Tuesday, January 15 2008 @ 10:34 AM PST
Contributed by: oski
Views: 1,479
Welcome to the Oski Game. In this casual game, Oski the Bear fell on hard times, with tuition rising and jobs for Bears becoming scarce. So he had to take a job working the night shift at the Library. Of course this does not reflect the glorious reality of the real Oski, this is just a game...
Anyway, these are hard times for Oski, dance all day, work all night, and no date in sight! Clearly Oski needs your help. Click this link to start the game!
Friday, November 30 2007 @ 04:23 PM PST
Contributed by: Richard Sipan
Views: 1,237
This story is apropos of nothing, other than an interesting trip to Hartford for the NCAA East Regionals (Basketball), the first time Cal had been to the NCAA Basketball playoffs in 30 years. I flew out of Las Vegas to attend, connected in Dallas/Fort Worth, Cal Band boarded same plane at DFW.
Was on my own, to the East Coast for the first time at age 29, and went to Friday nightcap game between Cal and Indiana (then coached by Bobby Knight). Almost got run down by the Indiana bus, which was parking, as I approached the arena.
Approaching my seat, saw Oski. Not that I am the touchy feely type, but I was overcome with an urge to hug the Bear, which I did, commenting, "Oski! How good it is to see you!" Somewhat to my surprise, ascertained that Oski was a female. Somewhat abashed, had a seat.
Cal proceeded to defeat Indiana 69-67, as Cal guard Keith (memory fails as to last name) drained two free throws with about a second left. Indiana could not get a shot off; Knight was quite evidently pissed.
This was a different era; ESPN covered all the NCAA basketball playoff games, with one, maybe two cameras per game.
UConn proceeded to destroy Cal on Sunday morning, though, in fairness, Cal could not buy a call from East Coast referees.
One does not think of Oski as having a specifically either male or female persona; I can only say, across the continent from my familiar haunts in California and Nevada, to see Oski, was a kind of religious experience, reminiscent of the Acts of the Apostles, where Moses representing The Law, and Isiah representing the Prophets, appeared on Mount Tabor with Jesus.
By the way, I think it is absurd that religious zealots in Sudan are persecuting an English school teacher for her class naming a Teddy Bear "Mohammed". Of course, if the Bear had been named "Oski," this problem would not have arisen.
• All right, all right, you can abandon this e-mail campaign. I’ll write more about what matters more to you – Britney, O.J…. Just be patient while we care about the Bears for a while.
• The Golden Bears took care of business against Louisiana Tech last Saturday, 42-12. By the transitive property, Cal is 29 points better than Hawaii, 30 points better in regulation.
• Lavelle Hawkins and Jeff Tedford answered my question, “Why doesn’t Tedford use DeSean Jackson on the kickoff return team?” Hawkins’ 90-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff inspired Tech coach Derek Dooley to gather his team on the sideline and change his motivational pre-game speech to, “Never mind.”
• The New England Journal of Medicine published a study that Tedford forgot more football in a molecule of his left middle fingernail than I ever knew.
• You know that you have a strong team when you lead by a touchdown before you can finish your second warm Natural Light at the Beta house.
• After I sweated out another nervous Cal victory and cursed the coaching staff for nearly letting a 20-point lead slip away, I focused on the two relevant words of this sentence – Cal victory.
• Apparently Jeff Tedford inserted some substitutes on defense when the Bears took a 34-14 lead. I could have used Tedford when I “played” high school sports.
• Apparently Justin Forsett did not play the last few series because of an injury. According to some posters on Bearinsider.com, Tedford kept Forsett on the sidelines for missing a blocking assignment. Their source? Joe Starkey.
• My buddy Greg Heywood, from his car Saturday,: “I’m going to listen to Starkey now. I’ll call you if I want to know what’s happening in the game.”
• Oh, settle down. Before you flood me with hate mail, Joe Starkey is the most amazing, sensational announcer in the history of college football.
• Cal enters tomorrow’s game at Colorado State as about a 14-point favorite. No problem, right?
• Apparently you can’t expect to roll out of bed, show up at 11:00 a.m. Pacific at an opponent’s stadium and expect to dominate. You can’t even expect to roll out of the locker room after halftime with a 14-point lead and win, as we learned at Arizona last year.
• It amazes me when football teams overlook opponents. How much evidence do you need that on any given Saturday, anything can happen? Just look at last Saturday: Appalachian State took Michigan lightly, and they needed to block a last-second field goal to escape with a win.
• Before we offer brief analysis and present a prediction for tomorrow’s contest, let’s update a couple of NFL stories:
• Dallas quarterback coach Wade Wilson explained that he was using human growth hormone to try to cure impotence. OK, so now I see why the league suspended him for five games. You can’t give your offense an unfair advantage, just because they can’t score... oh, he was talking about his own impotence? Never mind.