outmatched). Man, watching that game last year you would have thought that Cal was playing a JV highschool team. It was really, really pathetic. I'm glad the mighty Bears were only playing half as hard as they normally do, or else it really could have gotten ugly. You should have seen memorial stadium! There were almost no stanford kids there. I guess it just goes to show that if you guys don't think you have a chance of winning you just don't show up, even just to support your dejected, worthless football team. That's called being a fair weather friend.</p>
<p>I think of UCLA and USC before Stanford or Berkeley when it comes to athletics- sorry to let you guys down</p>
<p>hahaha that randomness was so worth it.</p>