Glorious Past, Glorious Future: Celebrating California Memorial Stadium

January 2 – July 31, 2013
The Bancroft Library Rowell Cases
Open during the operating hours of The Doe Library

This exhibition explores the earliest years of Cal’s football team and playing fields, the campaign to build the original Memorial Stadium, controversies surrounding it through the decades, interesting events beyond campus sports that happened there, the life of Coach Andy Smith, and unforgettable football-related moments and traditions, including the opening of the newly renovated and seismically retrofit stadium in September 2012. The title stems from one of the oft-quoted mottos in the original stadium’s promotional literature: “To Perpetuate California’s Glorious Past; To Build for Her Glorious Future.”

The cases feature an array of archival and manuscript material, including correspondence, photographs, football program illustrations, architectural drawings, scrapbooks, and brochures. Collections drawn from include the records of the Office of the President and the Office of the Chancellor; the Thomas Whitesides Collection of Football Programs; a scrapbook relating to the campaign to build the stadium; the Mary Rose Kaczorowski Collection of Save the Oaks Material; various pictorial collections, including the Roland Letts Oliver Photograph Collection, Views of California Memorial Stadium, and UC Berkeley Campus Events; and publications including the Blue and Gold.