Item: For the second time in the 2024 season Syracuse will make the cross-country plane trip this week to play a game in the Pacific Time Zone, and the Orange will certainly look for a far different result than the last time they met Cal out west.

Growing up in a college town (Princeton, N.J.) in the 1960s and 70s, we watched with extra interest the turmoil and upheaval on many college campuses coast-to-coast during those turbulent times surrounding the Vietnam War, the racially-charged civil rights movement, and political transformation.

Student protests, sit-ins, and conflicts with law enforcement were common occurrences in a battle for the younger generation to have their voices heard.

One such city of unrest was Berkeley, Calif., where Saturday a Syracuse football team will make its second-ever appearance at venerable Memorial Stadium, picturesquely perched atop campus, to face the now-ACC conference foe Golden Bears (3:00 p.m. ET /The CW) in a quest for win number seven.

Back in its Eastern Independent days, Syracuse, off its 1959 national title, transitioned (upgraded) its football schedules under Ben Schwartzwalder to include intersectional home-and-home series with big-time programs from the Midwest and West Coast. Those teams included the likes of Notre Dame, Nebraska, UCLA, and in 1967-68, California.

The Orangemen held off the Golden Bears 20-14 in the '67 game at Archbold Stadium as future Hall of Famer Larry Csonka scored all three SU touchdowns, two rushing and one receiving.

The following October the ‘Cuse was ranked 10th/11th coming off an open week when the team flew into the Bay Area to play on a Cal-Berkeley campus that had been the scene of a disruptive building sit-in just days before the game.

Once the campus cooled down, an overflow crowd of 52,172 showed up on a downright hot and smoggy 80° day to see if the Bears could sustain the momentum of their previous week’s surprise big win over UCLA. The answer, unfortunately for Schwartzwalder’s team, was “yes.”

In the first quarter alone Syracuse committed four turnovers and trailed 17-0, and it was all down (Strawberry) hill from there.

In what would turn out to be the program’s worst defeat in 15 years, the Orangemen had an astounding nine turnovers, with the last of six interceptions returned 45-yards for a touchdown on the game’s final play, and with the crowd pouring onto the field the subsequent extra point was not even attempted ending a 43-0 Cal victory.

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