Big Game Pranks: the History

On the eve of the Big Game, the Daily Cal has published a list of the best Cal-Stanford pranks ever, and UC Berkeley wins, 2-1. Cal jokesters kidnapped the tree costume and held it hostage, releasing “proof of life” videos and interviews in which the tree complains that working at Stanford sucks. One intrepid Bear fan hijacked the Stanford public address system during the 1997 game, substituting his own editorial comments for the refs’ penalty calls. And, of course, Stanford got its own edition of the Daily Cal out after The Play in 1982, publishing a story that claimed the NCAA ruled the ball dead before Cal got in the end zone. So far this year, Stanford fans have gone virtual, buying the stanfordrejects.com and crappyschool.com URLs and having them redirect the user to Berkeley’s home page. We’re still waiting for the flash plug-in.